David A Bray

Early life and education

Bray competed in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in high school in computer programming and environmental science, starting work with the United States (U.S.) government in 10th grade. He worked for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and U.S. Department of Energy in various information technology and application developer roles from 1993-1998, including an undersea exploration role with Robert Ballard and the U.S. Navy as part of the JASON Project in 1993.

Bray completed a Doctorate in Information Systems in 2008 co-authoring papers with Benn R. Konsynski, a Master of Science in Public Health Informatics in 2004, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Biology from Emory University in 2001. He also completed two Post-Doctoral Associateships with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Collective Intelligence and the Harvard Kennedy School's Leadership for a Networked World program, receiving "Best Paper" for the knowledge management track at the 2007 International Conference on Information Systems in Montreal. He lectured as a Visiting Associate at the Oxford Internet Institute as a 2007 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar and at the National Defense University starting in 2009. He served as Visiting Faculty member at Singularity University's Exponential Medicine forum in 2014.

Public service career

Bray served as Information Technology Chief for the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Program and Associate Director of Informatics for HIV/AIDS Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 2000-2005. The original predecessor agency to the CDC was formed in 1946 with the U.S. Congress later expanding its mission to protect public health and safety through the control and prevention of disease, injury, and disability. Bray led the team responsible for the technology aspects of the CDC's Bioterrorism Program's response to 9/11, the 2001 anthrax attacks, Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), 2003 Midwest monkeypox outbreak, and other outbreaks. He also worked for the CDC and U.S. Department of Energy on technology collaborations from 2005-2008 while pursuing his Doctorate and Post-Doctoral Associateships examining networked crisis response, global grassroots activism, business applications of virtual reality, and distributed health reporting.

Bray then served as a researcher and policy strategist at the Institute for Defense Analyses and the Science and Technology Policy Institute from 2008-2010. He volunteered to deploy to Afghanistan in 2009 as a special advisor evaluating military and humanitarian efforts for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A). He also produced analyses for the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) and researched strategies to address cybercrime and secure individual civil liberties online that informed subsequent efforts by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IARPA). His academic work with William H. Dutton at the Oxford Internet Institute on improving collaborations at internet scale was recognized as the third trend of the "Top Ten Business Trends to Watch" published by McKinsey in 2010.

He served as a Senior Executive with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Information Sharing Environment (ISE) from 2010-2013. The ISE was established after the events of 9/11 by the U.S. Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to enable intelligence analysts, operators, and investigators to obtain crucial information across law enforcement, public safety, intelligence, defense, and foreign affairs communities to enhance national security while also protecting individual privacy. The ISE's goals include standardized information sharing across U.S. federal, U.S. state, local, tribal, and territorial governments in partnership with both private sector partners and foreign allies. While with the ISE, he was vocal about the need to protect information and civil liberties.

With the Deputy CIO for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Bray co-presented a talk that received "Best Cybersecurity Presentation" by audience votes at the Government Technology Research Alliance in 2010. For research to increase information sharing and protect civil liberties, he was named in an Intelligence and National Security Alliance review of public safety efforts ten years after 9/11 in 2011. He also served as Executive Director supporting Maurice Sonnenberg and 11 other Congressionally-appointed bipartisan commissioners with the National Commission for the Review of the Research and Development Programs of the United States Intelligence Community and he received a 2012 Arthur S. Flemming Award for Leadership.

Bray currently serves as CIO at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), assuming the role in August 2013. The FCC was formed by the Communications Act of 1934 to replace the radio regulation functions of the Federal Radio Commission. The FCC took over wire communication regulation from the Interstate Commerce Commission and is funded entirely by regulatory fees and its mandated jurisdiction covers the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. possessions. As CIO he espouses diverse perspectives and multistakeholder innovation to accelerate technology endeavors that bridge the public sector and private sector. He is one of the youngest public service executives ever to receive the Roger W. Jones Award for Executive Leadership, with In-Q-Tel founder Gilman Louie reading his award nomination at a public ceremony in 2013. He emceed the Next Gen Public Service Awards in July 2014 and again in July 2015. Bray also has openly encouraged and championed what he calls intrapreneurs, "entrepreneurs on the inside" working as positive change agents to transform how organizations and institutions benefit the public.

Other notable activities

While at Emory, Bray built a computer simulation of the South Africa HIV/AIDS epidemic in 1998 and, after a journalism internship in Cape Town, spent eighteen months as a volunteer crew leader and first responder with Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) in the Philippines, Honduras, Romania, Nepal, and Ghana. He funded these trips by also working with the Microsoft Partner Ecosystem as a consultant. At a 2013 alumni graduation speech at Emory University and in a 2002 book recounting his trips, Bray cited these international experiences as shaping his later dedication to mission-focused work. He later volunteered with HFHI in South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, and Thailand, to include proposing to his wife Diane Morrison after a Jimmy Carter Work Project in 2004.

In 2010, Bray started hosting events to connect public and private sector leaders with each other to include interactive brainstorms on public-private innovation, encouraging more use of open source software and data, and transforming horizontal interagency collaborations. He also has served as a private-sector project manager, application developer, and strategist for a Microsoft partner in Atlanta, non-profit efforts at Yahoo!, and a healthcare collective intelligence web 2.0 startup in Boston. He has written over 40 academic papers on collective intelligence management strategies and has mentored a few Washington, DC startup organizations. As an Eisenhower Fellow to Taiwan and Australia, he has explored how the internet of everything will change the nature of work within organizations, how representative democracies operate, and how Chief Executive Officers will lead future companies. Also in a personal capacity as an Eisenhower Fellow in Taiwan and Australia, Bray has spoken about the need for individuals to have choices regarding the internet of everything and the need for new ways to improve cybersecurity and privacy in the future, to include new open approaches to social institutions.

Information Sharing and Information Protection

From 2008-2011, Bray was vocal about the need to protect both sensitive information and civil liberties after the events of 9/11, going on record stating: "Without privacy and civil liberties protections, sharing is not possible; and without sharing, protection loses its relevance." Bray had made similar statements about the importance of protecting civil liberties and privacy while also performing the work of national security, publicly stating in 2008: "Improving the ability of government as an information processing system to better aggregate, filter, act upon, and redirect information must not and does not require sacrificing the freedoms of individual citizens."

His earlier work on public health and information technology also emphasized the importance of reducing fear associated with bioterrorism and protecting privacy per the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), stressing the responsibility of government officials to mitigate an irrational culture of fear through better public information delivery in emergencies. In February 2012, Bray chose to transfer to a different executive role and in August 2013 joined the Federal Communications Commission as its new CIO.

Non-Partisan Senior Executives and the Presidential Rank Awards

From 2011-2014, Bray served as an elected non-partisan Board Member for the Senior Executives Association (SEA), which organized and hosted the 27th and 28th Annual Distinguished Presidential Rank Awards, recognizing in 2013 public sector senior executives responsible for saving $94 billion in taxpayer dollars. SEA also released an infographic entitled "Myths and Realities: Pay Overlap Between Senior Executives and General Schedule Managerial Employees" detailing increasing pay compression concerns. Due to the U.S. Budget sequestration in 2013, it is unknown if the Executive Office of the President of the United States will postpone indefinitely any further Presidential Rank Awards.

While Bray was a Board Member, SEA also sent letters in April 2012 to the Chairs and Ranking Members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to request a repeal of parts of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (STOCK Act) out of privacy concerns, as well as warn of an increase in identity theft and a "chilling effect on the recruitment and retention of career executives" in public service. Following guidance from the Board of Directors, SEA later filed a motion for temporary preliminary injunction against the STOCK Act again due to privacy concerns, which was granted in September 2012 by the U.S. District Court for Maryland. In April 2013 the U.S. Congress subsequently voted against the STOCK Act internet posting requirement from taking effect.

On the Importance of Civic Cyber Innovation

Referencing service with the National Commission for the Review of the Research and Development Programs of the U.S. Intelligence Community and the Federal Communications Commission, Bray publicly stated in a radio interview that: "We can have privacy, we can have civil liberties, and we can have security. It's not an either/or, it's actually all three."

Later at the University of Oxford, Bray presented a notional proposal for a voluntary, industry-led cybersecurity commons with trusted participants. The concept would include "known participants [that] volunteer to share anonymously any attacks they observe" at a sector level, similar to earlier career statements on choice, voluntary participation, and sharing information responsibly.

During the United States federal government shutdown of 2013, Bray expressed that: "We the people of the U.S. forgot all that we gained by partnering public service with the private sector... our standard of living is at risk of deteriorating because we have forgotten the success of the U.S. private sector is connected to a healthy U.S. public sector." After the shutdown, he was recognized as a federal mentor. He also was named a "FedScoop 50" finalist and winner in the area of Leadership in 2014. In a personal capacity as an Eisenhower Fellow in Taiwan and Australia, Bray has spoken at US Cyber Challenge events as well as spoken about the need for new ways to improve cybersecurity and privacy in the future, to include new open approaches to the internet of everything.

Taking Risks and Reforming Public Service

In 2014, Bray was identified as one of the top 70 Most Social U.S. federal technology professionals, often fielding questions on IT and public service via Twitter other social media. He was also recognized by Virgin Unite as a CIO to watch regarding social intrapreneurship in the public sector. In 2014 he was the first public CIO to use GitHub.com as an "ask me anything" computing platform with the public.

As CIO, Bray also has spoken about accelerating technology social change and how this provides creative opportunities to engage the U.S. public more in reforming public service. He champions "inspiring a startup mentality in legacy information technology organizations" and next generation public service.

Bray also strongly champions intrapreneurs, what he considers to be "entrepreneurs on the inside" working as positive change agents to transform organizations. At a panel on mobile technology, he emphasized "it is going to take a network to overcome legacy bureaucracy". He emceed GovLoop's U.S. national Next Gen Public Service Awards in July 2014 and again in July 2015.

Internet-Enabled Transformational Leadership

Bray openly encourages opportunities to broaden the definition of public service to include citizen-led initiatives and more public-private partnerships. He also has emphasized: "As IT accelerates its global distribution and ubiquitous availability, the importance of assuring the integrity of digital communications become paramount" and that communications support "national growth, prosperity, security, safety, and freedom."

As FCC CIO, Bray focused on seven areas for the organization: improving secure employee mobility and telework; securing internal and external collaborations; strengthening FCC’s IT security posture; transforming access to FCC enterprise data; modernizing legacy systems and tracking; improving FCC.gov and complaint reform; and increasing transparency and system usability. He also focused the FCC's energies on a "major overhaul" of 207 different legacy IT systems.

During his role as CIO, the FCC Speed Test mobile app was launched as part of the overall FCC modernization strategy. The app succeeded in ranking ranked fourth on the iOS App Store in April 2014, which marked the highest rank achieved so far for any government-launched mobile app worldwide. Bray was named the Most Social CIO globally by both Forbes and the Huffington Post in 2015, and also received the Armed Forces Communications and Electronic Association's Outstanding Achievement Award that same year.

Professional recognition