PODCAST: Leading With Courage with Acquisition Experts Soraya Correa and Greg Giddens Season · Ep
0:00
1057
PODCAST: Leading With Courage with Acquisition Experts Soraya Correa and Greg Giddens Season · Ep
Podcast
Artificial Intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept. It’s a practical tool reshaping how we work, learn, and govern. Academy Fellow Alexis Bonnell of OpenAI and Karen Lee of FedsForward join host James-Christian Blockwood to discuss strategies for building AI literacy, how experts and public servants are incorporating AI, and what the challenges are today, and tomorrow.
Now Playing
Artificial Intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept. It’s a practical tool reshaping how we work, learn, and govern. Academy Fellow Alexis Bonnell of OpenAI and Karen Lee of FedsForward join host James-Christian Blockwood to discuss strategies for building AI literacy, how experts and public servants are incorporating AI, and what the challenges are today, and tomorrow.
Episode Details
Listen On
Listen Now
Opens in your podcast app
Keep Listening
June 1, 2026
Host James-Christian Blockwood interviews Soraya Correa, President and CEO of the National Industries for the Blind and former Chief Procurement Officer at the US Department of Homeland Security, and Greg Giddens, of Potomac Ridge Consulting, and former Chief Acquisition Officer at the US Department of Veterans Affairs, on how federal acquisition enables mission outcomes beyond compliance. Giddens describes procurement as a strategic bridge between government missions and pr...
May 18, 2026
James-Christian Blockwood discusses U.S. Office of Personnel Management's modernization of federal HR and retirement IT systems with OPM’s Rebecca Ayers and Academy Fellow Brodi Fontenot. Building on a 2021 academy report urging congressional funding to modernize OPM systems, they describe the administration’s goal to build a merit-based workforce and modernize people management through the Federal HR 2.0 initiative. Key elements include moving agencies onto a mandatory single cor...
May 4, 2026
Host James-Christian Blockwood talks with Academy Fellow and McGeorge School of Law Professor Clark Kelso and American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Adam White about why public agencies struggle and what the executive branch does in response. They discuss how checks and balances slow action and make errors hard to undo, while polarization and congressional dysfunction push presidents toward unilateral action, creating separation-of-powers conflicts and court intervention. The conve...