Center Experts

Cathilea Robinett is Executive Director of the Center for Digital Government and Center for Digital Education, national research and advisory institutes focused on information technology policy and best practices in state and local government and education. She is also Executive Vice President of e.Republic, the Center's parent company, where she regularly consults on editorial direction of its magazines (Government Technology, Public CIO, Emergency Management and GOVERNING) and the major themes of its annual conferences held across the country.

Robinett is a frequent speaker for worldwide government and education organizations, including Harvard University, the United Nations, the State Legislative Leaders' Foundation, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Council of State Governments, the World Congress on Information Technology and many more. She is quoted frequently in the press with articles appearing in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Forbes magazine and many more. She is also the 2007 recipient of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) National Technology Champion Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to advance public sector information technology initiatives.

For nearly twenty years she has served as a thought leader and adviser to public and private sector professionals, and has worked extensively with both sectors in helping them develop sound and successful strategies in the state and local and education markets.

Mary Noel is Senior Vice President of Research. She orchestrates and oversees all aspects of research and advisory services, custom research, contract vehicle review, and industry sales training. In addition to supervising the Senior Fellows program, she coordinates production of the Center for Digital Education's Converge Special Report, custom publishing and the all research based publishing including Center thought leadership reports, white papers and issue briefs.  She has been with the Centers for more than ten years. A graduate of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, Noel practiced law for more than 25 years prior to joining the Center.