- Zimmer is a Wash100 Award winner recognized for DOE IT modernization leadership
- DOE is currently scaling and innovating AI through efforts like the Genesis Mission and the Joulix platform
- She joins SBA, GSA, DOL and DOT keynotes at the debut FedCiv Summit on Oct. 29
Potomac Officers Club, the nation’s preeminent GovCon events and networking organization, is proud to announce that Dawn Zimmer, chief information officer of the Department of Energy, will deliver a keynote at the 2026 FedCiv Summit on Oct. 29. The event marks the summit’s first-ever edition, focused on modernization priorities across the federal civilian enterprise.
Register now to hear from Zimmer and distinguished speakers from the General Services Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor, and many more, on Oct. 29.
Zimmer’s appearance follows her recognition as a 2026 Wash100 Award winner, honored for her leadership in advancing enterprise IT modernization, strengthening cybersecurity governance and enabling secure artificial intelligence adoption across DOE’s mission landscape.
“This recognition underscores the critical role that IT modernization plays in advancing the Department of Energy’s vital missions, from ensuring energy security to fostering scientific innovation at scale,” Zimmer said upon accepting her award.
Her 2026 FedCiv Summit keynote also comes as the DOE undertakes major technology efforts like the AI-focused Genesis Mission.
Who Is Dawn Zimmer?
Appointed permanent CIO in November 2025 after serving in multiple acting capacities, Zimmer previously served as principal deputy CIO, overseeing enterprise technology strategy across DOE headquarters and the department’s national laboratory enterprise. She brings more than two decades of enterprise IT and modernization leadership spanning federal agencies, academia and the private sector.
Before joining DOE, Zimmer served as executive director for IT engagement and experience at Virginia Tech, leading digital service delivery for more than 30,000 users. Her federal background includes a 16-year tenure at the Federal Aviation Administration, where she oversaw a 280-person organization responsible for secure access to air traffic systems and led a 60,000-mailbox migration to Microsoft 365 in 26 days, and a stint as deputy director within the Department of Justice’s Office of the Chief Information Officer, where she managed enterprise technology modernization across DOJ components and a $115 million budget.
What Topics Will Dawn Zimmer Discuss at the 2026 FedCiv Summit?
Zimmer may discuss the following topics during her FedCiv Summit keynote:
- DOE’s evolving multi-vendor AI strategy, as the agency weighs employee demand and data quality rather than adding every available model to its Joulix platform for its own sake
- Model diversification and vendor redundancy, following DOE’s recent addition of Google’s Gemini to Joulix and ongoing work on an OpenAI integration
- Enterprise IT consolidation, as DOE works to integrate more than 50 separate IT environments into a unified system in fiscal year 2026
- Cybersecurity governance across DOE’s mission-critical energy, science and national security systems
- DOE’s broader AI momentum, including the department’s Genesis Mission push to accelerate scientific discovery through public-private AI collaboration
- Workforce enablement, equipping the DOE workforce with secure, advanced AI tools to support national energy and innovation objectives
On the vendor-selection point, Zimmer told FedScoop in July that demand, not model count, drives Joulix’s roadmap.
“Nobody’s going to use all of them,” she said, adding that Perplexity and xAI’s Grok haven’t seen enough employee pull to warrant adding them yet.
Why Should GovCons Attend the 2026 FedCiv Summit?
- Hear from Zimmer alongside fellow keynote speakers William Briggs, deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration; Mangala Kuppa, chief information officer of the Department of Labor; Greg Justice, chief acquisition officer of the General Services Administration and associate administrator of its Office of Small Business (pending confirmation); and Pavan Pidugu, former chief digital and information officer of the Department of Transportation and fellow Wash100 Award winner (pending confirmation)
- Hear from panelists across sessions on observability and shared services, human capital, digital labor and AI-driven agency modernization
- Engage with industry leaders from CGI Federal, SAP, LogicMonitor, UiPath, Celonis, Kpler and Precise Software Solutions, among others
- Hear from federal civilian executives representing the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Get a direct line on where DOE, DOL, DOT, SBA and GSA are spending on IT modernization, AI and cybersecurity contracts heading into fiscal year 2027
- Understand DOE’s AI vendor calculus firsthand, straight from the CIO steering it, at a moment when agencies across government are rethinking model diversification
Get live insights (and answers to your questions!) from Zimmer and many more consequential federal civilian decision-makers. Registration for Potomac Officers Club’s 2026 FedCiv Summit is open now.
