Modeling Future Efficiency, Ensuring Informed Decisions [HSW]

Jason is Director of Interiors at KCCT, leading the firm's interdisciplinary interiors studio focused on high-performance, mission-driven environments. His experience spans corporate, legal, and public sectors, guiding complex workplace, headquarters, and civic projects through a design process that defines project requirements and responds to organizational goals while aligning client aspirations with thoughtful design. For the project referenced in this session, he served as lead designer.

Deborah Cahalen Schneider serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) of the Office of Domestic Operations and Emergency Services (A/DOES) in the Bureau of Administration, responsible for the U.S. Department of State’s domestic nationwide portfolios on all things operational – enterprise services, emergency management, and real property. Prior to becoming the DAS of A/DOES, she was the Managing Director of Operations in the Bureau of Administration, where she was responsible for overseeing real estate, facilities management, and provision of general services. She has served as the Director of the U.S. Nuclear Risk Reduction Center, overseeing U.S. compliance with the notification of regimes associated with international conventional and nuclear arms control treaties and confidence-building agreements. DAS Schneider, a member of the Senior Executive Service, has earned multiple Superior Honor and Meritorious Honor awards from the Department of State and a National Intelligence Award from the Director of National Intelligence. She spent a year as an Excellence in Government Fellow with the Partnership for Public Service and two years as a Diplomacy Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis.

Over a 13-year career with the U.S. Department of State, Oxana has moved across disciplines that rarely intersect: arms control operations, public diplomacy, real property portfolio strategy, grants management, and community programming. No two consecutive roles have ever landed in the same professional domain, a pattern that defines a true generalist. That breadth has sharpened a rare skill: the ability to walk into any organizational environment, map its systems, identify the gaps, and design improvements that stick. Her work in real property and workplace strategy brings together data analysis, stakeholder coordination, and policy formulation - a convergence that speaks directly to how modern organizations think about the spaces they inhabit and the workflows that unfold within them. 

Sayoni serves as a Senior Project Manager for the Office of Domestic Operations and Emergency Services, Design and Construction (A/DOES/DC), and specializes in federal asset management and currently supports space planning and construction projects. Prior to supporting the Department Sayoni worked as a Program Manager for a management consulting firm providing analytical, financial, and organizational support for workplace management, engineering, major construction, leasing, space planning, safety and health, sustainability, and security programs. She managed several different types of federal government contracts, with a focus on financial management/analysis, project delivery, and human capital. Sayoni has supported projects for numerous federal clients including General Services Administration (GSA), Department of Defense (DoD), and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).