Washington’s state government depends on CISOs who can protect sensitive public systems while supporting continuity, compliance, and public trust across agencies with very different missions. The people in this feature reflect that responsibility across statewide technology leadership, transportation, health, agriculture, revenue, and constitutional offices. Their backgrounds span governance, security operations, privacy, infrastructure protection, incident response, and the long-term work of building resilience in complex public-sector environments.
Ralph Johnson — State Chief Information Security Officer, Washington Technology Solutions (WaTech)
Ralph Johnson serves as state chief information security officer at Washington Technology Solutions, where he helps guide enterprise security strategy, support, and services for Washington’s public agencies and municipalities. His background combines statewide and county government leadership with private-sector and instructional experience, including earlier roles as chief information security officer at the Los Angeles County Office of the CIO, chief information security officer at NantMedia Holdings, and chief information security and privacy officer for King County. That progression gives him a strong foundation in public-sector governance, privacy, risk management, and cross-agency collaboration, making him one of the clearest examples of a cybersecurity leader operating at statewide scale.
Jeanie Larson — Chief Information Security Officer, Washington State Department of Agriculture
Jeanie Larson serves as chief information security officer at the Washington State Department of Agriculture, bringing more than two decades of experience in security program management, incident response, forensics, compliance, and security operations. Her career includes senior roles at the Washington State Office of the Attorney General, Cloudmed, the State of California, UC Davis Medical Center, City of Hope, Stanford Hospital & Clinics, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Energy, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Department of Homeland Security. That range gives her an unusually broad public-sector and regulated-industry perspective, with experience spanning healthcare, federal cyber coordination, and state government security leadership.
John Weeks — Chief Information Security Officer, Washington State Department of Health
John Weeks is chief information security officer at the Washington State Department of Health, where he leads agency-wide cybersecurity strategy, risk management, and incident response for a mission-critical public health organization. His current role includes alignment with WaTech and the State CIO’s office, oversight of audits and compliance for frameworks such as HIPAA and IRS 1075, and modernization of security operations to improve readiness and response. Earlier roles leading statewide firewall and DNS services for Washington agencies, along with prior leadership at DSHS, give him a strong operational background in shared infrastructure and cross-agency coordination, which is particularly important in public-sector environments where resilience and consistency matter as much as technical depth.
Senthil Masilamani — Chief Information Security Officer, Washington State Department of Ecology
Senthil Masilamani serves as chief information security officer at the Washington State Department of Ecology, where he has built on earlier work as the agency’s senior security architect. His broader background includes multiple Washington state cybersecurity roles as well as earlier experience in product, project, and systems leadership across startup and private-sector environments. That mix gives him a practical perspective on enterprise uplift, risk analysis, compliance, monitoring, and technology adoption, and his progression from architecture into the agency’s top security role reflects both continuity and depth in Washington state government cybersecurity.
Carlos De León — Chief Information Security Officer, Washington State Department of Revenue
Carlos De León is chief information security officer at the Washington State Department of Revenue, where he leads the cybersecurity program, incident response, disaster recovery, cyber fraud prevention, and digital forensics for an agency serving roughly 1,400 employees and numerous public-sector partners. His tenure at the department has included earlier service as interim CISO, IS security supervisor, IS security architect, cybersecurity analyst, and application systems administrator, giving him a detailed understanding of both agency operations and enterprise security architecture. His profile stands out for combining hands-on technical progression with executive leadership, especially in areas such as audit coordination, framework compliance, fraud detection, and executive cybersecurity communication.
Samuel Anderson — Chief Information Security Officer, Washington Office of the Secretary of State
Samuel Anderson serves as chief information security officer at the Washington Office of the Secretary of State, bringing experience across state audit work, military cyber operations, systems administration, and public-sector security analysis. Alongside his civilian leadership roles, he has held long-running responsibilities with the Washington Army National Guard, including work as a cyber network defense team chief and in other information security and systems roles. That combination of military and state-government experience gives him a particularly strong foundation in cyber defense, incident response, and operational discipline, all of which are highly relevant in an office that handles sensitive public records and critical civic functions.
Ken Joubert — Chief Information Security Officer, Washington State Department of Transportation
Ken Joubert is chief information security officer at the Washington State Department of Transportation, where he manages both information technology and operational technology cybersecurity programs. His background includes earlier work as a cybersecurity architect and engineer across WSDOT, the Department of Licensing, and WaTech, along with prior roles in the Air National Guard, Iron Bow Technologies, HP Enterprise Services, and the Department of Revenue. That experience gives him a strong profile for transportation-sector security leadership because it combines public-sector engineering, compliance, and risk assessment work with deeper expertise in IT/OT convergence and critical infrastructure protection.
Why these state government security leaders matter
What stands out across this group is how closely cybersecurity in state government is tied to continuity of service. These leaders are not only protecting systems and data. They are helping safeguard the agencies, platforms, and public functions Washington residents rely on every day, from taxation and transportation to public health, agriculture, and statewide technology services.
Explore more profiles of the leaders shaping cybersecurity across numerous industries in our CISOs to Watch collection.