Kay Chopard | Executive Director
Kantara Initiative

Ms. Kay Chopard is the Executive Director of the Kantara Initiative, a nonprofit organization that provides its members with opportunities to work on digital identity standards development and emerging technology issues. At Kantara, Ms. Chopard runs a certification program for NIST 800-63-3 Digital Identity standards and a UK certification program for the Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF), where Kantara has offices and is accredited as a certification body. She is a volunteer Ambassador for the U.S. in the global Women in Identity nonprofit association. With over 40 years of international experience in executive leadership in government, nonprofit, and business organizations, she excels at building networks and collaborations for winning partnerships. She is admitted to the practice of law in the state of Iowa and to the U.S. Supreme Court Bar. She has led several organizations, including:

• Executive Director of the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA) (2014-2017), serving as the first woman head of the world’s oldest and largest prosecutor organization.  She led the organization to create a Women Prosecutors Section and a Metro DAs section, transforming the organization's business model to diversify revenue and significantly enhance business operations. She also led the organization in the prosecutor role and legal policy in the use of digital evidence, especially video and body-worn camera programs.
• Executive Director of the Identity Ecosystem Steering Group (IDESG) (2012-2014) and again in 2017-2018, a nonprofit organization developed as a public-private partnership to implement the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) in partnership with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), U.S. Department of Commerce.
• Deputy Executive Director of the National Criminal Justice Association (NCJA)1(999-2012), where she led training and technical assistance in strategic planning for state criminal justice agencies; coordinated state, tribal, and federal courts on domestic violence initiatives with the National Center for State Courts; transformed business operations through strategic planning and modernization; and built the training and technical assistance portfolio for the State Administrative Agency (SAA) members.  
• Acting Division Chief and lead program manager at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for ten years (1989-1999), where she created sustainable national training programs for both prosecutors and judges; established the National Traffic Law Center at NDAA; created the Judicial Fellowship program in partnership with the ABA Judicial Division; and managed a staff of twelve with a multi-million-dollar federal agency budget.

She lectures internationally and has authored several articles and white papers on digital identity, including certification programs, diversity and equity, the use of technology in the courts primarily around digital evidence, and legal policy around privacy and security.