About
The Team
Meet the people behind Mission Meets Tech and the Mission Meets Reality (MMR) podcast. Independent voices delivering federal health IT intelligence for the operators and executives who need it most.
Mary Womack
Founder, Mission Meets Tech
Mary Womack is an analyst, strategist, and independent voice working at the intersection of federal health policy, defense acquisition, and technology delivery. With a career spanning DoD, DHA, VA, and civilian agencies, she translates the distance between policy announcements and operational outcomes into intelligence that decision-makers can actually use.
Mary is known for her ability to cut through vendor narrative and surface what's real — identifying where modernization initiatives stall, where contract signals matter, and what leadership changes mean for program delivery.
Her work focuses on the defense health ecosystem: tracking how decisions made inside DHA, VA, and Congress ripple through contractors, clinicians, and the service members who depend on these systems working. The filter is always the same — does this save lives or enhance readiness?
Through Mission Meets Tech, Mary provides independent, evidence-based analysis for the people who build, buy, and operate federal health systems — because they deserve intelligence that tells the truth, not just what sells.
Mary Womack on LinkedInMary writes the Mission Meets Tech newsletter — bi-weekly intelligence for operators and executives navigating federal health IT.
Subscribe FreeMission Meets Reality
The MMR Podcast
Fed UP: Where Mission Meets Reality — the podcast exploring how federal health IT decisions affect the people who build, buy, and operate these systems.
Sara Byrd
Co-Host, Fed UP Podcast (MMR)
Sara Byrd has spent 15+ years steering business development, capture, and IT initiatives across Defense, Intelligence, and Federal Health. She bridges technical innovation with institutional reality, helping leaders navigate how emerging technologies actually function inside complex mission environments.
Three-time FedHealthIT100 honoree, Sara's work focuses on the relationship between human judgment and intelligent systems: how AI can amplify human capability while maintaining credibility, accountability, and trust.
Sara Byrd on LinkedInGet the Intelligence
Bi-weekly defense health IT analysis, straight to your inbox. Or listen to Fed UP wherever you get your podcasts.