Federal data infrastructure × human connection

Architecting resilient systems. Teaching people to trust faster.

Chris Nelson helps public sector teams think clearly about intelligent data infrastructure, AI readiness, secure architecture, and the human side of collaboration — from NetApp design sessions to improv stages, nonprofit work, endurance events, and everything beautifully chaotic in between.

NetAppUS Public Sector architecture
TLITrust Lab Improv founder
4+community impact lanes

The work.

Three lanes, one through-line: help teams make smarter decisions under pressure.

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NetApp / US Public Sector

Architecture development around intelligent data infrastructure, secure storage, AI data pipelines, hybrid cloud, resilience, and mission outcomes.

ONTAPAI dataZero Trust
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Trust Lab Improv

Corporate workshops that use improv to strengthen trust, communication, adaptability, and leadership behavior without making people do weird jazz hands. Mostly.

LeadershipTeam trustCommunication
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Community Impact

Work and advocacy connected to Resonance Improv Alliance, Veterans Improv Alliance, Abramson Foundation, and Kid Power.

VeteransYouthAccess
Speaking platform

Technical depth without the sleeping-pill delivery.

Chris speaks at the intersection of data architecture, cyber resilience, AI readiness, and human behavior — because infrastructure fails quietly, and teams fail loudly.

1
AI needs data discipline first.

Before the model, there is the architecture: access, governance, performance, protection, and data mobility.

2
Security is architecture, not garnish.

Public sector data platforms need resilience, segmentation, immutability, encryption, identity, and recoverability designed in from the start.

3
Teams are systems too.

Trust Lab Improv connects technical work with human adaptability, active listening, and decision-making under uncertainty.

Outside the data center.

The personal side matters: theatre, improv, cycling, trail running, volunteering, and building rooms where people feel braver.

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Endurance & volunteering

Trail running, cycling, sweeping races, showing up in ugly weather, and finding strangely meaningful joy in mud. Character-building? Sure. Laundry-destroying? Absolutely.

Nonprofit lanes

Resonance Improv Alliance: making improv more available and community-centered.
Veterans Improv Alliance: using improv to support connection, confidence, and reintegration for veterans and active-duty communities.
Abramson Foundation: supporting educational opportunity and leadership development.
Kid Power: investing in youth, service, and community growth.

Q&A.

Modeled for podcast hosts, event organizers, and anyone who needs a quick read before deciding whether Chris is safe near a microphone.

What do you actually talk about?

AI-ready data infrastructure, secure public sector architecture, cyber resilience, hybrid cloud, trust, leadership, and how teams communicate when complexity starts throwing furniture.

Why combine NetApp architecture and improv?

Because both are about pattern recognition, listening, adapting, and creating reliable outcomes under uncertainty. One uses data platforms. The other uses people. Both break when nobody is paying attention.

Is this an official NetApp site?

No. This is a personal media and thought-leadership site. NetApp references are related to Chris’s professional background and should be reviewed before publication.

Are the events and whitepapers final?

No. Some conference entries and content pieces are intentionally drafted as placeholders so the site has working structure now and can be replaced over time.

Bring Chris into the room.

For podcasts, panels, workshops, internal enablement, conference sessions, nonprofit collaborations, or the very specific niche of explaining cyber resilience with improv examples.