On July 14, 2025, OpenID Foundation’s Executive Director Gail Hodges was delighted to moderate the ‘Voices from the Future’ panel at the Federal Mobile Driver’s License (mDL) Industry Day | GSA, which included leaders from five US States and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) on the use cases driving mDL adoption and ‘happiness’ in their states.

State officials delivering on the promise of digital identity in the USA

The panelists included state officials on the leading edge of mDL issuance and adoption:  

• Christine Nizer - Administrator, Maryland Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Administration and Governor’s Highway Safety Representative   
• Ajay Gupta - Chief Digital Transformation Officer, California Department of Motor Vehicles
• Brett Young - Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Innovation and Technology, Georgia Department of Driver Services
• Lori Daigle -  Program Manager, Outreach and Education Identity Management, American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators
• Ashley Hall - Senior Project Manager, Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles
• David Knigge - Modernization Director, Arizona Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division

In the US, states play a pivotal role in the issuance of digital identity credentials. These states are on the leading edge of creating great user experiences for their state residents, and they appreciate the power of robust digital identity infrastructure.

Compelling use cases and future roadmaps 

The state and AAMVA panelists brought their experience from the ‘front row seat’ as issuers of the mDL/mID credentials. They shared a wide range of use cases that are already resonating within their communities, way beyond mDL presentation at a TSA checkpoint to travel:

• Login and step up authentication for access to state website and benefits  
• Skippie
• Enforcement acceptance to save officers and residents time (a 15-20 minute roadstop reduced to 5 minutes; the prospect of saving lives by getting people and officers back on the road swiftly)
• Event venue acceptance (e.g. Merryweather post pavilion in Maryland, first few LA arenas accepting mDLs, prospect of Olympics 2028 in Los Angeles 2028)
• Financial services use cases, such as opening a bank account with an mDL, as demonstrated by the NIST NCCoE Mobile Driving Licenses project and their first delivery phase. 

The panelists were collectively optimistic about the prospect of mDL acceptance accelerating, and accelerating across a wide range of use cases as merchants, government departments, and the public become progressively comfortable with the technology and experience it in their everyday lives. 

As one speaker said: “We see ‘happiness’ - happy residents delighted with the prospect of using their mDL.” Some of that ‘happiness’ can be measured in app scores where apps, such as the CA DMV Wallet app, has 4.8/5 stars (85k users) in the Apple App store.

Tangible adoption and issuance underway in US states  

The panelists highlighted that there is real momentum on mDLs, the technology is ‘already here’ and growing rapidly now, up the adoption curve:

• 5 million+ mDLs have been issued to date (AAMVA)
• 18 US states are issuing standards-compliant mobile driving licenses as of July 2025, with many more expected to launch later this year  
• 40% of US residents live in a state that offers their residents a mDL  
• TSA has enabled over 250 priority airports for mDL acceptance, with more airports scheduled to come

The OpenID Foundation’s Executive Director, Gail Hodges, said: “These expert panelists are at the coal face working on the safe issuance of mobile driving licenses in their states, and ensuring that this new technology works for their residents and all Americans. The OpenID Foundation is delighted to work with market leading issuers and thought leaders like these panelists, and to ensure our global open standards meet their exacting requirements for security, interoperability, and both national and global scale.”

Market context: The urgency of the work

Gail’s opening remarks as moderator set the stage for the stakes facing the global  community.  

• According to Vasu Jakkal, Microsoft Global Head of Security, $9.2 trillion is the value of the global cybercrime industry. “How much is it costing our world?” This is the equivalent to the third largest country by GDP and growing faster than any country. 
• US GAO estimate of US Federal Government annual losses to fraud is $233-$521 billion, as estimated based on 2018-2022 data. “No area of the federal government is immune to fraud….given the scope of this problem, a government-wide approach is required to address it.”  
• US financial institutions reported suspicious activity worth $212 billion - from US FINCEN analysis of identity-related suspicious activity, or financial crime related to weaknesses in our identity infrastructure.  

The hope is that digital identity infrastructure, including mobile driving licenses, can play a material role to mitigate these persistent and growing attacks, and better protect US residents and businesses. 

About the OpenID Foundation

The OpenID Foundation (OIDF) is a global open standards body committed to helping people assert their identity wherever they choose. Founded in 2007, we are a community of technical experts leading the creation of open identity standards that are secure, interoperable, and privacy preserving. The Foundation’s OpenID Connect standard is now used by billions of people across millions of applications. In the last five years, the Financial Grade API has become the standard of choice for Open Banking and Open Data implementations, allowing people to access and share data across entities. Today, the OpenID Foundation’s standards are the connective tissue to enable people to assert their identity and access their data at scale, the scale of the internet, enabling “networks of networks” to interoperate globally. Individuals, companies, governments and non-profits are encouraged to join or participate. Find out more at openid.net. 

About the panelists

Christine Nizer was appointed Administrator of the Maryland Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) and Governor’s Highway Safety Representative in August 2015. Prior to that appointment, Ms. Nizer served as the MVA’s Chief Deputy Administrator and Deputy Administrator for Central Operations and Safety Programs for over eight years. She also held management positions at the Maryland Public Service Commission, the Maryland General Assembly and the Office of Homeland Security. 

Ashley Hall is a Senior Project Manager at the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), where she leads the state’s groundbreaking Mobile ID initiative. With more than two decades of project management experience at the DMV and a PMP certification, Ashley has overseen a wide range of innovative efforts—from the development of Mobile Service Units to the implementation of Photoless Identification Cards.

Ashley holds a Bachelor of Arts from Virginia Tech and a Master of Public Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University. Since 2022, she has also served as a member of the AAMVA Joint Mobile Driver’s License Subcommittee, helping to shape national standards and best practices for digital identity.

Virginia’s Mobile ID is currently in a soft launch phase, with a full public rollout anticipated later this summer. The launch will include five key use cases: TSA checkpoints, Virginia DMV services, Virginia ABC stores, Virginia State Police and local law enforcement, and select casinos—bringing secure, convenient digital identification to Virginians across the state.

Ajay Gupta was appointed Chief Digital Transformation Officer in February 2020. Gupta leads business and technology transformation effortsfor the DMV to become a modern enterprise. Gupta has served as a special advisor to the DMV Director since 2019.

Before joining state service, Gupta worked as a managing director at KPMG, where he led the delivery of legacy transformation, technology innovation, and managed services for State departments nationally. Gupta brings more than 27 years of public sector experience to the DMV. He served state departments in California, Texas and Hawaii while working for CGI Inc., Visionary Integration Professional Inc., Deloitte LLP, and Tata Consulting Services.

Gupta has a B.E. in Electrical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering and an MBA in Marketing and Information Technology from UC Davis. Gupta is also certified as a PMP, CSPO, Cloud Practitioner, and Enterprise Architect.

Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Innovation & Technology, Georgia Department of Driver Services, Brett Young has been with the Department of Driver Services since 2001 and has served in several roles. Brett is currently the Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Innovation & Technology leading the Information Technology, Innovation & Strategy and Program Management work units.

He has previously served as the Director for the Program Management Office. His experience includes managing regulated programs, defining the processes and procedures for operating the agency’s programs, establishing driver program vision and leading efforts to continuously improve the process of the Department’s Driver License Issuance System. He has previously led the Department through a Modernization Project, Card Production Procurement and placed Georgia’s License in three Digital Wallets.

Brett is currently a member of the AAMVA Card Design Standard Subcommittee and previously served on the AAMVA Autonomous Vehicle Best Practices Working Group.

Mr. Knigge has more than 40 years of experience in the technology field with a diverse range of experience from executive to consultant to IT project delivery roles.  For over two decades, he has worked primarily in the Motor Vehicle Industry with an exclusive focus on the DMV business.

Currently, Mr. Knigge is the Motor Vehicle Modernization Director leading the IT organization focused on technology support for the Arizona Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division (AZ MVD).  AZ MVD has fully deployed an in-house, contemporary, cloud based modernized solution including comprehensive core internal systems, portals, identity solutions and related technologies.

AZ MVD developed technology includes mDL/digital identity capabilities and many features leveraging artificial intelligence functionality.

Lori Daigle joined the AAMVA (American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators) Identity Management Team in November of 2023 as a Program Specialist. Her current role is Program Manager, Outreach & Education focusing on the mDL ecosystem and working to enhance Relying Party outreach and engagement. Lori has presented at the Identiverse Conference (2024), the International Association of Police Chiefs Mid-Year Conference (2024), the UL Payment Summit (2024), the Identity and Access Forum (2024), the Mortgage Brokers Association Conference (2024), the Identity and Payments Summit (2025), the Fime Innovation Days (2025) as well as several AAMVA Regional Conferences. She is also an active member in the numerous Jumpstart mDL working groups with the Secure Technology Alliance.

Prior to her current role, she spent nearly nine (9) years with the Colorado Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and served as the Director of the Driver License section. She has also led two nonprofits: the Northern Colorado AIDS Project and the Alliance for Suicide Prevention and taught high school Marketing, Management, and Psychology at Pinewood Preparatory School in Summerville, South Carolina where she was named Teacher of the Year.