Congratulations to the 2019 Rising Stars
These early-career leaders already are having an outsized impact on government IT.
Each year, the Rising Star Awards recognize individuals who are early in their federal IT careers yet already are having an outsized impact. The women and men listed below have been selected both for their accomplishments over the past year and for their leadership potential in this community.
These awards are part of our larger Government Innovation Awards program. A joint effort of FCW, GCN, Washington Technology and Defense Systems, these awards also recognize the companies supporting the government’s transformation and the most innovative technology initiatives across the public sector.
The Public Sector Innovation winners were announced today as well; the 2019 Industry Innovators will be revealed in the coming days. You can learn more about the overall Government Innovation Awards here.
We'll be running full profiles of the 2019 Rising Stars this fall, and the winners will be honored in person at the Nov. 7 Government Innovation Awards dinner. Until then, here's a quick salute this year's winners — 21 individuals we're confident you'll be hearing about for years to come:
- Brecken W. Auchterlonie
Business Development Manager
SAIC - Kevin E. Brisley
Manpower Analyst / Senior Human Resources Manager
Command, Control, Communications and Cyber Systems Directorate, U.S. Transportation Command - Kaitlin I. Bulavinetz
Managing Director
Washington Cyber Roundtable - Will Cahoe
Projects Coordinator, 10x
General Services Administration - Gilberto Castro
Global Networking Manager
Georgetown University - David Catanoso
Director, Enterprise Cloud Solutions Office, Dept of Veterans Affairs
Department of Veteran Affairs - Taylor K. Chott
Data Scientist
CACI - Anna Cordrey
Deputy Program Manager
NASA - Mahtab Emdadi
Regional Sales Director
Dell Technologies - Omid Ghaffari-Tabrizi
Acquisitions Lead
Centers of Excellence, General Services Administration - Ryan V. Hendricks
USA Performance Product Development Supervisor
Office of Personnel Management - Dr. Leonie Heyworth
Director of Synchronous Telehealth, VHA Office of Connected Care/ Telehealth Services, Department of Veterans Affairs
Veterans Health Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs - Michelle Johnson
Communications Manager, Senior Research Analyst
Section 809 Panel, Defense Acquisition University - Samer Madarani
Partner Account Director - Partnership Development
Dovel Technologies - Ellen Nadeau
Deputy Manager, Privacy Framework
National Institute of Standards and Technology - Lt. Jason A. Pawlak
Cyber Battle Captain
U.S. Transportation Command - Jonathan Riksen
Associate Partner & Client Leader
IBM - Christopher Rorvig
Senior Consultant, Consulting Services
CGI Federal - Blake M. Scates
Digital Program Manager
Department of Veterans Affairs - Robert G. Sheldon
Head of Technology Strategy, Public Sector
CrowdStrike - Travis Sorensen
CEO
Oddball, Inc.
NEXT STORY: Why GSA buys tech from NASA SEWP