Get to know the 2020 Rising Stars

FCW profiles 12 early-career phenoms who are driving change in government IT.

Government Innovation Awards Logo

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.

As this year's list makes clear, there's tremendous talent coming up through the ranks. You can learn more about each of the 2020 Rising Stars via the links below.

  • Arvin Baroni
    Senior Product Manager, Product Lifecycle Management
    NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
  • Katie Boeckl
    Privacy Risk Strategist
    National Institute of Standards and Technology
  • Liz Dean
    Senior UX Strategist
    MetroStar Systems
  • Kelsey Werder Monaghan
    Federal Account Manager, Department of Energy & NASA
    Dell Technologies
  • Jamie Mullaney
    Manager
    Jefferson Consulting Group
  • George Nicol
    Program Specialist, Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement
    NASA
  • Meikle Paschal Jr.
    Robotic Process Automation Product Owner
    U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
  • Nicholas Shields
    Research Analyst/Data Scientist
    Department of the Air Force
  • Douglas Smith
    Project Manager, FEDSIM
    General Services Administration
  • Kevin Smith
    Vice President
    C2S Consulting Group
  • Sherri Sokol
    Innovation Lead
    Defense Information Systems Agency
  • Ashley Strickland
    CACI Agile Solution Factory Growth & Communications Lead
    CACI