Congratulations to the 2021 Rising Stars

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 2021 Public Sector Innovation winners and Industry Innovators were announced today as well.

We'll be running full profiles of the 2021 Rising Stars in early November. Until then, here's a quick salute this year's winners — 10 individuals we're confident you'll be hearing about for years to come:

• Saxfield T. Chatmon
  Electrical Engineer, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division
  Department of the Navy
• Nathan Cunningham
  Policy Advisor, Office of Disability Employment Policy
  Department of Labor
• Salomeh Ghorbani
  Lead Program Manager
  General Services Administration
• Matthew Heath
  Information Security Specialist & Team Lead
  Ace Info Solutions
• Travis S. Kelley
  CIO, Infrastructure & Operations Division
  Defense Health Agency
• Tanya Mathur
  Manager, Enterprise Analytics
  Tennessee Valley Authority
• Logan Metcalf
  Business Manager, FEDSIM
  General Services Administration
• Sasha Samochina
  Group Manager, Data Visualization and Infusion
  NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
  Note: Ms. Samochina recently left JPL for a new organization.
• Lissa Warner
  Senior Security Specialist
  CACI
• Jessica Wong
  Business Analyst
  Office of Personnel Management