Meet the 2024 Rising Stars

Zaid Hamid/Nextgov/FCW

This year's cohort of Rising Stars has been selected for their accomplishments and impact over the past year and for their leadership potential.

We were frankly blown away by the experience and impact of this year's group of Rising Stars. This isn't a group of promising newcomers but a cadre of seasoned early-career leaders with responsibilities for nine-figure budgets, key cybersecurity projects, online voter registration and much much more.

The variety of experience and roles represented by the 15 individuals on this year's list highlights the opportunities for advancement available to talented, ambitious and skilled technologists in federal, state and local government and with contractors serving the public sector. We're grateful to everyone who made nominations, and we're delighted to have collaborated with our colleagues at Route Fifty to identify this year's class of Rising Stars.

We'll be publishing profiles of our winners in the coming weeks. And we'll be hosting a Cocktails and Conversation happy hour event on December 12 at the National Union Building — an opportunity to mix and mingle with some of the winners. We hope you'll be able to join us!

2024 Rising Stars

Jessica A. Bailey
Contract Specialist, Federal Acquisition Service
General Services Administration

Anthony Boese
Research Programs Manager, Office of Research and Development
Department of Veterans Affairs

Zachary N. Bogart
IT Specialist
Department of State

Gabby Burke
Social Health Information Exchange Lead, Office of eHealth Innovation
State of Colorado

April M. Harding
Director User Experience Services, Office of Online Services
IRS

Brittaney Harkness
Geographic Information Systems Developer, Bureau of Technology
Cook County (Ill.) Government

Matthew Mudrak
Technician Senior Staff, 2nd shift Mechanical Lead
ASRC Federal

James K. Oliver
Assistant Product Manager, Army Training Information System, Program Executive Office Enterprise Information Systems
U.S. Army

Gabe Paley
Assistant Secretary for Technology
New York State Executive Chamber

Nick P. Pettini
Senior Threat Analyst
SOSi

Danielle Rowell
Chief of Cyber Engineering
Office of Personnel Management

Samira Sadat
Software Engineer, Vote.gov
General Services Administration

Sheina Sim
Research Geneticist, Agricultural Research Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture

Kira Tebbe
Product Manager, Digital Service at Administration for Children and Families
Department of Health and Human Services

Alyssa Zeutzius
Deputy Chief Cyber Officer for Policy
New York State