The Secretary’s Award for Innovation recognizes individuals or teams that employ a strategic and enterprise-wide approach to strengthening the DHS mission and its operations. The nominees should exhibit an ongoing record of high standards of achievement and innovation. The work of the nominee(s) may have resulted in superior performance and/or significant operational improvements in the manner in which capabilities are developed and deployed. The nominee’s achievement/contributions should include maximizing the effectiveness of people, processes, and technologies; providing wise stewardship of resources; and enhancing the capabilities of Component/DHS employees.
Jennifer Arthungal
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Katherine E. Leonard
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Christopher McPipkin
Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers
Dr. Namdoo Moon
Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office
Stephen Mongelli
U.S. Secret Service
Jeffrey Readinger
Office of Legislative Affairs
Career Pathing, Engagement
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Sebastian Chaquea
Lisa Gibson
Monica Greene
Katherine Hamann
Destiny Mercado
Alma Morton
Juliette Nelson
Katina Oates
Gary Parker Jr.
Amber Smith
CISA NRMC Suite of Tools for the Analysis of Risk Team
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
Bryan Burley
Jana Chaudhri
Christopher Goodrich
Thaddeus Grace
Robert Greer
Georgette Holmes
Derek Koolman
Lindsey Miles
Mitchell Most
Kevin Murphy
Christopher Readinger
Liz Santiago-Martoral
Merideth Secor
Bobbi Thompson
Nathan Yeager
CISA Secure by Design Team
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
Jack Cable
Grant Dasher
Caitlin Eannello
Amanda Glenn
Bob Lord
Alexa Shaffer
Tony Soliz
Erin Buechel Wieczorek
Lauren Zabierek
Core Instructor Resourcing Team
Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers
Michael J. Bostic
Kelly D. Dixon
Gregory K. Hawkins
Corey E. Henderson
Tracy Johnston
Jimmie L. Leggett
Jimmy N. Palmer
Christopher L. Sanders
Rock R. Smith
James A.W. Vaughn
Carl M. Willis
CRCL Public Complaint Portal Team
Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Kimberly Belton
Christian Ferguson
Angela Hubbard
Nancy Li
Megan O'Kane
Dana Salvano-Dunn
Thomas E. Sharp
CWMD Strategy and Preparedness Divisions
Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office
Gregory Abide
William Bilicic
Sean Hearns
Michael Kangior
Drew Kuepper
Christoper Magrino
Brady O'Hanlon
Keith Sampson
DHS Freedom of Information Act Bootcamp Team
Office of Inspector General
Okechi Chigewe
Roy Jones
Privacy Office
Laticia Bobongi
Eric Neuschaefer
Henry Rand
Korrina Stewart
Transportation Security Administration
Kerry Callahan
U.S. Secret Service
Kevin Tyrrell
DHS Vendor Cyber Hygiene Assessment Team
Management Directorate
Hemant Baidwan
Kenneth Bible
Greg Blaszko
Jennifer Carlisle
Miranda Hendrix
Alan Jones
Michael Magill
Dennis Martin
Jaclyn Rubino
Antonino Scimemi
Donata Sikon-Amato
Sarah Todd
Office of General Counsel
Christian Butler
Roger Hipp
ERO Miami ATD Team
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Steven J. Florio
Santiago R. Fuentes
Juan F. Gonzalez
Richard R. Lall
Juan Lopez Vega
Victor L. Marcano
Gunnar Pedersen
Alexis Ramirez
Saby I. Santiago
Field Threat Detection Working Group
Transportation Security Administration
Jerry Agnew
Bob Allison
Aaron Batt
Karen Burke
Lisa Christenson
Douglas Cruz
William Csontos
Peter Duffy
Jennifer Gordon
Arden Hudson
Scott Johnson
Mark Lendvay
Anthony Metcalf
Lawrence Nau
Stephen Wood
I&A IT Operations and Engineering
Office of Intelligence and Analysis
Anthony L. Epperson
Shane R. Geyer
Justin J. Jones
Derrick Joseph
Robert McDermott
Office of Field Operations Innovation Center/IT Emerging Technology Team
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Britney Cashwell
Manisha Duneja
Jody Hardin
Tricia Kennedy
Brian Kooiker
Sunil Madhugiri
Edward Mays
James O'Donnell
Jared Olafson
Christopher White
Office of Performance and Quality & Office of Privacy
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Jennifer (Jenna) Beveridge
Patrick Bobbitt
Graciela Contreras
Rennie Ferguson
Katherine (Kathy) Lotspeich
Jenn McCann
Spencer Nettlton
Elizabeth (Beth) Puchek
James (Jim) Scallan
Kevin Shinaberry
Operation Chain Breaker
Office of Inspector General
Marco Bueno
Steve Spitzer
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Michael Avelar
Raul Flores
Patrick Hosey
Richard Martinez III
Marymer Torres
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Jose Arroyo Ithier
Elias Contreras
Samuel Gutierrez
Sharon Kesterson
Marina Llewellyn
Mark Martinez
Kathy McGlone
Kevin Mcllwee
George Nulia
Steve Olivante
Luis Rico
Rene Sierra
Justin Taylor
Regulatory Program Development Team
Office of General Counsel
Holly Allen
Danny Fischler
Shelter & Services Program Team
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Alonna Barnhart
Valerie Boulet
Kristin Buda
Amy Bulgrien
Bob Farmer
Sebastian Heath
Pedro Hernandez Jr.
Alicia Jones
Steve Pezzetti
Renea Ramos
Pinky Sheets
Stacey Street
Elizabeth Urquhart
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Noël L. Young
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Olympia Belay
Mike Hammert
Southwest Border (SWB) Technology Coordination Team
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Marta Sisco-Izak
Ashley Walker
Starlink Research Team
U.S. Coast Guard
Dave Cote
Paul Harvey
Cliff Rosenberg
Jon Turban
sUAS Ontology Team
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Claire Allen
Stephen Lamberti
Mark McComack
Ryan Riccucci
Eugene Yockey
System of Systems Operational Analytics (SoSOA) Team
Management Directorate
Laura Chewning
Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans
Nadwa Mossad
Science and Technology Directorate
Damian Garcia
Chris Marokov
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Maria King
Kenneth Lenig
Martina Melliand
Ryan Riccucci
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Joanna Chan
Technologically Speaking Podcast Team
Science and Technology Directorate
Wendy Howe
Jamie Philpotts
Deepak Saini
John Verrico
TSA Surge Team for Aviation Worker Program Vetting
Transportation Security Administration
Andrew Arndt
Joshua Martin
Samuel Smith
Brian Stortors
Jennifer Tyndall
USCG Short Range Unmanned Aircraft Systems (SR-UAS) Team
U.S. Coast Guard
LTJG Jacob Cheeseman
LT Kevin Deininger
LCDR Matt Hardgrove
LCDR Sam Hill
AMT1 Matt Riemer
LT Zach Speck
USCIS Customer Experience (CX) Team
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Shawn A. Benjamin
Brandi Berri
Yentzu Chen
Eric L Cohen
Bianca Fitzpatrick
H. John Halverson
Sandra D. Harrell
Mark Jeanmaire
Kristal Lightning
Michele Lonsdale
Jason Marr
Gilbert McManus
Elanda Miller
Michelle Murrish
Robert Paulette
Prabha Rajendran
Abigail Sanford
Durrell Scott
Paula A. Sperry
JeNeil Teel
Reno West
Pierre Williams
USCIS Refugee Processing Innovation Team
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Vanessa Allyn
Bekki Callaway
Tiffany Cambridge-Williams
Anna Corio
Logan Dumaine
Travis Hart
Haris Hussain
Kelly Jones
Hillary Katch
Andrew Loizeaux
Claire Manchester
Lisa Moller
Sarah Schoener
Liz Shaffer
Anjali Zielinski
USSS Spot Bank
U.S. Secret Service
Majd Alkassem
Kyle Hatcher
William Koerber
Kevin Miller
Jessy Payen
Michael Purcell
Andrew Tran
Christina Trinh
William Willson
Shirley Vaias