America 250 – Powering Progress Awards

As the nation marks 250 years, MeriTalk is spotlighting the government and industry leaders driving meaningful progress in two categories for our Powering Progress Awards:

5th Annual Cyber Defenders: Individuals who are strengthening federal cybersecurity technology, policy, or processes
3rd Annual AI Innovators: Individuals who are advancing AI innovation and mission impact for the federal government

We are pleased to present the America 250 Powering Progress Award winners. Below is the full list of winners who are driving meaningful progress.

Winners will be recognized at Tech Tonic on Thursday, May 21, 2026, at Morton’s The Steakhouse.

The nomination period is now closed.

AI Innovators – Government

Larry Allen

General Services Administration

Doug Freeman

Department of Commerce

Travis Hoppe

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Mangala Kuppa

Department of Labor

Hai Ah Nam

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Brian Peltier

Social Security Administration

Nael Samha

Customs and Border Protection Office of Information Technology

Revolution Crossroads Team

Smithsonian and Library of Congress

AI Innovators – Industry

Guy Cavallo

Planet Technologies

Brandy Durham

MANTECH

Kathleen Featheringham

Maximus

Christian Hoff

Amazon Web Services

Austin Keller

IntelliDyne, LLC

Nikhil Krishnan

C3 AI

Vimesh Patel

World Wide Technology

Dan Tadross

Scale AI

Bryan Thomas

Everpure

Cyber Defenders – Government

Christopher Green

Citizenship and Immigration Services

Matt House

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

Joshua Kossoy

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

Steven McAndrews

Department of Energy Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response

Seth McKinnis

Office of the National Cyber Director, The White House

Cherilyn Pascoe

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Austin Pearson

Department of Veteran Affairs Office of Information Technology, Enterprise Command Operations

Michael Post

Small Business Administration

Rosa Underwood

General Services Administration

Cyber Defenders – Industry

Curtis Arnold

Core4ce

Hemant Baidwan

Knox Systems

Gary Barlet

Illumio

Felipe Fernandez

Fortinet Federal, Inc.

Phil Fuster

SpyCloud, Inc.

Anand Janjal

REI Systems

Robert Makheja

MFGS, Inc.

Anish Patel

Cloudflare

Egon Rinderer

NinjaOne

Shawn Shortridge

CGI Federal

Ashique Tanveer

REI Systems

Chris Townsend

Elastic

Daniel Wilbricht

Optiv + ClearShark

Joseph Wingo

Armis

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