Announcing the 2026 Federal 100

For over 35 years, FCW and now Nextgov/FCW has recognized those people in the federal government, industry and academia who have made an outstanding impact on the technology landscape in the last year. Rising from the ranks of a record number of nominations, this year’s 100 winners have demonstrated exceptional dedication and ingenuity in achieving the mission of public service through technology.

Selected by an all-volunteer, independent panel of judges comprised of senior leaders in government and industry, these winners represent action, accomplishment and truly getting things across the government technology landscape. 

It is an honor to hear their stories of dedication and vision, which you will get to glimpse yourselves via the profiles we will publish in the Nextgov/FCW magazine and on Nextgov.com, as well as in person at our Evening of Honors on April 30 to celebrate the Fed 100 winners and Government Hall of Fame inductees. 

For now, the list of names below represent some of the best and brightest our community has to offer. The titles and organizations listed reflect the roles these individuals held in 2025 when doing the work that earned this recognition — although some may have moved on to other positions or even retired since then.

Ron Ash
CEO
Accenture Federal Services

Scott Atchley 
CTO
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Srinivas “Srini” Attili 
Executive VP of Civilian Business Group
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC)

Alisa Bearfield 
Senior VP of Civilian Government
CGI Federal

Steven Brand 
Deputy CIO for Resource Management
Department of Energy

Lesley Briante 
Associate CIO of Digital Management
General Services Administration

Jordan Burris 
VP and Head of Public Sector
Socure

Christopher (Chris) P. Butera
Acting Deputy Executive Assistant Director for the Cybersecurity Division
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

Michael Butler 
Chief Engineer of DODNet
Defense Information Systems Agency

Bridget Carper Arnone 
Deputy CIO
Department of Energy

Julius Chang
Program Manager for the Grants.gov PMO 
Department of Health and Human Services

Carl Coe
Chief of Staff
Department of Energy

Shila R. Cooch 
Director and CIO
Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Information Management

Darren Death 
CISO, Chief Privacy Officer and Deputy CAIO
Export-Import Bank of the United States

Chandra Donelson
CDAO and Director of Data, AI, and Software for the Office of the Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Cyber and Data
U.S. Space Force

Danny J. DuBois 
Senior Director of Public Sector Integrators and Channels
Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Mike Duffy
Acting CISO
OMB

Suri Durvasula
VP
Dell Technologies

Collin Estes
CIO
MRI Technologies

Bonnie Evangelista 
Senior Advisor, Practitioner Workstream for the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul
General Services Administration

Dr. Kelly Fletcher 
CIO
Department of State

Ozie Foster 
Data Director
Office of Personnel Management

Rep. Andrew Garbarino  
Representative of New York’s 2nd Congressional District
House of Representatives

Dustin Goetz 
CIO
Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Tamara Greenspan
Senior VP of Government, Defense and Intelligence
Oracle

Lawrence Hale 
Acting Assistant Commissioner, GSA Information Technology Category
General Services Administration, Federal Acquisition Service

Polly Hall 
Executive Sponsor and Practitioner Workstream lead for the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul
General Services Administration

Mauri Hampton
Technical Director, Cyber Security Office
National Reconnaissance Office

Keith Hardiman 
Acting CIO
Department of the Air Force

Maria Harr 
Branch Chief of Information Technology and Cybersecurity
U.S. Coast Guard

Steven Hintze
Chief Data and Product Officer
Arizona Department of Child Safety

Dr. Kristen Honey 
Chief Data Officer
Department of Health and Human Services

Joseph Hoyt 
Acting CISO
General Services Administration

Erika Hozeski
Data Scientist
Department of Agriculture

Mike Hurt 
Group VP of U.S. Public Sector
ServiceNow

David Jin
Deputy Director of the AI Rapid Capabilities Cell
Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering

Jylinda Johnson 
Senior VP of Federal and Civilian
GDIT

George Jungbluth
Director of Central Processing and Director of Dissemination
National Weather Service - NOAA

Dean Koester
VP of Public Sector 
NVIDIA

Jeffrey Koses 
Senior Procurement Executive
General Services Administration

Ann Lewis 
Fellow
Federation of American Scientists

Erik Liederbach 
Senior Operations Management Officer
Department of State

Rep. Ted W. Lieu 
Representative of California’s 36th Congressional District
House of Representatives

Joel Lundy
Acting Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Category Management for GSA Information Technology Category
General Services Administration, Federal Acquisition Service

Sunil Madhugiri 
CTO
Customs and Border Protection

James Mahoney 
Facility-Related Control Systems Program Manager
U.S. Marine Corps

Natesh Manikoth 
Chief Data Officer
Federal Aviation Administration

Lynn Martin 
General Manager
Workday Government

Steven McAndrews 
Deputy CIO
National Nuclear Security Administration

Michael McCalip
VP of Government Programs and Strategy
Carahsoft Technology Corp.

Antoine McCord
CIO
Department of Homeland Security

Sandra McIntyre
Program Manager for Joint Operational Medicine Information Systems
Defense Healthcare Management Systems

Meagan Metzger 
CEO
Dcode

Bradley Miller
Acting CIO
Department of State

Katrina Mulligan
Head of National Security Partnerships
OpenAI

Marco Munoz
Director of USDANet/Enterprise Network Services
Department of Agriculture

Carlos Muñoz
Command Information Officer, NAVFAC
U.S. Navy

Patrick Newbold
CIO and Director of the Office of Information Technology
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Vu Nguyen
CISO and Director of Cybersecurity Services Staff
Department of Justice

James 'Jimmy' Norcross
Senior VP of Digital Solutions
CACI International Inc

Rasheedat Osei-Acheampong
VP, Senior Partner and Federal Cloud Transformation Leader
IBM

Leigh Palmer
VP of Technology Delivery and Operations
Google Public Sector

Julia Pan
Professional Staff Member for the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
U.S. Senate

Kaschit Pandya
CIO
Internal Revenue Service

Matheus Passos
CTO
Department of Commerce

Christina Peach
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Requirements and Capabilities Analysis
Transportation Security Administration

Dr. Toni Phillips
Executive Director of Deployment
Department of Veterans Affairs

Colonel (retired) Jesse Phillips
Director of Operations
United States Army Reserve Command

Pavan Pidugu
Chief Digital and Information Officer
Department of Transportation

Sean Plankey
Senior Assistant to the Secretary
U.S. Coast Guard

Derrick Pledger
Chief Digital and Information Officer
Maximus

Jessie Posilkin
Acting Executive Director of the Technology Modernization Fund
General Services Administration

Michael Post
CISO
Small Business Administration

Aprajita Rathore
Principal
Deloitte

Tarik Reyes
President
Peraton

Ryan Riccucci
Senior Advisor for Lawn Enforcement Technology Integration
Customs and Border Protection

Amy Ritualo
Acting Chief Data and Artificial Intelligence Officer
Department of State

Adarryl Roberts
CIO and Director of the Information Operations J-6
Defense Logistics Agency

Alton Robinson
Program Manager of the DOD Fire and Emergency Services Certification Program
Air Force Civil Engineer Center

Liliana Roman
Deputy Director of Enterprise Information Systems
U.S. Special Operations Command

Major Jonathan Roman 
Chief of the Cyberspace Operations Division
U.S. Air Force

Matthew Albert-Lewis Rose
Head of Corporate and Government Affairs
Snowflake

Travis Rosiek
Public Sector CTO
Rubrik

Jaclyn Rubino
Executive Director of the One Big Beautiful Bill Principal Executive Office
Department of Homeland Security

Cathleen Rush
Deputy Director of the Office of ARSOF Autonomy
U.S. Army Special Operations Command

Nael Samha
Executive Director, Targeting and Analysis Program Directorate
Customs and Border Protection

Drew Schnabel
President and General Manager of U.S. Government Solutions
Zscaler

Major General Christopher Schneider
Deputy for Acquisition and Systems Management
U.S. Army

Alla Seiffert 
Senior Manager of Regulated Industries and Public Sector Policy
Amazon Web Services

Brigadier General Michael Smith
Director for Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Cyber, J-6
USINDOPACOM

Param Soni
CIO and Chief AI Officer
Bureau of Economic Analysis

Craig Stacey
Strategic Initiatives Technical Director
Argonne National Laboratory

Geoff Stevens
All Domain Common Platform Focus Lead Area - Platform, Kessel Run
U.S. Air Force

Nicolas Totten
Deputy CIO
Treasury Department

Zach Whitman
Chief Data Scientist
General Services Administration

Lynn Williams
Professional Staff Member for the Committee on Armed Services
House of Representatives

Deborah Youmans
CIO and VP
MITRE

Michelle Zebrowski
Chief Data Officer
Customs and Border Protection

Adam Zeimet
Acting Deputy CISO for Operations
Department of Agriculture

Dawn Zimmer
CIO
Department of Energy