As the Interior Department’s federal enterprise architecture advocate, Suzanne Acar encourages agencies to manage data as a departmentwide asset.

She has also worked with the Office of Management and Budget to demonstrate the importance of enterprise architecture in eliminating redundant systems.

"Suzanne is an example of the highest-caliber architect we have in Interior,” said W. Hord Tipton, Interior’s chief information officer. “She is a leader not only in Interior but all of government in the area of data architecture. She is ‘four aces all the way.’ ”

OMB recognized Interior’s enterprise architecture with the highest rating in the federal government.

Robert Albicker has been called a master architect of the Internal Revenue Service’s tax processing systems, which handle about $2.1 trillion in tax returns each year.

The IRS is known for its decades-old systems, but Albicker has helped modernize those systems.

He developed an integration testing environment and a secure online infrastructure for systems applications and projects such as “Where’s My Refund?” on the IRS’ Web site.

“His combination of keen agency knowledge, in-depth technical expertise and the ability to shift seamlessly between the big picture and program details has enabled him to oversee one of the largest and most complex information technology endeavors in the world — modernization at the IRS,” said W. Todd Grams, chief information officer at the IRS.

The Agriculture Department asked Yvette Alonso to revamp its National Agricultural Library, one of the world’s largest agricultural library networks.

She led the redesign of the department’s 68,000 public Web sites to fit USDA style guidelines and a new content-based approach to information presentation. Her deadline was Dec. 31, 2005, and she received no additional resources.

Alonso accomplished all that by Dec. 1. She also created a new team-based approach to Web development and provided library users with quicker, easier access to information.

“She had the leadership skills to make it happen — the drive, the commitment, the energy,” said Susan McCarthy, senior analyst for strategic scientific initiatives at USDA.

As the senior financial adviser to Army chief information officer Lt. Gen. Steve Boutelle, Diane Armstrong is responsible for planning, programming and budgeting more than $7 billion worth of information technology programs. So when the Army asked her to lead one of the most complex portfolio management projects in government, people paid attention.

The project was initially confined to the CIO’s office, but Armstrong saw the possibilities of expanding IT portfolio management servicewide. Portfolio management signals a major change in the way the Army handles IT investments by improving governance and forcing stakeholders to act more strategically.

The project has generated a tremendous response and limited resistance, said John Cimral, chief executive officer of ProSight, because of Armstrong’s articulate commitment.

Capt. Jeffrey Arsenault knows firsthand that during war and disasters, reliable communications can be a matter of life and death. Within 12 hours of getting the call, Arsenault had sent his Deployable Initial Communications Equipment team to New Orleans to aid Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

Arsenault needed less than a year to transform what had been a slow-moving concept into the first option for communications support, said Maj. Andrew Ryan, commander of the 31st Combat Communications Squadron.

“It needed someone to kick start this,” he said. “Capt. Arsenault saw the value of it and took it upon himself to test the system and get it operational.”

John Atkins has given the State Department and the rest of the federal government a boost in biometric technology.

Atkins helped create one of the world’s largest facial-recognition data processing facilities, which assists homeland security initiatives.

“Its flexibility for data sharing across agencies has been transformational,” said David Boyd, government task manager of systems engineering at State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs.

Atkins has also led an effort to test the viability of fingerprint scans that use all 10 fingerprints for use with visa applications. And his biometrics expertise also helped efforts to identify missing tsunami victims.

Although many people talk a good game when it comes to data sharing, Bryan Aucoin possesses the expertise and commitment to gather the necessary elements for the federal enterprise architecture’s data reference model (DRM).

The last stages of DRM Version 2.0 most likely would not have come together as fluidly without Aucoin’s leadership, said Susan Turnbull, the CIO Council’s architecture and infrastructure representative to the DRM Working Group.

“Where he really shone was in those last few rounds of development, when we had just 10 days to reconcile some 500 to 600 comments," Turnbull said.

Aucoin’s election to represent the intelligence community in DRM deliberations was critical to reaching such a quick resolution, Turnbull said.

John Baake is the guardian angel of pension benefits for 44 million U.S. workers. As deputy chief technology officer of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., Baake worked to improve PBGC’s online services in 2005, expanding the agency’s Web site and Web services for its customers.

Because of his work, participants can now access their benefits accounts, apply for benefits, designate a beneficiary and submit a request for benefit estimates — all online.

“Through his efforts, Mr. Baake helped PBGC exceed their strategic goals to provide exceptional service to customers and stakeholders,” said Margo Fitzpatrick, vice president of Global Information Technology at Booz Allen Hamilton.

Reginald Bagby, a former master sergeant, knew how to get things done in the military when he returned to work for the Army as a civilian.

Bagby planned and managed the Radio Frequency In-Transit Visibility network, a global network of more than 2,100 radio frequency identification in 30 countries. The network track supplies and equipment for warfighters.

Inheriting a system with a low-level capability, Bagby built it into a global network, said Col. Tom Hogan, deputy program executive officer for enterprise information systems. Bagby fought tenaciously for the necessary resources. “His No. 1 asset is perseverance,” Hogan said. “He simply he will not give up.”

Under the leadership of its president, Zoë Baird, the Markle Foundation quickly organized Katrina-Health.org, a nationwide online service that lets health professionals access the electronic health records of people displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

KatrinaHealth.org formed through the collaborative efforts of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, the American Medical Association and companies such as SureScripts, a provider of electronic pharmacy services, and RxHub, which collects and delivers patient-specific medication histories.

Charlene Underwood, director of government and industry affairs at Siemens Medical Solutions, said such collaboration is a hallmark of Baird’s leadership at Markle. The foundation’s Connecting for Health projects link multiple partners to create electronic health care systems. Katrina-Health.org demonstrated the power of collaborative technology efforts, she added.

Nigel Ballard doesn’t let Mother Nature slow him down. He leads Intel’s global installation of wireless networks in places where broadband access is limited or nonexistent. After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Ballard’s expertise was necessary much closer to home.

Ballard persuaded Intel to rush WiMax wireless equipment to the region after winds and floods destroyed other communications networks.

He then persuaded the Federal Communications Commission to release wireless spectrum normally reserved for Air Force early warning radar.

Ballard, who has extensive experience advising NATO on tactical matters, has earned an industry reputation for taking the bull by the horns to deliver quick solutions, said Alfred Toussaint, Intel’s federal initiatives manager.

William Barker’s federal career has been relatively brief, but he manages arguably one of the federal government’s most ambitious information technology security efforts, the Personal Identity Verification (PIV) program.

Under Barker’s leadership, the National Institute of Standards and Technology produced Federal Information Processing Standard 201 quickly so that federal agencies could meet the October 2006 deadline for compliance with Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12.

“Perhaps his greatest gift is an ability to inspire extraordinary performance in the NIST PIV team,” said Timothy Grance, manager of NIST’s System and Network Security Group.

Despite the demands of her job as director of business development at CA, Leslie Barry spends much of her time volunteering for the information technology community.

She created and ran the new American Council for Technology/Industry Advisory Council Voyagers Program, which identifies promising midlevel IT professionals in government and the private sector. She also serves as treasurer of the Association for Federal Information Resources Management and IAC’s vice chairwoman of professional development.

“Leslie is one of those rare individuals who sees a problem and says, ‘What can I do to fix it?’ Her first response to every situation is ‘How can I help?’ ” said Ed Meagher, deputy chief information officer at the Interior Department.

Jack Bates is a visionary who understands the importance of getting information quickly. As the corporate data warehouse manager of the Veterans Health Administration, he knows how to organize and manage volumes of medical information, and he has saved the Department of Veterans Affairs millions of dollars. His work paid off after Hurricane Katrina when he helped make medical supply information available within a minute.

“As a result of Mr. Bates’ efforts, VHA has a functioning corporate data warehouse that includes financial, workload and administrative data and supports a wide variety of VHA analytical needs,” said Craig Luigart, VHA’s chief information officer.

VHA has a robust and comprehensive plan for the warehouse’s continued growth to support the administration’s future analytical needs, Luigart said.

Vernon Bettencourt is the ultimate multitasker.

The Army’s deputy chief information officer has helped manage numerous business and warfighting information technology initiatives to support the Army in the war on terrorism. He is the Army’s front man for business systems modernization and network security. He released an ambitious 500-day plan to reorganize and focus the Army CIO office.

“He excels in creating coalitions across the Army, Defense Department, government agencies and industry in order to accomplish his mission,” said Craig Bambrough, director and vice president at the SRA Touchstone Consulting Group. “He is consistently sought out as a mentor by civilians and officers.”

The Army’s Web portal, Army Knowledge Online, has grown from a disjointed, shoestring effort into a world-class project governed by common technical standards and well documented procedures largely because of Lt. Col. Kenneth Blakely.

Blakely’s mastery of portal technology served the Army well in 2005 when he quickly established a Katrina Information Center within AKO. The center became a cyber communications hub for the Army’s active-duty, Reserve and National Guard members displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

They used it to contact family members. Blakely also offered cyber office space within AKO to the Army’s Criminal Division and Regional Language Support Program, which benefited those programs, said Col. Gregory Chasteen, AKO’s director. “Lt. Col. Blakely’s technical and management expertise coupled with his keen foresight and hard work made these projects possible.”

Judge G. Paul Bollwerk helped establish two advanced electronic courtroom facilities in Rockville, Md., and Las Vegas to help ensure all participants are heard during the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s hearings on the proposal to use Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository.

The courtrooms integrate various technologies, including live video, live transcription, video recall and search, and document processing. Bollwerk can now conduct hearings electronically, focusing on evidence and testimony rather than on paperwork.

Sharie Bourbeau knows that the true test of command, control, communications and computer (C4) systems comes in combat, not in development centers or training sites.

That’s why she took an inspection trip to Iraq last year with Gen. Michael Hagee, commandant of the Marine Corps. She wanted firsthand feedback on the performance of systems in the field.

Dave Wennergren, the Navy’s chief information officer, said the Iraq trip is one example of how Bourbeau works hard to ensure that Marines have the best possible C4 systems.

Wennergren said Bourbeau led the transition to the Navy Marine Corps Intranet and worked to keep the system on target for completion by early 2007.

The Army’s Web portal, Army Knowledge Online, is proof that effective architecture standards yield immense servicewide benefits. Lt. Col. Michael Bridges expanded the portal’s capabilities in 2005 by creating a mirrored site to protect AKO during disasters.

Bridges also spent long hours in battle in Kuwait and Baghdad, Iraq, gathering information about how to make the portal useful to soldiers in combat, a project called AKO Forward.

“Officers with his analytical and technical abilities are uncommon in the federal government,” said Tran Lam, AKO project manager at CherryRoad Government Technologies. “He can communicate with his staff technically and up the chain to general officer level on the big-picture viewpoint of the operations.”

If Paul Brinkley were a baseball team manager, he would tell his batters to strive for singles instead of home runs because they produce runs more consistently.

Brinkley brings that practical approach to his position as deputy undersecretary of Defense for business transformation. Under Brinkley’s leadership, the Defense Department is progressing on modernizing its business processes and systems.

“He made the program focus on what can be achieved based on where DOD is today, rather than some yet to be achieved technological ideal down the road,” said Gil Guarino, executive vice president of transformation solutions at CACI International.

Robert Burton rose to the challenge when he began managing the Office of Federal Procurement Policy following the resignation and indictment of David Safavian, OFPP’s former administrator.

Highly regarded in the procurement community, Burton pushed OFPP forward and focused its attention on key issues despite his temporary status. He is an advocate of workforce training, especially because a large number of acquisition employees are eligible for retirement this year.

“Despite the limits of the acting title, he treats it as his responsibility not be a caretaker but to keep the office moving forward,” said Stan Soloway, president of the Professional Services Council.

Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.), chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, saw trouble at the Department of Veterans Affairs and fixed it. The problem was that the chief information officer lacked control of the VA’s $1.2 billion information technology budget.

Under Buyer’s leadership, the House passed legislation in 2005 that gave budgetary control to the VA’s CIO. With that pressure from Congress, the VA secretary agreed to give the CIO the power of the purse.

“The legislation that he pushed forward to centralize IT is very positive simply because the VA spends so much money,” said Bob Wallace, director of the Washington, D.C., office of Veterans of Foreign Wars. “It still gives flexibility on developing new programs,” he said, “but oversight and everything else will be out of the CIO’s office.”

Joe Cannataro developed an interactive, electronic manual for the Army that demonstrates how to operate and maintain armaments in the field. The tutorial, which is similar to a video game, appeals to soldiers and technicians.

Cannataro could have fulfilled all the requirements for the simulations by simply creating an electronic text version, but he saw an opportunity to make something better.

Gabe Batstone, vice president of business development and professional services at 3-D software provider NGRAIN, said that simulation accelerates learning on complex equipment. “It enables the first-time right, as in get it right the first time,” he said.

Robert Carey has had a major impact on Navy technology operations. As the senior information assurance official, he led the development and implementation of policies that have significantly improved the security of the Navy’s systems and networks. Under his leadership, the department has increased the percentage of securityaccredited systems from 27 percent in 2003 to more than 94 percent two years later.

Carey also spearheaded the department’s strategic plan to align information technology with the Defense Department’s warfighting priorities.

“Rob Carey’s contributions as a champion of information security and enterprise transformation extend beyond the Department of the Navy to the DOD enterprise,” said David Wennergren, the Navy’s chief information officer.

John Caruso instituted the 2005 Joint Users Interoperability Communications Exercise, which mixed new and old technologies to support communications, command and control functions during simulated attacks.

The 2005 exercise tested secure wireless IP communications and the use of the Global Broadcast System and public-key infrastructure technologies. It involved more than 60 participants from the Combatant Command, the Joint Staff, the military services, the National Guard, the Reserve and Defense Department agencies.

“It successfully demonstrated for the first time that the existing wireless communications with Type 1 Baton and Advanced Encryption Standard can effectively cross domains to diverse network topologies,” said Joseph Fisher, a division chief at the Software Engineering Center Communications-Electronics Life Cycle Management Command.

Marian Cherry, portfolio manager of the Defense Department’s Horizontal Fusion Initiative, created a sophisticated search engine for troops in Iraq.

The 18th Airborne Corps has used her program to search multiple databases for time and location data, among other information.

Priscilla Guthrie, DOD’s deputy chief information officer, said the department will take the baseline Cherry built and integrate it into its service-oriented architecture. “It’s an operational

SOA tested in the most difficult circumstances,” Guthrie said.

Dick Coltman’s work has revolutionized Army training. He led the development of the company’s Military Operations on Urban Terrain and Mobile MOUT systems.

MOUT training sites offer interactive targets and special effects that give the warfighter-in-training a realistic experience.

The technology has aided the military’s efforts to train soldiers for current operations in the Middle East.

“Dick Coltman is a consummate professional on every level,” said Jorge Rivera, assistant project manager of live training transformation at the Army’s Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation.

His efforts have made today’s soldiers better prepared for battle, Rivera said.

For Mary Ellen Condon, privacy and security aren’t just buzzwords. She knows they are essential for all future government information technology deployments.

The Industry Advisory Council elected Condon chairwoman of its Information Security and Privacy Shared Interest Group.

She widened the SIG’s activities to include emerging technologies among the identity management services that the group members offer.

She revitalized the dormant SIG and urged the council’s members to understand how important its issues are, said Robert Dix Jr., SIG vice chairman and vice president of government affairs and corporate development at Citadel Security Software.

Colleen Conley was critical to the success of HR Connect, the Treasury Department’s state-of theart human resources management system, which, as part of the HR Line of Business initiative, is intended for governmentwide use.

She helped the program take a big step in that direction by overseeing the implementation of HR Connect at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the first customer outside Treasury.

“Her commitment to on-time delivery, coupled with a keen sense for interacting with people, are key to her successful project management,” said Ira Hobbs, chief information officer at Treasury.

Daniel Costello discovered that the most economical way to provide public access to government information was to take advantage of the popularity of commercial search engines.

In constructing a new Office of Management and Budget policy, “Improving Public Access to and Dissemination of Government Information,” Costello looked at the best practices in the business world.

The result is a policy that directs agencies to use search technologies to disseminate information to the public and share it among agencies to reduce duplicative information collections.

"When you use search, as we have articulated it, the public will be able to find and gain access to more information than ever before,” said Glenn Schlarman, chief of OMB’s Information Policy and Technology Branch. “It really is e-gov in action.”

Immediately after learning that Hurricane Katrina had devastated the Social Security Administration’s offices in the Gulf Coast region, Kelly Croft formed a disaster recovery team to assess the damage and restore service.

Croft created temporary field offices at the Houston Astrodome, the Dallas Convention Center and Kelly Air Force Base. They were operating within 72 hours after Katrina hit. Croft then deployed SSA employees to help with relief efforts. They assisted thousands of hurricane survivors.

“As a result of Mr. Croft’s outstanding leadership, the Office of Systems’ response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina helped deliver SSA services to affected citizens in record-breaking time,” said Bill Gray, SSA’s deputy commissioner for systems.

Michael Daconta led a multiagency working group to update the federal Data Reference Model and improved one of the most talked about and technically reliable tools for federal data sharing and management.

Daconta helped create a Rosetta Stone for all federal employees who use data, said Mary Mc- Caffery, a teammate and senior adviser to the assistant administrator for environmental information at the Environmental Protection Agency.

Daconta’s model provides a common understanding of what data agencies have, what it means, where it is and how to access it, she said. Daconta helped agencies focus on enterprisewide information sharing and interoperability.

He also helped DHS agencies quantify their data-sharing abilities and focus more on results and agencies’ business needs.

Marketing is not in his job description, but Stanley Davis knows how to sell e-learning.

Davis led the Army’s efforts to make information technology training available for free online to service members worldwide. As the Army’s elearning project officer, Davis began promoting elearning among service members in March 2005.
By February 2006, course registration had reached 245,000, more than double what it had been.

Davis faced an extraordinary marketing challenge, said Lt. Col. Robert Bean, product manager of the Army Distributed Learning System. Davis had a small staff — one part-time and two fulltime employees — to promote the Army e-Learning program to 1.4 million soldiers and civilians.

But those limitations didn’t deter Davis, Bean
said. “He understands the power of relationships and communication.”

When the Agriculture Department overhauled the division in which Grant Dekker worked, he improved operations and helped affected employees, including those who had been laid off.

The reorganization of the Information Resources Management (IRM) division reduced the number of employees from 1,200 to 650. It also centralized operations and shattered the division’s work culture.

In this environment, Dekker improved technical and customer support for the Forest Service’s information technology infrastructure, which IRM supports. Dekker’s work has helped IRM save an estimated $100 million in the next five years.

Dekker has “lots of energy and did all the right things,” said Joan Golden, the Forest Service’s acting chief information officer. “People love to work for him. He’s a genius.”

Martha Dorris played an important role in several General Services Administration efforts to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. Through GSA’s National Contact Center and USA Services, federal employees handled more than 1.5 million inquiries through toll-free hot lines. Dorris helped ensure that the government’s Web portal, First- Gov, provided coordinated and timely responses.

“Her work on deploying the 1-800 number for Katrina continues to prove that Martha is, first of all, a true public servant and dedicated to her agency and the entire federal government. She is truly one of a kind,” said Robert Suda, a former GSA colleague.