Meet the 2017 Rising Stars

Each year, FCW's Rising Star awards recognize individuals who are early in their federal IT careers yet already are having an outsized impact. The women and men listed below have been selected both for their accomplishments over the past year and for their leadership potential in this community.

Full profiles will run next month in FCW, and the winners will be honored in person at GCN's Oct. 19 dig IT Awards gala. Until then, here's a quick preview of the 2017 Rising Stars — 21 individuals you'll likely be hearing about for years to come:

Justin C. Ariel
Network Engineer/Systems Administrator, Office of the CIO, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
NASA

Lindsey Averill
Associate Vice President
The Ambit Group

Dawn M. Bare
Product Management Specialist/Army ESI Lead, Computer Hardware, Enterprise Software and Solutions (CHESS), Program Executive Office Enterprise Information Systems (PEO EIS)
Department of the Army

Anna-Ruth Beckman
Consultant
The Clearing, Inc.

Ruchika C. Croall
Director, Enterprise Program Management Office, Information Assurance
Department of Veterans Affairs

Christopher T. Crogan
Cyber Systems Engineer, Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Newport
Department of the Navy

Amanda L. Day
Enterprise Cybersecurity Awareness and Training Lead
Department of Homeland Security

Mittal Desai
Chief Information Security Officer
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Marc C. Harrell
Director, Federal
Jive Software

Priya (Ishu) I. Krishna
Information Technology Specialist/CADE2 Requirements Program Manager
Internal Revenue Service

Laura Larrimore
Senior Digital Strategist
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Jennifer T. Lee
Program Manager in support of the Department of Defense Office of the CIO
Booz Allen Hamilton

Michael I. Maharaj
Chief Cyber Integration, Joint Staff J6, Directorate for Cyber and C4 Integration
Department of Defense

Maria McClelland
Technical Senior Staff Member, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Department of Energy

Kelly Moan
Senior Security Engineer, Cyber Solutions Division, MGMT/OCIO/OCISO
Department of Homeland Security

Freshta Mohammad
Senior Security and Portfolio Analyst in support of the Environmental Protection Agency
PPC

Darryl E. Peek II
Director of Operations, OCIO/OCTO
Department of Homeland Security

Stefano M. Rivolta
Project Manager, Innovation Sandbox
Department of State

Steven L. Wells
Senior Director, Program Management
DLT Solutions

Michael Whitaker
Vice President of Emerging Solutions
ICF

Michael R. Woodruff
Lead Computer Systems Engineer
CACI