The Partnership for Public Service has announced the winners of the 2022 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals® (Sammies) awards.
The seven winners were chosen from among 30 finalists by a selection committee that included leaders from government, business, charitable organizations, academia, entertainment and media.
2022 Sammies Award Recipients
Gregory Robinson of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Washington, D.C.) is the recipient of the Federal Employee of the Year Medal, the top honor of the Sammies program. Robinson oversaw the successful launch of NASA’s revolutionary James Webb Space Telescope after years of delays and billions of dollars in cost overruns, setting the stage for spectacular discoveries about the origins of the universe.
Dr. H. Clifford Lane from the National Institute of Allergy and Infection Diseases (Bethesda, Md.) is the recipient of the Paul A. Volcker Career Achievement Medal. During his four decades at the National Institutes of Health, Lane has conducted lifesaving research for people with HIV/AIDS, had an enormous impact combating and treating infectious diseases overseas such as Ebola, and helped establish national treatment guidelines for COVID-19 amid the deadly pandemic.
The Paul A. Volcker Career Achievement Medal is named after the extraordinary public servant who made a profound difference for our country and was the leading voice on the value of government service. In 2019, the Partnership renamed the Sammies career achievement medal in his honor. is made possible through the generous support of Ray and Barbara Dalio.
Amanda Cohn, Anita Patel and Davis Fitter of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta, Ga.) are the recipients of the COVID-19 Response Medal, which was created last year to recognize outstanding federal workers who played important roles in the government’s response to the pandemic. Cohn, Patel and Fitter designed and implemented the plan to distribute hundreds of millions of lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines to states, localities and pharmacies nationwide while providing critical health information to the public.
Krista Kinnard of the Department of Labor (Washington, D.C.) is the recipient of the Emerging Leaders Medal. At 34, Kinnard serves as the department’s chief of emerging technologies. She ignited a technology transformation at Labor by automating repetitive administrative processes, saving time and money, and creating greater efficiencies.
Barbara Morton of the Department of Veterans Affairs (Washington, D.C.) is the recipient of the Management Excellence Medal. Morton and her team built trust and a customer-oriented culture among veterans and their families seeking services and benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs by listening and responding to their needs.
Hilary Ingraham, Holly Herrera, and Kiera Berdinner from the Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (Washington, D.C.) are the recipients of the Safety, Security and International Affairs Medal. Ingraham, Herrera and Berdinner, who represent the Operation Allies Welcome Resettlement Team, coordinated the largest resettlement of refugees in modern U.S. history, providing housing and services in record time to more than 76,000 Afghans who fled from Afghanistan in 2021 as the American forces withdrew from that war-torn country.
Cindy Newberg of the Environmental Protection Agency (Washington, D.C.) is the recipient of the Science, Technology and Environment Medal. Newberg played an instrumental role internationally and in the U.S. to curb the use of hydrofluorocarbons, incredibly potent greenhouse gases that are major contributors to climate change.
In addition to the seven winners, Joshua Josa of the U.S. Agency for International Development (Washington, D.C.) is the recipient of the eighth annual Service to America Medals People’s Choice award, which was presented in July. Josa leveraged U.S. resources and influence to provide educational opportunities to thousands of children with disabilities living in developing nations.
More than 68,000 votes were cast during this year’s People’s Choice selection process. Josa received the most votes out of all 30 Sammies finalists in an online selection process that was open to the public.
The recipients of the 21st annual Sammies awards will be announced tonight, Tuesday, September 20, 2022, in a ceremony to be held at the John F. Kennedy for the Performing Arts. In addition to the in-person awards ceremony, a one-hour program honoring the winners will air this fall on Bloomberg Television and on the Partnership’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube pages.
