Meet the winners of the 2024 CyberScoop 50 awards

Scoop News Group is delighted to present the outstanding recipients of the 2024 CyberScoop 50 Awards. These prestigious accolades recognize the exceptional achievements of cybersecurity leaders who safeguard our essential networks, data, and infrastructure while pioneering innovation in this critical field.

This year, voters from across the nation spent three months nominating and selecting leaders who have exhibited remarkable dedication, creativity, and resourcefulness in defending against cyber threats. With over 800,000 votes cast in five distinct categories, these honorees truly represent the pinnacle of cybersecurity excellence.

From rising stars embarking on promising careers to veteran officials shaping policy and strategy, the nominees for the CyberScoop 50 Awards showcased a diverse and accomplished array of talent from the entire information security community. We celebrate these extraordinary individuals for their pivotal role in defending our digital world.

The winners, alphabetically by category, are:

Cybersecurity Visionary

• Morgan Adamski, Executive Director, U.S. Cyber Command
• Harry Coker, Jr., National Cyber Director, White House
• Michael Daniel, President & CEO, Cyber Threat Alliance
• Nathaniel Fick, U.S. Ambassador at Large for Cyberspace and Digital Policy, U.S. Department of State
• Adele Merritt, Chief Information Officer, U.S. Intelligence Community
• Anne Neuberger, Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Tech, National Security Council
• Randy Resnick, Senior Adviser, Zero Trust Portfolio Management Office, Department of Defense
• Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner, Director/Commander, DISA/JFHQ-DODIN
• Solomon Wilson, OIT DIS, Cybersecurity Project Manager, Indian Health Service
• Sounil Yu, CTO, Knostic

Government Leadership

• Shane Barney, CISO,  U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services 
• Bailey Bickley, Chief DIB Defense, National Security Agency
• James Bishop, CISO, U.S. Air Force
• Paul Blahusch, CISO, Department of Labor
• Stacy Bostjanick, Chief DIB Cybersecurity, Department of Defense
• David Carroll, Associate Director – Mission Engineering, CISA
• Jennifer Franks, Director, Information Technology and Cybersecurity, GAO
• Henry Houle, COSMOS Information System Security Manager (ISSM)/Cybersecurity Lead, Naval Information Warfare Center – Pacific
• Ayan Islam, Director, Cyber Workforce, Office of the National Cyber Director
• Cynthia Kaiser, Deputy Assistant Director, Cyber Division, FBI
• Tonya Manning, CISO, EPA
• Vu Nguyen, CISO, Department of Justice
• Cherilyn Pascoe, Director, NCCoE, NIST
• Nick Polk, Sr. Adviser to the Federal CISO, Executive Office of the President
• James Saunders, CISO, OPM
• Anne Marie Schumann, Principal Cyber Adviser, Department of the Navy
• Dr. Michael Sulmeyer, Principal Cyber Adviser, U.S. Army
• Joseph Szczerba, Section Chief for Cyber National Security Intel, FBI
• Bryan Vorndran, Assistant Director for Cyber Operations, FBI
• Mike Witt, CISO, NASA
• La Monte Yarborough, CISO, HHS

Industry Leadership

• Will Ash, Sr. Director, U.S. Public Sector Security, Cisco
• Charles Carmakal, CTO, Mandiant Consulting
• Kynan Carver, Cybersecurity Lead, Defense Market, Maximus
• Alex Chapin, Vice President of Sales, DoD & Intelligence, Trellix
• Sean Connelly, Executive Director, Global Zero Trust Strategy and Policy, ZScaler
• Chris DeRusha, Director of Global Public Sector Compliance, Google Public Sector
• Sandra Joyce, Vice President of Google Threat Intelligence, Google Cloud
• Ryan Kazanciyan, CISO, Wiz
• Katy Mann, Senior Vice President & GM, Public Sector, Okta
• Paul Michaels, Chief Security Officer, Fortinet Federal
• Dean Scontras, Area VP of U.S. Public Sector, Wiz
• Eric Trexler, Senior Vice President of U.S. Public Sector, Palo Alto Networks

Innovation of the Year

• Defender Experts for Threat Hunting; EAP for Security Copilot; Student-Led SOC / K12 Best Practice Cybersecurity Model, Gwinnett County Public Schools
• Post-Quantum Cryptography Standards, NIST
• PurpleAI, SentinelOne
• Secure By Design program, CISA
• Universal PatchinG and Remediation for Autonomous Defense (UPGRADE) program, ARPA-H

Most Inspiring Up-and-Comer

• Perri Adams, Special Assistant to the Director, DARPA
• Meredith Burkart, Chief of Cyber Policy, FBI
• Natalia Krapiva, Senior Tech-Legal Counsel, AccessNow
• Selena Larson, Senior Threat Intelligence Analyst, Proofpoint
• Trevor Parks, Cyber Operations Planner, Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative, CISA