Partnership for Public Service announces honorees for the 2026 Service to America Medals®

Milestone 25^th anniversary ceremony will recognize nation’s outstanding civil servants of past and present

WASHINGTON – The nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service today announced the 2026 Service to America Medals® honorees, career federal employees who have provided critical public services and made outstanding contributions to the health, safety and economic advancement of our country.

Considered the “Oscars of government service” and better known as the “Sammies,” the awards mark their 25th anniversary this year by celebrating four individuals and teams whose accomplishments demonstrate the vital role that expert, apolitical civil servants play in our daily lives.

The 2026 honorees are recognized across four themes: safer, stronger, healthier and more prosperous. The honorees include a cybersecurity leader who thwarted a sophisticated cyber intrusion into government email accounts, a litigator who recovered billions of dollars from multinational corporations that attempted to dodge their tax obligations, a research engineer who broke ground on advancements in air quality monitoring, and a team of scientists who revolutionized dairy cattle breeding, improving both milk production and animal health.

“After more than a year of upheaval in the federal workforce, these honorees are a powerful testament to what career civil servants make possible every single day,” said Partnership for Public Service President and CEO Max Stier. “We created the Service to America Medals 25 years ago to celebrate the best in government and to educate the public about the critical role dedicated public servants play in improving our daily lives and communities.”

“This 25th anniversary is a moment to reflect on just how much that work still matters, whether it’s protecting our national security, advancing clean air science, transforming American agriculture or the countless other essential functions federal employees perform,” Stier added.

The awards will be presented on Wednesday, May 6, starting at 6:30 p.m. at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. For more information about this year’s awards ceremony, contact press@ourpublicservice.org.

The 2026 Service to America Medals honorees are:

Gharun Lacy, Department of State (Arlington, Va.)

Theme: Safer

Lacy led a team that discovered and quickly halted a sophisticated cyber intrusion into the State Department’s email accounts by a group with ties to China.

James Szykman, Environmental Protection Agency (Hampton, Va.)

Theme: Healthier

Szykman leveraged his EPA expertise to lead a cross-agency collaboration that successfully validated NASA’s TEMPO satellite, paving the way to ground-breaking methods of monitoring, tracking and addressing air pollution.

Jill A. Frisch, formerly of the Internal Revenue Service (New York)

Theme: Stronger

Frisch litigated landmark cases against multinational corporations that used complex schemes to artificially lower their federal tax liability, leading to the recovery of billions of dollars for the government’s coffers.

Ransom L. Baldwin VI, Ph.D., Curtis P. Van Tassell, Ph.D., Paul VanRaden, Ph.D. and the ARS Dairy Cattle Genetic Enhancement Team, Department of Agriculture (Beltsville, Md.)

Theme: More Prosperous

The team played a leading role in revolutionizing dairy cattle breeding through DNA research and genetic testing that has greatly improved milk production and animal health while benefiting the industry and the public.

The individuals and teams being honored were selected from more than 140 nominations across 39 federal agencies and subcomponents. The Service to America Medals have honored more than 800 federal employees since its inception in 2001. For profiles of current and past honorees, visit servicetoamericamedals.org.

The ceremony will be hosted by award winning former anchor of NPR’s “All Things Considered,” Ari Shapiro. Presenters will include former White House chiefs of staff Joshua Bolten and Jeff Zients, NBC journalist Andrea Mitchell, PBS NewsHour co-anchor Amna Nawaz and podcast host Kelly Corrigan. The program will also include video presentations highlighting the important work of our honorees, special messages from national leaders and a conversation between best-selling author Michael Lewis and Partnership CEO Max Stier reflecting on 25 years of the Partnership.

The 2026 Service to America Medals program is made possible through the generous support of our sponsors. National sponsors are Tom and Andi Bernstein, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Charina Endowment Fund. Capital sponsors are Patricia A. and George W. Wellde, Jr., Google and Microsoft.

The Partnership for Public Service is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to building a better government and a stronger democracy. Over the past 25 years and across five presidential administrations, we have offered government agencies and leaders crucial training and insights to better serve the public, championed legislation for effective government and shined a spotlight on the achievements of the federal workforce.

Now, building on our decades of experience, we engage the public about the value of government and how its erosion harms us all and advance reforms that seek to make our federal institutions more effective, responsive and accountable to the American people. We also strengthen leadership in federal, state and local government, help federal workers navigate an increasingly complex federal environment and provide former public servants with opportunities to shape efforts to transform government.

Visit our 25 years of building a better government page to learn how our programs have enabled civil servants across all levels of government to lead effectively, deliver for the public and navigate challenging environments across federal, state and local governments and to get involved.

Visit ourpublicservice.org, follow us @PublicService and subscribe today to get the latest federal news, information on upcoming Partnership programs and events, and more.

###