Partnership for Public Service announces honorees for the 2025 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals® 

June 16, 2025

WASHINGTON – In the midst of significant upheaval in the federal workforce, the nonpartisan, nonprofit Partnership for Public Service today announced its 2025 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals^® honorees, career federal employees who have provided critical public services and made outstanding contributions to the health, safety and national security of our country. 

Considered the “Oscars of government service” and better known as the “Sammies,” the awards this year celebrate 23 individuals and teams whose accomplishments demonstrate the vital role that expert, apolitical civil servants play in our daily lives. 

“The honorees and their dedicated colleagues in the civil service are the backbone or our democracy, ensuring that the federal government, our most important tool for collective action in a complex world, meets its mission to serve the public interest,” said Max Stier, the president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service. “The stories of these Sammies honorees vividly highlight the kinds of important services, innovations and benefits provided by our government, and are a reminder of what could be lost as a result of the ongoing cutbacks to federal agencies, personnel and programs.” 

The awards will be presented on Tuesday, June 17, starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C. 

Rather than select individual winners in different categories from the group of finalists as in years past, the Partnership will recognize all 23 honorees to illustrate the full breadth of what our government does for our nation. In addition, a prestigious selection committee of academic, entertainment, media and social-sector leaders have chosen the 2025 Federal Employee of the Year. 

That honor goes to David Lebryk, the former Treasury Department fiscal assistant secretary who was widely recognized as the preeminent leader in the federal financial management community. During his years of service, Lebryk seamlessly oversaw annual government payments of more than $6 trillion, protected the integrity of the federal financial system and implemented a government-wide program that in 2024 recovered a record $7 billion in fraud and improper payments. 

Other 2025 honorees include a team that led groundbreaking negotiations to lower the price of 10 prescription drugs covered by Medicare Part D, saving seniors and the federal government billions of dollars; a State Department team that developed the first-ever online passport renewal system, eliminating an outdated, paper-heavy process and dramatically reducing wait times for millions of Americans; and two researchers who developed cutting-edge technology to detect contaminants on farms and at food processing facilities. 

The honorees also devised the first high-resolution alert system that provides seven-day forecasts of the possible heat risks in specific locations, enabling emergency managers and public health officials to proactively protect the public; led development of the world’s most powerful supercomputer that will conduct nuclear simulations with unprecedented speed and precision, transforming the stewardship of our nuclear stockpile; and revolutionized technology used to oversee the safety of the commercial motor carrier industry.  

The individuals and teams being honored were selected from more than 350 nominations across 65 federal agencies. This year’s Service to America Medals honorees can be found here, and a list of their accomplishments is appended below. 

The emcee of the Sammies award ceremony will be broadcast journalist Judy Woodruff. Presenters will include former White House Chiefs of Staff Jeff Zients, Denis McDonough and Josh Bolten, former Treasury Secretaries Tim Geithner and Janet Yellen, and Francis Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health. The program will also include video presentations highlighting the important work of our honorees. This year’s ceremony will rebroadcast on WETA on July 6 and July 12, 2025. 

More information about this year’s awards ceremony and details to register can be found here.  

The 2025 Service to America Medals program is made possible by the generous support of our sponsors, who include Tom and Andi Bernstein, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Microsoft and Patricia A. and George W. Wellde Jr. 

Renamed the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals in 2010 to commemorate the organization’s founder, the program has honored more than 800 outstanding federal employees since its inception in 2002. For profiles of current and past honorees, visit servicetoamericamedals.org.   

During the past 24 years, the nonpartisan, nonprofit Partnership for Public Service has been dedicated to building a better government and a stronger democracy. We work across administrations to help transform the way government works by providing agencies with the data insights they need to succeed, developing effective leaders, inspiring the next generation to public service, facilitating smooth presidential transitions and recognizing exceptional federal employees.   

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

The 2025 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals^® honorees are:  

Mary Anne Alvin, Department of Energy (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)  

Spearheaded innovative initiatives to extract scarce rare earth minerals from coal waste that are critical components for everything from military aircraft and electric vehicles to smartphones and medical devices  

John A. Blevins, Ph.D., National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Huntsville, Alabama) 

Oversaw groundbreaking lunar projects, culminating with the successful first launch of an uncrewed rocket that orbited the moon, paving the way for new scientific discoveries, further space exploration and a potential future human mission to Mars  

Maya Bretzius, Internal Revenue Service (Washington, D.C.) 

Transformed IRS call center operations, reducing wait times for millions of taxpayers seeking assistance  

Richard Burns, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Greenbelt, Maryland) 

Led the team behind a spacecraft that brought back the first-ever asteroid sample to Earth, revealing the presence of organic material that may offer clues about the origins of life on our planet  

Lydia Carpenter, D.V.M., Department of Agriculture (Washington, D.C.) 

Established a breakthrough federal program to help prevent, detect and respond to African Swine Fever, a disease that could ravage the pork industry with the loss of billions of dollars in revenue and tens of thousands of jobs  

Laura Cheever, M.D., formerly with the Health Resources and Services Administration (Rockville, Maryland)  

Successfully managed a major federal program for more than two decades that has provided lifesaving care and treatment for millions of low-income, uninsured and underinsured individuals suffering from HIV/AIDS  

Luis Coronado Jr., Matt Pierce and the Online Passport Renewal Team, Department of State (Washington, D.C.) 

Led the development and implementation of the first-ever online passport renewal system, eliminating an outdated, paper-heavy process and dramatically reducing wait times for millions of Americans  

Shane P. Harrigan, Department of Justice (San Diego, California) 

Litigated and oversaw the prosecution of high-profile criminal cases involving associates of 9/11 hijackers, human, firearms and drug traffickers, Iranian sanctions, foreign terrorist organizations and hate crimes during a four-decade federal career  

Thuc Hoang and the Advanced Simulation and Computing Team, National Nuclear Security Administration (Washington, D.C.) 

Led the development of El Capitan, the world’s most powerful supercomputer that will conduct nuclear simulations with unprecedented speed and precision, transforming the stewardship of our nuclear stockpile  

Johnie N. Jenkins, Ph.D., Department of Agriculture (Mississippi State, Mississippi) 

Conducted pivotal research to eradicate the voracious boll weevil from cotton plants, resulting in higher cotton yields and less need for harmful insecticides  

Chad Kahler, Michael Staudenmaier Jr., Mark Loeffelbein and the National Weather Service HeatRisk Development Team, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Salt Lake City, Utah) 

Devised the first high-resolution alert system that provides seven-day forecasts of the possible heat risks in specific locations, enabling emergency managers and public health officials to proactively protect the public 

Kathleen Kirsch, U.S. Agency for International Development (Kyiv, Ukraine) 

Led critical U.S. efforts to defend and rebuild Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in the face of devastating Russian attacks, keeping the lights and heat on for millions of Ukrainians and helping to maintain the country’s energy independence  

Kyle Randall Knipper, Ph.D., Department of Agriculture (Davis, California) 

Developed satellite-based models for transforming traditional irrigation practices, providing growers with detailed, near real-time information about how much water their crops use and enabling better irrigation scheduling and crop health  

David A. Lebryk, formerly with the Department of the Treasury (Washington, D.C.) 

Seamlessly managed the government’s checkbook, overseeing payments of more than $6 trillion a year and spearheading important reforms while protecting the integrity of the federal financial system  

Michaelangelo León, U.S. Space Force (El Segundo, California) 

Built a next-generation satellite that will enable the U.S. armed forces to better predict meteorological changes that affect military missions around the world  

Alexander Maranghides, National Institute of Standards and Technology (Gaithersburg, Maryland) 

Conducted decades of research into how fires that occur in communities adjacent to wildlands spread, what can be done to prevent them and how to protect life and property  

Renata Miskell (Washington, D.C.), Linda Chero (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and the Payment Integrity Team, Department of the Treasury  

Led innovative government initiatives that prevented and recovered a record-breaking $7 billion in fraud and improper federal payments in 2024 

Yakov Pachepsky, Ph.D., Moon S. Kim, Ph.D. and the Sensing and AI Modeling for Environmental Microbial and Food Safety Team, Department of Agriculture (Beltsville, Maryland) 

Created cutting-edge technology to detect contaminants on farms and at food processing facilities to prevent foodborne illnesses that sicken millions of people in the U.S. every year  

Kristofer Pasquale, J.D., CFE (Federal Way, Washington), Heather McCormick (Denver, Colorado), Alex Meusburger (Federal Way, Washington) and the SBAOIG Pocket Teams, Small Business Administration  

Spearheaded a nationwide campaign that has returned more than $1.2 billion in stolen COVID-19 relief funds to American taxpayers, with additional recoveries on the way  

Pavan Pidugu, Department of Transportation (Washington, D.C.) 

Revolutionized technology used to oversee the commercial motor carrier industry, improving highway safety and saving lives as well as millions in taxpayer dollars 

Christina Ritter (Baltimore, Maryland), Lara Strawbridge (Woodlawn, Maryland), Daniel Heider (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Team, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services   

Led groundbreaking negotiations that lowered the price of 10 prescription drugs covered by Medicare Part D, saving both seniors and the federal government billions of dollars 

Ruishu F. Wright, Ph.D., Department of Energy (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) 

Developed novel technologies for sensing the degradation of pipelines, electrical grids, bridges and other critical infrastructure to provide early warnings of problems and to prevent catastrophic failures that cost billions of dollars and peoples’ lives 

Susan S. Xu, Ph.D., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) 

Conducted pioneering research to develop better personal protective equipment, including gloves, masks, respirators and self-contained breathing apparatuses, for millions of firefighters and health care workers