2019 USGIF Award Winners: At GEOINT 2019, USGIF announced this year’s recipients of its annual Awards Program. The USGIF Awards Program recognizes the exceptional work of the geospatial intelligence tradecraft’s brightest minds and organizations pushing the community forward. Award winners are nominated by their colleagues and selected by the USGIF Awards Subcommittee.

“GEOINT is about how we see the world and how we predict, plan, respond, and react to the world’s greatest challenges and opportunities,” said Kevin Jackson, chair of the USGIF Awards Subcommittee. “This year brought us some very exciting and unique nominations and tradecraft applications that truly demonstrate how GEOINT has expanded into new domains. We are excited about the 2019 award winners and what’s in store for the future of GEOINT.”

The 2019 USGIF Award Winners

1. Academic Achievement Award: Aaron Gerace and Matthew Montanaro, Rochester Institute of Technology
2. Community Support Achievement Award: Taking Autism To The Sky, Inc.
3. Government Achievement Award: Rachael Brady, CAL FIRE
4. Industry Achievement Award: Jeffrey D. Clark, Ph.D., Riverside Research
5. Military Achievement Award: GUARDIAN Team, National Guard Bureau

USGIF Volunteer Spotlight: Kevin Jackson

Kevin Jackson has served as chair of the USGIF Awards Subcommittee since 2005, the first year the Foundation presented its USGIF Awards. He describes his role as “the most rewarding, humbling committee assignment there is.”

“The award winners are the ones making this trade-craft happen,” Jackson said. “They’re the innovators, the thought leaders pushing the envelope.”

Jackson is responsible for guiding the entire award process, from the call for committee volunteers and award nominations to presenting the awards on stage each year at the GEOINT Symposium. The hardest process is selecting the winners, said Jackson, though added he doesn’t vote unless there is a tie.

“The diversity of the applications of the GEOINT tradecraft will just blow you away,” he said.

When asked why he has dedicated nearly 15 years to this committee, Jackson said, “This is the community we all work in. How do you show appreciation any better way than helping to grow the community that probably puts food on your table and also does some pretty cool things to help the world become a better place?”