USGIF Arthur C. Lundahl - Thomas C. Finnie Lifetime Achievement Award
2022 Lundahl-Finnie Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
USGIF is pleased to announce Letitia A. Long as the 2022 Arthur C. Lundahl—Thomas C. Finnie Lifetime Achievement Award recipient in recognition of her myriad achievements and community leadership.
With more than four decades of exceptional service in government and industry, Ms. Long has been a trailblazer and steadfast advocate of the GEOINT tradecraft and the Intelligence Community.
Her career began as a civilian intern engineer with U.S. Navy submarine programs, from which she transitioned to naval intelligence program management. Over the course of her ensuing intelligence community career, she served as the Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence, the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence (Policy, Requirements and Resources), the Deputy Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and is a former member of the USGIF Board of Directors.
Her final government position was as the Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, in which among other noteworthy achievements she led agency transformation efforts to embrace commercial and open source solutions and oversaw the agency’s support to the Abbottabad raid that resulted in the capture of Osama bin Laden.
Throughout her career, Ms. Long has championed career growth and leader development—especially for underrepresented groups—and has modeled servant leadership. She currently serves as the Chairman of the Board for the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA), as well as serving on the boards of several other corporate, non-profit, and academic institutions.
“Tish’s vision and leadership substantially advanced the craft of geospatial intelligence. Moreover, her personal and relentless dedication to expanding opportunities for all GEOINTers made an immediate mark on the current generation and set the stage for a bright future for the profession. Quite simply—and profoundly—Tish made our community better and stronger,” said Robert Cardillo, chairman of the USGIF Board of Directors.
This prestigious award is named for Arthur C. Lundahl and Thomas C. Finnie, honoring their accomplishments—in imagery analysis and mapping, respectively—and their legacies within the GEOINT Community.
USGIF is excited to host this year’s GEOGala on Thursday, Dec. 1 in Tysons Corner VA, which will for the first time include a silent auction with proceeds directly benefitting USGIF’s scholarship and education programs. Sponsorship and table opportunities are now available. Join us as we bring together leaders from across the Defense, Intelligence, and Homeland Security sectors for a night of celebration and fun.
The Arthur C. Lundahl-Thomas C. Finnie Lifetime Achievement Award is presented, upon nomination and vote by the USGIF Board of Directors, to an influential member of the geospatial intelligence community who has dedicated much of his or her life's work to the tradecraft.
This distinguished award recognizes contributions made by both Arthur C. Lundahl and Thomas C. Finnie, and celebrates their accomplishments-in imagery analysis and mapping, respectively-and their legacy within the GEOINT Community.
Arthur C. Lundahl
Art Lundahl is known as the "father of modern imagery analysis and imagery intelligence" for his work as the founder and first director of the National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC). Under Lundahl's leadership, NPIC's role to support the CIA's deputy director of intelligence transformed the center into a national-level component of the Intelligence Community, and demonstrated image intelligence as a prime strategic and tactical resource worldwide.
Thomas C. Finnie
Thomas C. Finnie's career with the U.S. government began in 1937, practicing engineering and surveying with the Department of Agriculture. In 1962, he assumed the position of technical director for the Aeronautical Chart and Information Center in Washington, D.C., and St. Louis, and was one of the initial eight Department of Defense planners who assisted in organizing the Defense Mapping Agency (DMA) in 1972. Later, Finnie became DMA's director of management and technology. DMA consolidated the broad disciplines of mapping, charting, and geodesy, and helped to promulgate its evolution to digital geospatial information. Finnie was one of the primary architects of DMA's evolution to a digital era.
