2022 Awards

Major Timothy Keilty distinguished himself by building and leading a multidiscipline expeditionary team to prepare for NATO contingencies and directly supporting the Presidential Drawdown. He led his team with professionalism and unwavering commitment, significantly contributing to the successful completion of multiple simultaneous defense missions. Major Keilty’s superior leadership directly influenced successful acquisition operations in the expeditionary environment and reflects very favorably upon the Department of Defense; the Program Executive Office, Missiles and Space; and the Search, Track, Acquire, Radiate, Eliminate Project Office.

This award is presented to Ms. Elaine Reilly in recognition of her unwavering commitment to performing with excellence and developing a workforce that supports the Warfighter and protects taxpayer dollars. Ms. Reilly leads by example and has set a high standard of excellence that elevates the performance of others. Her significant contributions to the missions of the Department of Defense and the Defense Contract Audit Agency demonstrate excellence and professionalism in the acquisition of products and services for the Warfighter while protecting the taxpayers.

As the inaugural member of the Space Development Agency Contracts Cell, Mr. Christopher Glista single-handedly built a contracting organization from scratch; an organization which contracted over $2 billion during the award period. Mr. Glista demonstrated comprehensive understanding of the process to integrate a new Defense agency across the myriad systems required to execute contract activities in DOD. As Chief of SDA’s Contracts Cell, Mr. Glista led a small team to successfully support rapid acquisition for over 109 contract actions through the award period. Mr. Glista leveraged his comprehensive understanding of federal contracting to lead the procurement of risk reduction demonstrations needed to establish the National Defense Space Architecture. His thought leadership and acquisition expertise allowed SDA to accomplish the agility, price control, and speed essential to the agency’s exceptionally aggressive delivery timeline as it awarded over $2.1 billion for future space capability.

As Deputy Cost Chief, Ms. Stephanie M. Quintal played an integral role of continued organization of requirements and subsequent resourcing for the Air Force’s first organic software acquisitions/operations unit. She is a true pathfinder for the cost community and has shared best methodologies for agile cost estimating and revamped how the cost community estimates costs in a software development environment. Ms. Quintal has displayed motivation and perseverance by leading and mentoring junior analysts on the cost team, and her efforts have brought innovation to the Department of Defense.

Mr. Brandon D. Hutchinson tirelessly supported the Boom Telescoping Actuator Retrofit Integrated Baseline Review. Through weeks of sustained document submittals and resubmittals from the contractor, he meticulously maintained configuration control and updated programmatic summary-level data. Mr. Hutchinson's efforts helped to ensure the contractor accurately reports costs for this program, which has high congressional visibility. The singularly distinctive accomplishments of Mr. Hutchinson bring credit to himself and the United States Air Force.

Mr. Matthew Guernsey's dedication and service to the Program Office and Warfighters was critical to advancing the mission and delivering critical capability to the Fleet. Embodying the “Take Charge and Move Out” TACAMO spirit, he proactively took the lead on creating an E-XX Capabilities Development Document, working directly with the Chief of Naval Operations and the Joint Staff to gain approval for this critical element of the EXX program in record time. Mr. Guernsey's exceptional professionalism, leadership, and loyal devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Navy.

Mr. Jeffrey Alford served as the Military Construction Facilities Project Manager for the Long-Range Discrimination Radar and the United Kingdom Radar. His specific accomplishments include fast-tracking facilities designs and delivering facilities ahead of schedule despite significant challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The value of these accomplishments equates to $7.07 million in savings to the U.S. Government. His expert management of designs helped lay the foundation for keeping vital missile defense projects on time and on target.

Ms. Single, as Finance Manager for the Joint Assisted Acquisition Team, is commended for her distinguished and exceptional service that contributed to the betterment of the United States Army, Department of Defense and the Nation. She coordinated with Army Contracting Command and Department of Health and Human Services financial teams to ensure funding was transferred and efficiently and appropriately allocated in support of dynamic requirements and short timelines. She managed over $65 billion in funding for contracts in support of the President's COVID-19 response effort. Ensuring that the Department could develop and produce more than 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines, 19 million therapeutics doses, and over 2 billion needles and syringes. In addition, she aided in securing over 890 million over the counter COVID-19 rapid tests in support of the President's test effort and help further develop domestic diagnostic and testing production facilities through 20 contracts.

Mr. Ryan Silvonic drove the first-ever Air Force Portfolio Software Acquisition Pathway Strategy and first Air Force-validated Capability Need Statement for the Air and Space Operations Center under the software pathways authority, which encompassed five pathways in support of $1.2 billion in capabilities. Additionally, he oversaw the Kessel Run All Domain Operation Suite support to the 609th Air and Space Operations Center’s successful airlift of 123,000 Afghan evacuees in support of Operation ALLIES REFUGE. The distinctive accomplishments of Mr. Silvonic reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.

Mr. Joshua Grubb is responsible for a 14-member team that manages a Joint, $7 billion international contract portfolio that includes several high-visibility requirements. He has provided critical COVID-19 response actions and runs a highly regarded Contracting Officer Warrant preparation class. He has forged numerous mission-partner engagements and recently created a relationship with the U.S. Space Force. Mr. Grubb is a respected advisor to U.S. Forces Japan leadership on a variety of acquisition topics.

Mr. Jason Tiek has demonstrated professional competence and exemplary leadership, and continuously challenges the status quo, solves problems unconventionally, cuts through red tape to help expedite processes and takes an independent stand to constructively point out impediments to progress and offers viable solutions. His leadership has been essential to deliver combat capabilities for major Acquisition Category II programs, including the MC-130J, AC-130W, and AC-130J, aircraft, valued at more than $8 billion. Mr. Tiek stands out in the Acquisition Logistics community, keeping the U.S. Special Operations Command at the forefront and ready to accomplish any mission.

Mr. Ronald Buonanducci is a proven leader and vital asset at the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), Aircraft Propulsion Operations, Pratt and Whitney. As a Team Lead, Quality Assurance Specialist, he implemented numerous innovative techniques that were instrumental in creating an efficient method to deliver quality products without compromising component integrity while continuing to generate cost savings. One of those efforts saved the government more than $35 million in assets that once were destined to be considered scrap components. Mr. Buonanducci's hard work and dedication have established him to be of high value to DCMA, the Warfighter, and the United States Government.

Ms. Jaclyn P. Blevins, EC-37B Program Manager, 645th Aeronautical Systems Group, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Special Operations Forces Directorate, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, oversaw a $2.6 billion acquisition program to deliver the Air Force’s premier electromagnetic attack aircraft, the EC-37B Compass Call. She guided a 400-member government and industry team in the completion of several achievements, including the first flight of an aircraft configured for mission system installation. She expedited the start of work on two contracts worth over $368 million to begin the development, production, and modification of the upgraded Baseline-Four EC-37B aircraft that provides three times more target coverage.

Mr. Vic Steinman exponentially improved requirements processes, training for more than 80 requirements personnel in supporting an Air Warfare $40 billion portfolio. Mr. Steinman's contributions and vision directly supported warfighting needs by obtaining the right capabilities for Naval Aviation in reduced time and the most cost-wise solutions. By his dynamic direction, keen judgment, and loyal devotion to duty, Mr. Steinman reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Navy.

Mr. Brian Sisco has created an exciting, vibrant, and productive culture of collaboration and innovation in his leadership of the Futures team. He conducted Innovation Foundry events and took the program to new boundaries by conceptualizing and conducting follow-on events such as a Prize Challenge, Technology Sprints, and Rapid Capability Assessments, leading to a capstone technology demonstration using outputs from the Foundry events. The Futures Methodology has increased the level of effort and sophistication of transition data and prototypes by adding Rapid Capability Assessments and Tech Sprints to the Foundry cycle. The distinctive accomplishments of Mr. Sisco reflect great credit upon himself, the U.S. Special Operations Command, and the Department of Defense.

Mr. Robert McClintock expertly led the $150 million source selection from acquisition strategy through to successful post-award task order management, while simultaneously developing a classified contract strategy, solicitation, and chairing the source selection team’s evaluation for the $485 million classified effort in support of the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) J3 mission support area. Mr. McClintock incorporated the USSOCOM Service imperatives of mission stability, management agility, and global reach into all the Service acquisition efforts assigned. His exceptional performance while managing four simultaneous Service source selections epitomizes the ethos “Trusted Expert” and reflects the adaptive, mission-first aptitude of the Special Operations Forces Acquirer.

Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Genelin led a Small Business Innovation Research-based ($95 million Acquisition Category III equivalent) development program to fast-track the development of a next generation, air-launched, autonomous, swarming, small Unmanned Aerial System). To execute the development, he teamed with multiple offices within the Air Force Research Laboratory to leverage existing SBIR II and III contracts, and advocate for the letting of a third. By advocating for small businesses and the SBIR process, Lieutenant Colonel Genelin ultimately connected a variety of government agencies, academia, Federally Funded Research Centers, and four small businesses into a team of more than 150 members across the United States to advance the state-of-the-art in small unmanned aircraft systems.

Major Robert E. Sonnenfeld expertly managed a $280 million, highly classified command and control program and led a team of 155 members responsible for developing first-of-a-kind space capabilities to close top gaps in the national security space architecture. He led an Agile development overhaul and instituted best practices that improved software development by 60 percent and put a $700 million mission back on track after significant technical challenges. Major Sonnenfeld’s efforts prepared a new squadron for mission operations one year early, positioned the United States Space Force to completely transform military space operations, laid the groundwork for a $25 billion space enterprise, and shaped policy discussions with the National Security Council and President of the United States.

Mr. Brian Smaszcz demonstrated exceptional professionalism as the DDG 1000 (Zumwalt Class Destroyer) Chief Developmental Tester, leading the program's nationwide government and industry laboratory and waterfront teams through a rigorous, complex, comprehensive, and successful Test and Evaluation Master Plan testing program with a $50 million budget, bringing to the Fleet a technologically advanced and game-changing platform with capability that has raised the bar in both power and deterrence projection for the nation's defense. He is a decisive and empowering Chief Developmental Tester, Integrated Test Team Leader, and coach and mentor to young testers and engineers involved in the effort. Mr. Smaszcz's exemplary performance and unwavering dedication to duty bring great credit upon himself, the Department of Defense, and the United States Navy.