The Security Industry Association (SIA) has named five female biometrics leaders as recipients of the 2022 SIA Women in Biometrics Awards, a globally recognized program.

SIA CEO Don Erickson said: “Each year, the Women in Biometrics Awards celebrate the accomplished leaders who are paving the way for biometric identity and security, and this year’s honorees have made outstanding contributions to biometrics technology innovation, education, program management, engineering and engagement across government and industry.

“SIA commends Gena Alexa, Amanda Conley, Delia McGarry, Diane Stephens and Bobby Varma for their impressive dedication, vision and leadership in this critical field and looks forward to recognizing them at SIA GovSummit.”

The award is presented by SIA with support from sponsors IDEMIA and Paravision and organizational and media supporters AVISIAN, Biometric Update, FindBiometrics, the SIA’s Identity & Biometric Technology Advisory Board and Women in Security Forum. 

The 2022 awardees, who will be honored at the 2022 SIA GovSummit, SIA’s annual government security conference, are:

Gena Alexa, CEO and Founder, Dignari

Gena Alexa has held key technical and management roles in the delivery of strategic government biometrics programs for more than 20 years. In 2013, she founded Dignari, LLC to provide program strategy, human-centered design, emerging technology and data analytics services to the federal government. Alexa oversees the delivery of biometrics and identity programs within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Department of Defense.

Amanda Conley, Chief, Human Capital Branch, Office of Biometric Identity Management (OBIM), DHS

Amanda Conley is an experienced human capital leader and professional focused on providing and enabling biometric and identity leadership, innovation and talent sourcing. She is the principal advisor on complex human capital issues impacting the biometrics workforce. Conley is responsible for researching and utilizing innovative recruitment strategies to augment and diversify DHS OBIM’s talent pool to drive innovation of the biometric identity services delivered across the U.S. government and to DHS mission partners around the world.

Delia McGarry, Senior Director, U.S. Department of State, IDEMIA National Security Solutions (NSS)

Delia McGarry is a senior director and biometrics engineer with 26 years of experience in digital image processing and 20 years in biometrics, including experience in federal, industry and academic spaces. As the senior director of IDEMIA NSS’ Face Recognition, Passport Book and Passport Card portfolio, McGarry focuses on the application of emerging identity management and credentialing solutions to satisfy customer business needs, legislated mandates and agency policies.

Diane Stephens, Biometric Standards Coordinator, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Diane Stephens has spent close to 20 years working in the field of biometrics. In her earlier biometric years she worked on DHS’ US-VISIT Program as a biometric subject matter expert and business owner of the DHS Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT). Stephens also served as the business owner for DHS’ Arrival Departure Information System, the biographic sister system to IDENT that stored the arrivals and departures for foreign nationals entering and leaving the United States.

Bobby Varma, Co-Founder and CEO, Princeton Identity

Bobby Varma is the founder and CEO of Princeton Identity, a leading biometric technology company. She has a proven track record as an executive in the biometrics arena for 15 years of driving sales and developing products. Her current focus is on structuring business alliances with commercial entities across the world and educating the market on biometric domain applications.

The 2022 SIA Women in Biometrics Awards will be presented 24 May 2020 at a special award ceremony during SIA GovSummit. Each year, SIA GovSummit brings together government security leaders with private industry technologists for top-quality information sharing, networking and education on security topics affecting federal, state and local agencies. SIA GovSummit 2022 will be held 24-25 May as an in-person conference at the National Housing Center in downtown Washington, D.C. 

About SIA

SIA is the trade association for global security solution providers, with over 1,200 innovative member companies representing thousands of security leaders and experts who shape the future of the security industry.

SIA’s Women in Security Forum works to engage all security professionals to promote, recruit and cultivate women’s leadership for a more inclusive and diversified industry.

SIA’s Identity and Biometric Technology Advisory Board is an exclusive advisory panel to the SIA Board of Directors.

Read more on this story on the SIA website HERE

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