GEOINT 2023 Golden Ticket Recipients Announced

Each year, USGIF offers the Golden Ticket Program as an opportunity for young professionals (age 35 or younger or with less than five years in the industry) to attend the GEOINT Symposium to meet and hear from senior GEOINT leaders and innovators in a personalized setting. Golden Ticket awardees represent the future of the GEOINT community, a cadre of promising individuals who have made major strides in their early GEOINT careers.

Golden Ticket winners receive complimentary full registration to the Symposium and participate in an exclusive program that includes mentoring sessions with esteemed GEOINT leaders, attending the USGIF Chairman’s Reception, and much more.

A committee including reviewers from the USGIF Young Professionals Working Group and senior leaders in the GEOINT community combed through fantastic applications from folks across government, industry, and academia to build a cohort of top participants. This year, USGIF selected 25 individuals for the Young Professionals Golden Ticket Program.

The winners of the 2023 Golden Ticket Program are:

• Alexander Arsenault, Data Scientist, HawkEye 360
• Katie Betts, Head of Business Development, Albedo
• Adam Burke, Sensor Engineer/Image Scientist, Peraton
• Christopher Burke, Technical Project Manager, Space, BAE Systems
• Ashley Carter, Program Analyst, GDIT
• Chelsea Cervantes de Blois, Dept. of State Lead on Climate Security, INR/GGI
• Taylor Chott, Data Scientist, CACI
• Michael Fernando, Engagement Manager, Scale AI
• Douglas Franz, Radar Systems Engineer, Ursa Space Systems
• Hannah Garriott, Senior Systems Engineer, BAE Systems
• Brendan Grace, GIS Analyst, Noblis ESI
• Jackie Guz, Research & Data Scientist, CACI
• Claudia Hammond, Solutions Engineer, Planet Federal
• Ken Lau, Account Executive, Amazon Web Services
• Kimberly McCormack, Geodetic Earth Scientist, NGA
• Andrew Neish, Director of Signals Architecture & Co-Founder, Xona Space Systems
• Aakash Gitesh Parekh, Chief Commercial Officer, Pixxel Space Technologies
• Jania Wara Leonardi Sandi, Enterprise Contracts Office, NGA
• Erica Schemerhorn, Software Engineer & Scrum Master, RGi
• Helen Marie Schmidt, Analyst, 3Gimbals
• Allegra Scott, Senior Program Manager, ICEYE
• Danielle Shea, Senior Program Analyst, Maxar
• Jacob Spear, Operation Planning Support Team Leader, US Marine Corps
• Hannah Thornton, 3D Geospatial Production Manager, Maxar
• Zachary Zysberg, Software Developer, NGA