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Nominations Open for 2017 Women in Biometrics Awards

In the initial year, five winners were honored in Washington, D.C. In the following year, judges selected four winners from an elite field of more than 100 nominations to be honored at a ceremony during SIA Honors Night in New York City. The 2017 program promises to be bigger and better than ever, building on the prior years’ momentum and success.

The 2017 Women in Biometrics Awards is co-presented by the Security Industry Association (SIA), the leading trade association for global security solution providers, and SecureIDNews, a leading biometrics and identity industry publication. Key sponsors for the program include OT-Morpho and PSA Security Network.

In 2017, winners will again be honored in Manhattan on Nov. 15 at the SIA Honors Night ceremony during the ISC East event. The dinner and ceremony features the Women in Biometrics Awards as well as a series of other internationally recognized security industry honors.

Nominees may include those working for biometric companies, peripheral suppliers, system integrators, academia, government, or security and IT departments at a variety of organizations.

The contributions meriting nomination are diverse, but could include:

• Substantive and defining leadership in academic, public awareness, legislative or standards efforts
• Corporate leadership that extends beyond individual company walls, impacting the larger industry
• Pioneering product development, innovation or corporate start-up efforts
• Industry involvement sharing expertise and mentoring peers, thus growing the market

Past winners include biometric company executives, industry lobbyists, standards creators, association leaders and issuers/security practitioners. They come from a diverse group of organizations that span industry, government and nonprofit sectors.

The 2016 winners were JoAnn Buscaglia, FBI Laboratory; Tovah LaDier, International Biometric Industry Association; Elham Tabassi, National Institute of Standards and Technology; and Teresa Wu, Morphotrak (now OT-Morpho). To explore the previous classes of awardees, visit WomenInBiometrics.com.

“The annual Women in Biometrics Awards program is one of my favorite events of the year,” said Chris Corum, editor and publisher, SecureIDNews. “The support the program receives from industry is amazing, and the hundreds of nominations demonstrate the massive contributions made by women working in this important field.”

“The Women in Biometrics Awards is a great component of the Security Industry Association’s annual SIA Honors Night,” said SIA CEO Don Erickson. “The contributions of biometrics to security and identity continue to grow as do the laudable contributions of women to the industry. We are proud to present this unique recognition program.”

The Security Industry Association (SIA) (www.securityindustry.org) is the leading trade association for global security solution providers, with more than 750 innovative member companies representing thousands of security leaders and experts who shape the future of the security industry. SIA protects and advances its members' interests by advocating pro-industry policies and legislation at the federal and state levels; creating open industry standards that enable integration; advancing industry professionalism through education and training; opening global market opportunities; and collaboration with other like-minded organizations. As a proud sponsor of ISC Events expos and conferences, SIA ensures its members have access to top-level buyers and influencers, as well as unparalleled learning and network opportunities. SIA also enhances the position of its members in the security marketplace through SIA Government Summit, which brings together private industry with government decision makers, and Securing New Ground®, the security industry's top executive conference for peer-to-peer networking.

SecureIDNews (www.SecureIDNews.com) is an industry-leading source for enterprise and government identity, credentialing and security markets. SecureIDNews is published by AVISIAN Publishing (www.AVISIAN.com). More than 30,000 subscribers and hundreds of thousands of web visitors get their ID technology news from AVISIAN’s suite of identity and security publications.

OT-Morpho (www.morpho.com) provides multimodal biometric identity and security solutions to a broad array of markets including law enforcement, government services, border control, and commercial security. Now in our fourth decade of industry leadership and committed to serve over 1,000 federal, state and local government agencies and commercial enterprises, OT-Morpho strives to achieve excellence in delivering mission-critical biometric identification solutions to help make the world a safer place.

PSA is the world’s largest electronic security cooperative, owned by the most progressive integrators throughout North America. Combined, PSA members boast over 300 branch locations, employ nearly 6,000 security industry professionals and are responsible for over $3.5 billion annually in security, fire and life safety installations. PSA’s mission is to empower its owners to become the most successful systems integrators in the markets they serve. PSA brings this mission to life by partnering with industry leading product and solution providers, delivering unparalleled education and training programs and by offering a variety of distinctive services that can enhance any company’s operations. Learn more at psasecurity2021.insightful.design.