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Constellis Business Lands DHS Contract for Protective Security Services; Gerard Neville Quoted
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Constellis Business Lands DHS Contract for Protective Security Services; Gerard Neville Quoted

A subsidiary of Constellis has secured a contract award from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Protective Service to provide protective security officer enforcements.

Under the $30 million contract, Triple Canopy is expected to furnish the St. Elizabeths facilities in Washington, D.C. with a team of security personnel, the Herndon, Virginia-based company said Tuesday.

Gerard Neville, president of North American operations at Constellis, described the contract’s duties as “an important mission in providing a safe and secure work environment” for the DHS.

Humming with the activity of 240,000 team members, the St. Elizabeths complex is the headquarters of the DHL, the national government’s preventative line of defense against terrorism. Triple Canopy has a history of partnering with the Federal Protective Service at the office grounds, a relationship which Neville says the company looks forward to maintaining.

The new DHL award follows two notable wins in recent months for Triple Canopy. The company landed a firm-fixed price counterdrug operations, maintenance, engineering and analysis support services task order from the Air Combat Command in April and later that month, was chosen for a $1.3 billion task order under the State Department’s Worldwide Protective Services III contract.

The latter task order contracts TC with equipping the U.S. embassy in Iraq with protective support, specialized security and logistical services. Therefore, with its security components, the latter work is not unlike the DHS award.

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Amy Wood to Lead Financial Segment, Oversee Growth as CFO at Intelligent Waves; CEO Tony Crescenzo Quoted
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Amy Wood to Lead Financial Segment, Oversee Growth as CFO at Intelligent Waves; CEO Tony Crescenzo Quoted

Amy Wood has been elevated to the role of chief financial officer at information technology systems integrator Intelligent Waves.

As CFO, Wood is expected to build on her current achievements maximizing efficiency and accelerating revenue creation at IW through administration of its financial segment and spearheading market expansion, the Reston, Virginia-based company said Tuesday.

Tony Crescenzo, CEO and president of IW, shared the company’s eagerness to promote Wood, adding, “Amy has helped IW create a financial operations blueprint in a short period of time, which will be critical in helping us maintain growth and scalability.”

In her new role, Wood will leverage an almost 25-year career of portfolio management, with experience in financial planning, operations, administration and business development at primarily government contracting companies. She has led and expanded a wide range of client programs and professional services organizations at firms like EDS, Apptis and Merlin International.

Wood was also vice president at Xator Corporation and, most recently before joining IW, held the position of CFO at Technology Advancement Group.

The executive’s expertise lies in channelling data from a variety of sources to inform high-impact decision-making. Her programmatic, financial and operational specialties and track record of business process improvement were reportedly what made her a clear choice for the CFO role at IW.

Wood is poised to help guide the company as it enters new phases of growth and development.

The new CFO appointment comes after Crescenzo was promoted to CEO in January, succeeding the company’s founder Jared Shepard, who stayed on as chairman of the board.

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Cyber.Org Kicks Off Month-Long Event to Drive K-12 Cybersecurity Literacy
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Cyber.Org Kicks Off Month-Long Event to Drive K-12 Cybersecurity Literacy

A Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency-funded workforce development organization recently launched a month-long event in an effort to drive cybersecurity education of K-12 students.

The National Cybersecurity Education Month is ultimately aimed at encouraging students to consider cybersecurity careers to increase the U.S. workforce pipeline, Cyber.Org said Monday.

Across the nation, the inaugural event will provide students from all backgrounds with more access to K-12 cybersecurity education. Sens. Bill Cassidy and Jacky Rosen as well as Reps. Andrew Garbarino and Yvette Clarke backed the initiative.

“Strengthening and diversifying the cybersecurity workforce is key to improving our national security,” said Rosen. She was echoed by Garbarino, who also underscored its importance in mitigating cyber criminal threats.

One of the highlights of the month-long event is Cyber.Org’s annual Cyber Education Discovery Forum from June 20 to 22 in Washington D.C., where K-12 educators could network and connect with other attendees, including government and industry leaders, to explore new curricula and advance K-12 cybersecurity literacy.

Cyber.Org receives funding from CISA through the Cybersecurity Education and Training Assistance Program.

With the cybersecurity workforce currently needing more than 714,000 professionals, the White House boosted fiscal year 2023 cybersecurity allocation by almost 11 percent.

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US, UK Develop Prize Challenges to Mature Private-Enhancing Technologies; Alondra Nelson Quoted
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US, UK Develop Prize Challenges to Mature Private-Enhancing Technologies; Alondra Nelson Quoted

The Biden administration is collaborating with the U.K. government to launch prize challenges that aim to advance the development of privacy-enhancing technologies designed to fight cross-border money laundering and other financial crimes.

The White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have been working with the Center for Data Ethics and Innovation and Innovate U.K. since the bilateral project was announced in December, the U.K. government said Monday.

PETs will work to enable authorities to secure financial information sharing, identify suspicious behaviors without compromising the privacy of individuals or requiring the transfer of personal data from another country or institution.

“Data can be marshaled to make life easier and more just. But too often, powerful data tools are instead used to deepen inequality and threaten our most basic freedoms. The PETs prize challenges seek to close that gap and demonstrate how these tools can be used responsibly to achieve their potential across many areas,” said Alondra Nelson, director of the OSTP.

Earlier this month, OSTP released a request for information to determine how to pursue the development and use of PETs in a manner that promotes trust in data processing and information technologies and increases equity for underserved or marginalized groups.

Boeing to Establish Veterans’ Support Hub in Virginia; David Calhoun, Sen. Mark Warner Quoted
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Boeing to Establish Veterans’ Support Hub in Virginia; David Calhoun, Sen. Mark Warner Quoted

Boeing has partnered with Virginia Tech and the Commonwealth of Virginia to set up a center that will assist U.S. military personnel in their adjustment to civilian life and help them identify job opportunities after their service.

The company said Monday its Center for Veteran Transition & Military Families will be situated on Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus in the city of Alexandria and will receive a part of the firm’s $50 million investment commitment for the academic complex.

“This initiative will unlock new career opportunities for veterans and their families and help develop leading technical talent while affirming our continued investment in Northern Virginia,” said David Calhoun, president and CEO of Boeing.

Boeing announced its partnership with the university and the state government five weeks after designating Arlington the new location of its global corporate headquarters.

“The Virginia Tech Innovation Campus veterans center will be key to engaging our veterans and their families in the groundbreaking new tech opportunities being cultivated in National Landing and throughout the region,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., a three-time winner of Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 Award.

The company will establish the veterans’ hub close to a planned support facility for Virginia Tech Innovation Campus students.

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CISA Deploying ‘FEIT’ Advisors to Help Agencies Strengthen Cybersecurity
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CISA Deploying ‘FEIT’ Advisors to Help Agencies Strengthen Cybersecurity

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has named new advisors who will work at individual agencies to enhance the shared cybersecurity service model and specific network defenses, Federal News Network reported Monday.

The Federal Enterprise Improvement Team will be responsible for helping agencies know more about their security programs, environment and infrastructure to strengthen their cybersecurity, according to Eric Goldstein, executive assistant director for cybersecurity at CISA.

“With these new FEIT teams, we now are hiring personnel who can actually work with individual agencies based upon their unique maturity and characteristics to identify gaps, develop improvement plans and really be with them on their entire journey to improvement,” he added.

The advisors, through its Cybersecurity Shared Services Office, will also support CISA’s development of tools and services. The agency is funding FEIT using the $650 million in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021

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Lawrence Livermore Researchers Develop Cryptocurrency Concept ‘E-Stablecoin’
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Lawrence Livermore Researchers Develop Cryptocurrency Concept ‘E-Stablecoin’

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have come up with a cryptocurrency concept that could enable electricity to be distributed between users without the need for an electrical grid system.

The concept, called E-Stablecoin, seeks to address digital asset stability concerns by not relying on a centralized authority or payment mechanism to function, the national lab said Monday.

The researchers used information theory and statistical mechanics to come up with a stablecoin token that is fully decentralized and backed by a physical asset with stable value.

“Any anonymous party can mint an E-Stablecoin token with the input of roughly one kilowatt-hour of electricity. They can then transact with the digital token like any other cryptocurrency, or even turn it back into usable electricity — all without the need for electrical power companies, electrical transmission lines, permissions or authorities,” said Maxwell Murialdo, a Lawrence Livermore researcher and co-author of the paper published in the journal Cryptoeconomic Systems. 

“It is a trustless system from top to bottom,” added Murialdo.

Researchers developed the blockchain concept through the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program.

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Lawmakers Advance Bipartisan Outbound Investment Screening Bill
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Lawmakers Advance Bipartisan Outbound Investment Screening Bill

Senate and House lawmakers are advancing a bipartisan bill that would direct U.S. investors and companies to disclose outbound investments in countries considered as adversaries as part of efforts to rebuild supply chains and safeguard critical U.S. technologies, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, first proposed the bill, which would authorize the executive branch to establish an interagency panel to evaluate and ban foreign investments on the grounds of national security and is part of a larger legislative package aimed at strengthening U.S. competitiveness with China, according to a revised draft of the bill obtained by WSJ.

“Creating an outbound investment review mechanism is a critical tool as Congress works to provide guardrails on taxpayer funds and safeguard our supply chains from countries of concern, including the People’s Republic of China,” Casey, Cornyn and five House lawmakers said in a statement Monday.

The bill would allow the federal government to block certain transactions in any “country of concern,” including joint ventures that involve the transfer of intellectual property, private equity and other capital contributions, construction of new facilities and other greenfield investments.

According to the measure’s text, the legislation would direct U.S. entities and affiliates to inform the government of activities in China involving technologies and sectors that are deemed critical to supply chains.

These include semiconductors, rare-earth elements, artificial intelligence, hypersonics, autonomous systems, financial technologies, quantum computing, biotechnology and large-capacity batteries.

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Clare Martorana: Federal Agencies to Welcome Inaugural Class of 40 Digital Corps Fellows
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Clare Martorana: Federal Agencies to Welcome Inaugural Class of 40 Digital Corps Fellows

The Biden administration will announce later in June the inaugural cohort of more than 40 U.S. Digital Corps fellows who will work on projects at 13 agencies to improve government services and advance other key priorities.

The fellows will work on several federal projects including digital tools modernization effort at the Department of Veterans Affairs, development of a behavioral health treatment locator platform at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and implementation of the cybersecurity executive order and zero trust strategy at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana, a 2022 Wash100 Award winner, wrote in a blog post published Friday.

The administration introduced the U.S. Digital Corps as a two-year fellowship in August 2021 and Martorana said the administration received within a week more than 1,000 applications from candidates seeking to become early-career technologists.

“By reaching out to communities that are traditionally underrepresented in civic tech, we received applications from 47 states and territories and recruited a cohort that represents the people they will serve,” Martorana wrote.

Other agencies that will host the inaugural Digital Corps fellows are the State Department, General Services Administration, Office of Personnel Management and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

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ICF to Conduct Mental Health Research Under DHA Contract; EVP Mark Lee Quoted
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ICF to Conduct Mental Health Research Under DHA Contract; EVP Mark Lee Quoted

Consulting and digital services firm ICF has won a potential four and half year contract from the Defense Health Agency to perform research and operational assistance for mental health research endeavors.

Under the $30 million recompete contract, ICF’s team will apply their specialties in psychological health, data analytics, implementation science and Department of Defense activities to embolden the DHA’s Psychological Health Centers of Excellence, the Fairfax, Virginia-based company said Monday.

“We are honored to continue this critical work of delivering increased readiness, better mental health and better mental healthcare at a lower cost to ensure DOD is equipped and ready,” shared Mark Lee, executive vice president and public sector lead at ICF.

Lee also said the work is aimed to directly impact U.S. veterans and their families.

Building on an over five-year history of working with the DHA’s PHCoE, ICF’s research efforts will work to strengthen the DOD’s mental health policies, keeping tabs on common threads and recurring conditions, while maintaining relevant summaries in the Military Health System’s database of potential health situations.

Additionally, ICF intends to enable the launch of new research ventures across the MHS. To do so, they will harness their arsenal of health-centered domain, scientific and technological strategies. The contract is rolled out with a seven-month base period and four one-year option periods.

The DHA contract comes on the heels of ICF’s May announcement of a series of contract wins from the Environmental Protection Agency, among others. Through these awards, ICF will offer advisory services surrounding climate resilience and decarbonization.

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