Security Industry Association announces winners of the 2022 Women in Biometrics Awards

The Security Industry Association (SIA) has named five female biometrics leaders, as recipients of the 2022 SIA Women in Biometrics Awards, a globally recognised programme, presented by SIA, with support from sponsors - IDEMIA and Paravision, along with organisational and media supporters - AVISIAN, Biometric Update, FindBiometrics and SIA’s Identity & Biometric Technology Advisory Board and Women in Security Forum.

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

• Gena Alexa, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Founder, Dignari, LLC

Gena Alexa has held key technical and management roles in the delivery of strategic government biometrics programmes for more than 20 years. In 2013, she founded Dignari, LLC, in order to provide programme strategy, human-centered design, emerging technology and data analytics services to the federal government.

Oversees the delivery of biometrics and identity programmes

Gena Alexa oversees the delivery of biometrics and identity programmes within the DHS

Gena Alexa oversees the delivery of biometrics and identity programmes within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Department of Defense. Her teams support transformative initiatives, including CBP’s Biometric Entry Exit program and TSA’s Touchless PreCheck. In 2021, Alexa’s team won a 5-year single-award Blanket Purchase Agreement to provide identity, credentialing and access management services across DHS and its component agencies.

Prior to Dignari, LLC, Gena Alexa led various aspects of programmes, including TSA Registered Traveller, the European Union’s Entry-Exit Feasibility Study, the Port of Los Angeles Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) and the CBP Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.

Vast industry experience

Gena Alexa began her career as Software Developer and Architect for programmes, including the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service’s NEXUS/SENTRI, the Israeli Ministry of Defense’s BASEL Project, US-VISIT, TWIC and TSA Registered Traveller. She holds an MBA degree from George Mason University and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from James Madison University.

• Amanda Conley, Chief, Human Capital Branch, Office of Biometric Identity Management (OBIM), S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

Amanda Conley is an experienced human capital leader and professional, who is 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.

Expert researcher of innovative recruitment strategies

Amanda Conley is responsible for researching and utilising innovative recruitment strategies

Amanda Conley is responsible for researching and utilising innovative recruitment strategies, to augment and diversify DHS OBIM’s talent pool, in order to drive innovation of the biometric identity services delivered across the U.S. government and to DHS mission partners around the world. She is responsible for designing, planning and implementing programs to build biometrics expertise within the OBIM workforce to enable seamless decision support to customers, stakeholders and international partners.

During her career, Amanda Conley has been responsible for extensively researching talent sources across the full spectrum of biometric skills, including scientific, mathematics and research skills, to create a bench of successive talent; consulting on information technology, biometrics and professional development programmes; executing programmes to retain subject matter experts; engaging with customer organisations to promote OBIM’s biometric services, while providing educational venues for customers and stakeholders; and partnering with biometric thought leaders, to align the human capital strategy to future technologies and biometric modalities. She holds a Master of Arts degree in industrial/organisational psychology.

• 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. She has extensive knowledge of the U.S. Department of State’s identity management and secure credentialing processes and systems, having provided biometrics and image processing subject matter expertise continuously since the inception of the department’s integration of biometrics into the travel document issuance process.

Expert in emerging identity management solutions

As the Senior Director of IDEMIA NSS’ Face Recognition, Passport Book and Passport Card portfolio, Delia McGarry focuses on the application of emerging identity management and credentialing solutions, in order to satisfy customer business needs, legislated mandates and agency policies.

Her work included biometrics software and sensor evaluation, system optimisation and specification

Prior to joining IDEMIA in 2020, Delia McGarry served as a Project Manager and Biometrics Engineer at Noblis. Her work included biometrics software and sensor evaluation, system optimisation and specification, source selection, concepts of operations, technology pilots, presentation attack synthesis and detection, biometrics examiner training, communications and outreach and technical editing of international standards.

She holds a M.Sc. degree in Biomedical Engineering (Medical Imaging) from the University of Virginia and a B.S. degree in Engineering Science/Applied Mathematics from the University of Virginia, and studied electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

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

Biometrics field expert

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 Programmer as a Biometric Subject Matter Expert and Business Owner of the DHS Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT). She 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 of America (USA).

Prior to leaving DHS, Diane Stephens served as the Chair of the National Information Exchange Model Biometrics Domain. After 14 years, she joined the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) under the U.S. Department of Commerce, working in the Information Technology Laboratory, Information Access Division, in the Image Group.

Biometrics Standards Coordinator and Editor

She is a Biometrics Standards Coordinator and Editor of the ANSI/NIST-ITL standard, also known as ‘Data Format for the Interchange of Fingerprints, Facial and Other Biometric Information’.

As a biometric subject matter expert, Diana Stephens also represents NIST and the U.S. in national and international standards committees, promoting the use of and adherence to standards, to maintain system compatibility and interoperability.  She has been with NIST for close to five years now.

• Bobby Varma, the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Princeton Identity

Proven track record in Biometrics field

Bobby Varma is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Princeton Identity

Bobby Varma is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer (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.

In her previous role at Princeton Identity as Vice President of Operation and Products, Bobby Varma built product organisation from ground up and brought biometric products to market successfully. Her responsibilities also included overseeing operations to build efficiency and processes across the organisation and managing a team of technical and product staff.

Princeton Identity

Princeton Identity is a global leader in biometric identity management, providing solutions for access control, physical security and data security across commercial and government enterprises, including Dubai’s airport, the Smart Salem Medical center, Emaar, Auburn University, the U.S. Department of Defense and numerous data centers.

The company’s patented iris technology is featured on Samsung Galaxy phones. Bobby Varma was selected as one of the honourees in SIA Women in Security Forum’s inaugural Power 100, which recognises 100 women in the security industry, who are role models for actively advancing diversity, inclusion, innovation and leadership in the community.

2022 SIA Women in Biometrics Awards

SIA commends Gena Alexa, Amanda Conley, Delia McGarry, Diane Stephens and Bobby Varma for their impressive dedication"

Security Industry Association’s (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, programme 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 recognising them at SIA GovSummit.”

The 2022 SIA Women in Biometrics Awards will be presented on May 24, 2022, at a special award ceremony, during the SIA GovSummit 2022. 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

SIA GovSummit 2022 will be held from May 24 to May 25, 2022, as an in-person conference, at the National Association of Home Builders headquarters, located in downtown Washington, D.C.

In addition to featuring a cadre of security industry speakers, the 2022 SIA GovSummit will include insights from experts at DHS, the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, the Architect of the Capitol, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and more.

The event is free for all government employees, including U.S. and international federal, state, county and municipal-level staff, plus all military, law enforcement and public safety personnel. SIA GovSummit is considered a ‘widely attended gathering’ and complies with all relevant event guidelines.