Woodrow Wilson Award 2014

Aneesh Chopra, A&S '94
In 2009, Aneesh Chopra was appointed by President Obama as the first-ever Chief Technology Officer of the United States of America. In this role he served as an Assistant to the President and Associate Director for Technology within the Office of Science & Technology Policy. He worked to advance the President’s technology agenda by fostering new ideas and encouraging government-wide coordination to help the country meet its goals from job creation, to reducing health care costs, to protecting the homeland. Prior to his appointment, he served as Secretary of Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia from January 2006 until April 2009. He previously served as Managing Director with the Advisory Board Company, a publicly-traded healthcare think tank. Chopra was named to Government Technology Magazine’s Top 25 in their Doers, Dreamers, and Drivers issue in 2008. In early 2012, Chopra voluntarily left his post as United States Chief Technology Officer and formally announced his candidacy for the office of Lieutenant Governor for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Cathy L. Lanier, Ed '04
Chief Cathy L. Lanier, is a well-respected safety and security professional with 30-years of law enforcement experience.  In April 2007, she was unanimously confirmed as the Chief of Police by the Council of the District of Columbia, the first woman to ever achieve the position.  In her role, Chief Lanier has worked to change the culture of the MPD from reacting to crime to building and sustaining safe neighborhoods.  Lanier’s career includes 33 years with the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., rising up through the ranks from police officer to Chief of Police.  Much of her career was spent in uniformed patrol where she served as Commander of the Fourth District.  Other positions held by Chief Lanier include Commanding Officer of the Department’s Major Narcotics Branch and Vehicular Homicide Units, Commander of the Special Operations Division (SOE), and the first Commander Officer of the MPD’s Office of Homeland Security and Counter-Terrorism (OHSCT).  In these positions, she has gained practical and extensive leadership and management experience, and is well versed on issues ranging from policing to developing and implementing coordinated counter-terrorism strategies intelligence and emergency management.

Richard "Craig" Postlewaite
R. Craig Postlewaite, DVM, MPH, currently serves as acting director for the Defense Health Agency’s division of public health. He formerly served as Deputy Director, Force Health Protection and Readiness Programs and as the Director, Force Readiness and Health Assurance also under the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. Dr. Postlewaite was commissioned in the Air Force Reserve in 1973 and retired as a Colonel after having served for 26 years on active duty, initially as an Air Force Veterinarian and later as an Air Force Public Health Officer. Among his more notable assignments, he served as an Assistant Professor of Biology and Director of Advanced Courses at the US Air Force Academy, CO (1982-1986), and as the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) Command Public Health Officer and Health Promotion Coordinator (1993-1995).  As Director of Health Risk Management in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Environment, Safety, and Occupational Health (1995-1999), he developed Air Force-wide occupational and environmental health policy and addressed complex Air Force environmental health issues associated with environmental cleanup on military installation.  His military decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (4 Oak Leaf Clusters), and the Navy Commendation Medal. Most recently, Dr. Postlewaite was awarded the Defense Department’s highest civilian honor, the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal. His award reads that he “raised the bar and profoundly advanced the science of occupational and environmental health.”