Page 54 - FCW, November/December 2020

Rising Stars
program helps employees identify new business ventures with current clients, giving them a chance to deepen relationships with existing customers. Another program focuses on establishing career mentors, clear goals and advancement paths for all team members. Employee retention has increased by 32% since his arrival.
Smith won C2SCG’s Star Award this year and is well positioned to build on an impressive first decade in federal IT leadership.
close to zero by taking “internet-born code” and keeping it in the cloud and off the network. Her success suggests that she is headed for an impactful tenure.
“Sherri has helped reinvent DISA as a valued service provider to our military,” said Dave Reese, a federal sales manager at Menlo Security. “She took an obstacle and turned it into something remarkable.”
ASHLEY STRICKLAND
Growth and Communications Lead, CACI Agile Solution Factory CACI International
Ashley Strickland is a key leader and strategic contributor to CACI’s Agile Solution Factory, helping to build it into an award-winning business solution and providing a successful program execution model for a wide range of critical federal missions.
She co-leads the ASF Center of Excellence and focuses on strategic initiatives and innovation. In addition, during an unexpectedly disruptive year, she went out of her way to improve engagement for remote employees across the organization.
Although she is involved in specific efforts to capture and develop business at the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, her most important contributions tend to focus on the bigger picture. For example, she built an informal network of flag officers and C-level government officials that has become an advisory board and a business development pipeline for the Agile Solution Factory.
“Ashley is very effective in leading people and managing a group that differs in levels of maturity, skill and disciplines,” one colleague said. “She develops the right culture to drive high-performance teams, [and] her energy and enthusiasm are infectious.”
SHERRI SOKOL
Innovation Lead
Defense Information Systems Agency
It’s rare that one’s work goes from test case to essential technology solution in a time of crisis, but Sherri Sokol has the record to prove it.
She was essential to the success of the Defense Information Systems Agency’s Cloud-Based Internet Isolation (CBII) program, which creates a protective air gap between websites and the Defense Department’s network. CBII is the Emerging Technology Directorate’s first mature technology to fully transition from prototype to production.
The program allows users to remotely download documents without jeopardizing the security of DOD’s network — and it also reduces congestion. In fact, thanks to Sokol’s efforts, bandwidth use by military and DOD personnel dropped by 40%. In addition, CBII continuously monitors websites for vulnerabilities from third parties, such as ads or widgets, that hum in a site’s background.
The program had fewer than 100,000 test users but is scheduled to expand to 1.5 million DOD users in the coming year and then eventually to all 3.5 million DOD users.
Sokol has been in her position for only one year, but her contribution to CBII has helped reduce malware attacks to
54 November/December 2020 FCW.COM