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FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Dinah F. B. Cohen, Director of the Department of Defense Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program was presented with the Federal Computer Week President’s Award on March 25.
Introduced in 2008, the President’s Award recognizes individuals and careers that are driven by a mission that transcends a single year and often a single agency. “It is about getting accomplished what needs to be done. It is about devotion to mission,” said Anne Armstrong, President of 1105 Government Information Group, publishers of Federal Computer Week. “This award is not given every year, but just in those special circumstances in which we need to call out someone for special recognition.”
Cohen was recognized for her work with agencies, companies and government officials to develop, acquire, manage and use information technology, said Military Health System officials.
“Her leadership, vision and management skills created an exceptional program that provides assistive technology and accommodation services to employees with disabilities at 65 federal agencies including DoD and to wounded Service members,” said Charles M. Campbell, Military Health System, Chief Information Officer.
Cohen, as the director of CAP, is directly responsible for the development and deployment of a centrally-funded accommodations program in less than 10 years, which became the world’s largest assistive technology program providing services throughout the federal government.
Dr. S. Ward Casscells, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, also won a Federal 100 Award for transforming www.health.mil, the Web site of the Military Health System, into an awarding-winning Web 2.0 environment, incorporating the use of blogs, video, RSS feeds and social media platforms such as Facebook to enable peer-to-peer communication.
Casscells, Cohen and the other 2009 Federal 100 award winners are profiled in the current issue of Federal Computer Week and were honored at a gala on March 25 at the Ritz-Carlton in Tysons Corner, Va.
These awards recognize 100 public and private sector information technology professionals who have significantly influenced the government IT community. Selected by an independent panel of judges, Federal 100 winners are recognized for their risk-taking, vision and pioneering spirit in the federal IT community.