Five leaders in the biometric identity and security industry have been selected as the 2018 winners of the Women in Biometrics Awards, co-founded by the Security Industry Association (SIA) and SecureIDNews, and co-presented with sponsors FindBiometrics, IDEMIA and SIA’s Women in Security Forum. The awards will be presented during SIA Honors Night Wed. Nov. 14. Registration is now open for the event, which will be held at the Current at Chelsea Piers in New York City.

“Biometric identity solutions and services are crucial to the security industry and to other industries like banking and health care,” said Don Erickson, SIA’s CEO. “These 2018 honorees have helped advance this important field through their impressive leadership, involvement, innovation and mentorship efforts across industry and government. SIA, along with our partners and sponsors, is proud to recognize this inspiring group of female biometric leaders with the Women in Biometrics Awards presented at SIA Honors Night.”

The five winners for 2018’s awards, selected from a global pool of nominees, are Kelly Gallagher, senior account manager of the NEC Corporation of America; Lisa MacDonald, director of the identity capabilities management division of the Office of Biometric Identity Management, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS); Colleen Manaher, executive director of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, DHS; Lora Sims, senior biometric examiner at Ideal Innovations Inc.; and Anne Wang, director of biometric technology research and development at Gemalto Cogent. You can learn more about each award winner here. 

Each year, the Women in Biometrics Awards recognize the efforts of top female leaders helping drive the biometric identity and security industry. Nominees and past winners include those working for biometric companies, peripheral suppliers, system integrators, academia, government or security and IT departments at a variety of organizations.