Meet the Newest Presidential Innovation Fellows

“My hope is this continues to encourage a culture of public service among our innovators, and tech entrepreneurs, so that we can keep building a government that’s as modern, as innovative, and as engaging as our incredible tech sector is.  To all the Fellows who’ve served so far – thank you.  I encourage all Americans with bold ideas to apply.  And I can’t wait to see what those future classes will accomplish on behalf of the American people.”

– President Barack Obama, August 17th, 2015 

Building on the President’s goal, today, the Administration is announcing 11 new Presidential Innovation Fellows. This diverse group represents some of the nation’s most talented and creative civic-minded innovators, developers, designers and entrepreneurs who are coming to join the Federal Government for a one-year entrepreneurial tour-of-duty.

Since the 2012 launch of the Presidential Innovation Fellows program, 108 top innovators have been selected for this highly-competitive program from across the country, joining colleagues at over 20 agencies.

The Presidential Innovation Fellows Program is built on four key principles:

• Recruit the best our nation has to offer: Fellows include entrepreneurs, startup founders, and innovators with experience at large technology companies and startups, each of whom leverage their proven skills and technical expertise to create huge value for the public.
• Partner with innovators inside government: Working as both individuals and on teams, the Presidential Innovation Fellows and their partners across the government create and products and services that are responsive, user-friendly, and help to improve the way the Federal government interacts with the American people.
• Deploy proven private sector strategies: Fellows leverage best practices from the private sector to deliver better, more effective programs and policies across the Federal government.
• Focus on some of our Nation’s biggest and most pressing challenges: Projects focus on topics such as reducing income inequality in cities through open data, modernizing federal acquisition of IT services, fueling job creation and the economy through leveraging government-funded research and development, and improving care and access to benefits for veterans.

Over the next 12 months, these innovators will collaborate and work with change agents inside government on high-impact initiatives aimed at saving lives, saving taxpayer money, fueling our economy, and making our government more user-friendly.

Meet the newest Fellows!

• Amy Wilson, from Washington, D.C., a user-centered product manager who has over 14 years of experience working at the intersection of communications and technology, most recently at Booz Allen Hamilton.
• Mitch Sipus, from Covington, Kentucky, a specialist in urban development post-war reconstruction, urban systems research, and technology design who was an advisor to the governments of Afghanistan and Somalia on urban reconstruction.
• Michael Balint, from San Francisco, California, a software engineer who most recently lead DataFox and was previously at Lockheed Martin, where he coded elegant algorithms for air traffic control, visualized the USA’s energy grid infrastructure, and helped automate melanoma detection.
• Bob Ballance, from Santa Fe, New Mexico, a computer scientist with a history of entrepreneurship, managing collaborative alliances, large-scale, secure, government computing, and academic activities.
• John Trobough, from San Francisco, California, an entrepreneur who most recently served as President and CEO of Narus, an independent subsidiary of The Boeing Company, focused on delivering big data analytics for cyber security to its broad international client base.
• Kyla Fullenwider, from New York, New York, an entrepreneur, educator, and social designer who has worked with the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, UCLA, the Legacy Foundation, PepsiCo, GOOD magazine, and the cities of New York, Los Angeles, and Baltimore.
• Adam Bellow, from New York, New York, an entrepreneur, former English teacher, and expert on educational technology who most recently founded eduClipper, a free web tool focused on helping K-12 students and teachers find, share, and build valid learning experiences.
• Eric Daimler, from San Francisco, California, a computer scientist and venture capitalist who has more than 20 years of experience collaborating between industry, academia, and government.
• Patrick Koppula, from Los Angeles, California, an entrepreneur who most recently served as the Founding Director of City Innovation Ventures and has served in both CEO and COO roles at various start-ups.
• Justin Koufopoulos, from New York, New York, a product manager, growth hacker, and former Fulbright Scholar who has worked with the U.S. Army, PepsiCo, and Percolate, a marketing software company.
• Wendy Harman, from Washington, D.C., an intrapreneur and strategist who has spent the last eight years building an information sharing ecosystem for disaster services at the American Red Cross.

Calling All Innovators:

The Presidential Innovation Fellows program is on the lookout for even more of the most talented innovators and technologists to join the team and work on our Nation's most pressing challenges.

Fellows serve for 12 months inside the federal government as entrepreneurs-in-residence, working quickly and iteratively to turn promising ideas into game-changing solutions. The first step is to apply online at www.pif.gov.  Come join us!

Megan Smith is the U.S. Chief Technology Officer.

Garren Givens is Director of the Presidential Innovation Fellows and Deputy Executive Director of 18F.