Security Industry Association and SecureIDNews Announce Winners for the 2021 Women in Biometrics Awards

Marta García Gomar and Amy Turluck were honored for their leadership and contributions in biometrics and security during the 2021 SIA GovSummit.

SILVER SPRING, Md. – The Security Industry Association (SIA) and SecureIDNews have named Marta García Gomar, chief technology officer for IDENTY Touchless ID, and Amy Turluck, director of the Biometrics Operations Directorate within the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), as the 2021 winners of the Women in Biometrics Awards – a globally recognized program co-founded by SIA and SecureIDNews and co-presented with sponsors IDEMIA and the SIA Women in Security Forum. These distinguished biometrics and security leaders were recognized on Sept. 21 during the 2021 SIA GovSummit, SIA’s annual public policy and government security technology conference.

The Women in Biometrics Awards honor 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 and security and IT departments at a variety of organizations in the United States and internationally.

“The annual Women in Biometrics Awards recognize the female leaders leading the way in the biometric identity and security industry, and this year’s winners have made impressive contributions to cutting-edge technologies like embedded voice biometrics and helped to detect fraud, enhance military readiness and homeland defense and promote safety and convenience in our daily lives,” said SIA CEO Don Erickson. “SIA applauds Marta García Gomar and Amy Turluck for their outstanding drive, innovation and leadership in this essential field and is proud to honor them.”

“In its seventh year, the Women in Biometrics Awards adds two distinguished professionals to the list of 25 previous awardees,” said Chris Corum, publisher of SecureIDNews. “This year’s recipients are dedicated leaders, technologists and visionaries guiding the biometric identity and security industry in both private and government sectors. I continue to marvel at the increased local, national and global security we all enjoy thanks to the work of these dedicated professionals.” 

Marta García Gomar is an experienced innovation manager and biometrics-related innovation strategy consultant who serves as CTO for IDENTY Touchless ID. She advises biometrics startups on defining the road map to achieve business objectives and identifying resources, skills and gaps after assessing client resources and capabilities. With more than 25 patents she has developed unique expertise and knowledge in a wide range of markets where biometrics – particularly voice biometrics – add great value. In her career, Gomar has been responsible for defining and driving the development of embedded voice biometrics and presentation attack detection technologies according to market requirements; serving as an expert in security and performance requirements for embedded biometrics, strategic partnerships with technology enablers and technical customer engagement with main mobile user authentication providers and final customers; and spearheading biometrics innovation efforts in areas including personal voice assistants, user authentication and fraud detection in call centers, public security and criminal investigations. She holds a master’s degree in data science from MBIT Business School and both a specialization grade in technology innovation management and a telecommunications engineer degree from the Polytechnic University of Madrid.   

Amy Turluck is a dynamic senior leader with executive experience directing the work of large, diverse, geographically separated subordinate staffs, including foreign nationals, military, government employees and contractors globally. As the senior leader for the Biometrics Operations Directorate, she provides strategic vision, staff supervision and oversight of 20 government employees and 120 contractors, provides direct oversight of the DOD’s primary and authoritative biometric database employed by U.S. and coalition partners to globally identify enemy forces, advises the executive director of the Defense Forensics and Science Center on planning, organization and management of all technical and administrative functions associated with DOD biometrics and more. She holds a master’s degree in management from Webster University, a bachelor’s degree in law enforcement from Bowling Green State University and a TS/SCI security clearance.

Turluck and Gomar joined other distinguished government and security leaders at the SIA GovSummit, held in a hybrid in-persona and virtual format, including keynote speaker Dr. David Mussington, executive assistant director of the Infrastructure Security Division at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). During the conference, SIA also honored Gabrielle Shea, public policy manager, government relations and public policy at NEC Corporation of America, with the 2021 SIA Industry Advocate Award.  

About SIA

SIA is the leading trade association for global security solution providers, with over 1,200 innovative member companies representing thousands of security leaders and experts who shape the future of the security industry. SIA protects and advances its members’ interests by advocating pro-industry policies and legislation at the federal and state levels, creating open industry standards that enable integration, advancing industry professionalism through learning and development, opening global market opportunities and collaborating with other like-minded organizations. As the premier sponsor of ISC Events expos and conferences, SIA ensures its members have access to top-level buyers and influencers, as well as unparalleled learning and network opportunities. SIA also enhances the position of its members in the security marketplace through SIA GovSummit, which brings together private industry with government decision makers, and Securing New Ground, the security industry’s top executive conference for peer-to-peer networking.

About SecureIDNews

SecureIDNews is an industry-leading source for enterprise and government identity, credentialing and security markets published by AVISIAN. More than 30,000 subscribers and hundreds of thousands of web visitors get their ID technology news from AVISIAN’s suite of identity and security publications.