Excellence in Government Service Award

About the SIA Excellence in Government Service Award

The SIA Excellence in Government Service Award is presented to a public servant who has demonstrated extensive leadership and a steady commitment to supporting and advancing the effective use of security and life safety products in ways that benefit society.

2024 Excellence in Government Service Award Winners: daryle Hernandez and Arun Vemury

SIA named Daryle Hernandez, director of the Interagency Security Committee located in the Infrastructure Protection Division at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and Arun Vemury, senior advisor for the Biometric and Identity Technology Center within the DHS Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate, as the 2024 recipients of the SIA Excellence in Government Service Award.

Daryle Hernandez is responsible for enhancing the quality and effectiveness of security in and the protection of buildings and nonmilitary federal facilities in the United States, with the chief security officers and other senior executives from 60 federal agencies and departments that make up the ISC. Prior to his time at CISA, Hernandez was an interagency senior advisor with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and earlier he led the Department of the Army’s protection office and was responsible for protecting a workforce of 1 million located on over 100 federal installations and in 6,000 separate standalone facilities. He has spoken at SIA events, including this year’s SIA GovSummit conference, on key issues in government security. Hernandez is an experienced protection and security professional with over 25 years of organizational leadership. His formal education includes a master’s degree in political science from Rutgers University and a master’s degree in strategic studies from the Army War College.

Arun Vemury serves as senior advisor for the Biometric and Identity Technology Center within DHS S&T. He oversees a portfolio of innovative projects for DHS S&T and the department’s mission components in Customs and Border Protection, the Transportation Security Administration and elsewhere. Under Vemury’s leadership, DHS S&T launched a series of biometric technology rallies to provide a collaborative and innovative framework for technology providers to have their products tested in DHS operational settings. He has received multiple government awards for his contributions in the development of the department’s biometric entry/exit system. Prior to joining DHS, Vemury was a government contractor supporting biometrics and identity management projects. He completed his undergraduate work in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Maryland and his graduate degree in computer engineering at the George Washington University. He has presented at SIA events and has co-authored multiple technical articles on various aspects of biometric technologies.

[View the official press release.]

Previous Honorees

• 2023: Paul Anstine and Scott Shellenberger
• 2020: Bruce Davidson