USTR Announces 2026 Award Recipients

WASHINGTON — Today, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) hosted its annual awards ceremony, celebrating the achievements and notable milestones of its staff. During the program, award recipients were announced in the following categories: Ambassador’s Award, William B. Kelly Award, Linda Enoch Award, Excellence in Service Award, Erland Herfindahl Award, Superior Achievement Award, Distinguished Career Service Award, Team Award, Way to Go Award, and Length of Service Award.

“Through their unwavering commitment to public service and pursuit of excellence, the USTR team has helped advance and execute President Trump’s America First Trade Policy, delivering lasting benefits for American farmers, manufacturers, workers, and businesses of all sizes,” said Ambassador Jamieson Greer. “Our team embodies the true meaning of public service, leading with integrity and professionalism. From our economists and legal counsel to our trade negotiators and overseas staff, I am very appreciative of your hard work and dedication to advance the agency’s mission.”

USTR is pleased to announce the 2026 award recipients:

Ambassador’s Award – Recognizes a senior USTR employee who demonstrates excellence, leadership, and tenacity, and whose contributions go significantly beyond the standard and requirements of their role:

Daniel Watson, former Assistant United States Trade Representative for the Western Hemisphere

William B. Kelly Award – Recognizes an employee who demonstrates the highest standard of professional excellence in the trade field and demonstrates sustained contributions and leadership in advancing USTR’s goals, an exemplary degree of initiative and creativity, and great respect from peers and superiors:

Rebecca Gudicello, Deputy Assistant United States Trade Representative for Market Access and Industrial Competitiveness

Linda Enoch Award – Recognizes dedicated service and excellence in administrative management, including the qualities of professionalism, initiative, creativity, and respect of peers:

JoAnne Allen, Trade Research Specialist for Economics

Excellence in Service Award – Recognizes an employee who has made an extraordinary contribution in an administrative services and mission support position:

Calvin Jackson, Information Technology Specialist

Erland Herfindahl Award – Recognizes an employee who exemplifies the values that strengthen the heart of our community – compassion, decency, empathy and kindness, and who contributes tangibly and consistently to the cohesion and vitality of our agency – not just through what they do, but through how they do it:

Jennifer Oetken, Deputy Assistant United States Trade Representative for Labor Affairs

Superior Achievement Award – Recognizes employees for special efforts significantly above and beyond the requirements for their position:

Leslie Akinola, Daniel Arias, Victor Ban, Angela Brown, Celeste Chen, Cassie Ender, Elizabeth Falkner, Emily Fischer, Conor Harrington, Michelle Ker, Amy Kreps, Della Little, Amanda Mayhew, Colette Morgan, Sarah Morningred, Asad Nawaz, Michael Remetta, Zeba Reyazuddin, Leo Roytman, Sofia Ruiz, Deborah Tidwell, Margaret Wang, Benjamin Wollam, and Wallis Yu

Distinguished Career Service Award – Recognizes recent USTR retiree(s) whose career reflects long and exceptional devotion to duty and exemplifies significant contributions to the economy, efficiency, uniquely important projects, recognized expertise in some phase of USTR’s technical, professional or administrative work or other improvement in USTR operation:

Connie Hamilton, former Assistant United States Trade Representative for Africa
Daniel Watson, former Assistant United States Trade Representative for the Western Hemisphere
Jon Johnson, former Telecommunications Specialist
Todd Nissen, former Deputy Assistant United States Trade Representative for Services and Investment

Team Award – In addition to honoring several USTR colleagues for their outstanding individual work, we also honor teams or groups that displayed either exemplary teamwork, resilience, problem-solving, continuous readiness, thoughtful leadership, remarkable collaboration, distinctive competencies, or commendable organizational skills that were of importance and value to USTR’s mission:

Southeast Asia and the Pacific (SEAP) Team: Leslie Akinola, Celeste Chen, Sarah Ellerman, Emily Fischer, Colette Morgan, Bart Thanhauser, and Wallis Yu
Bidlingmaier and Treat Team: Ross Bidlingmaier and Alan Treat
Agreements on Reciprocal Trade Intellectual Property Negotiations Team: Claire Avery-Page, Alexis Tercero-Chacon, Benjamin Wollam, and Michelle Yang
FY2025 AGOA Team: Daniel Arias, Claire Avery-Page, Jillian DeLuna, Brenna Dougan, Megan Grimball, Brittany Henricks, Justin Hoffmann, David Jankowski, Lynettle Johnson, Karen Lezny, Daniel Matthews, Victor Mroczka, Austin Pedersen, Sofia Ruiz, and Jeremy Streatfeild
USMCA Rapid Response Mechanism Team: Claudia Calderon, Katherine Cedillos, Michelle Collopy, Donna Chung, Brenna Dougan, Brady Francisco-FitzMaurice, Alex Gancayco, Catherine Gibson, Rachel Hasandras, Molly Hofsommer, Andrew Medley, Austin Pedersen, and Andrea Rojas
Environment Team: Amy Kreps, Amanda Mayhew, Katy Sater, Sigrid Simpson, Judith Webster, and Tim Wedding
U.S.-Taiwan Agreement on Reciprocal Trade Team: Ben Allen, Andrea Boron, Charita Castro, Sean O’Connor, Donna Chung, Michael Gagain, Michelle Ker, Amy Kreps, Amanda Lee, Leah Liston, Heng Loke, Daniel Matthews, Victor Mroczka, Shannon Nestor, Jennifer Oetken, Kent Shigetomi, Jennifer Stradtman, Sloane Strickler, Ari Sulby, Robb Tanner, Leslie Yang, Tim Wineland, Michelle Yang, and Jing Jing Zhang
Labor Agreements on Reciprocal Trade Negotiations Team: Claudia Calderon, Charita Castro, Katherine Cedillos, Donna Chung, Brenna Dougan, Jennifer Oetken, Austin Pedersen, and Sofia Ruiz
Human Capital Team: Angela Brown, Taiwo Carmichael, Cassie Ender, Tiffany Enoch, Emily Monitz, and Deborah Tidwell
WAMA Team: Kristan Callahan, Leah Cobelli, Nicole Curtis, Leah Liston, Emanuela Montanari-Stephens, Victor Mroczka, Sean O'Connor, Kate Psillos, Kent Shigetomi, Jennifer Stradtman, Ari Sulby, and Torie Waite
Digital Team: Sahir Amlani, Andrea Boron, Jillian DeLuna, and Robb Tanner
U.S.-Cambodia Agreement on Reciprocal Trade Team: Leslie Akinola, Ben Allen, Leigh Bacon, Laura Buffo, Kristan Callahan, Robert Carrigg, Katherine Cedillos, Celeste Chen, Simon Hudes, Colette Morgan, Jason Chauvin, Leah Cobelli, Sushan Demirjian, Krista Hilk, Justin Hoffman, Amy Kreps, Daniel Lee, Leah Liston, Kelly Milton, Emanuela Montanari-Stephens, Victor Mroczka, Todd Nissen, Sean O’Connor, Jennifer Oetken, Kathryn Psillos, Leo Roytman, Kent Shigetomi, Ari Sulby, Victoria Waite, Brandon Whitehill, Yingying Xu, and Michelle Yang
U.S.-Malaysia Agreement on Reciprocal Trade Team: Leslie Akinola, Neil Beck, Andrea Boron, Kristan Callahan, Celeste Chen, Leah Cobelli, Sushan Demirjian, Rebecca Gudicello, Kate Hadley, Simon Hudes, Joan Hurst, Amy Kreps, Colette Morgan, Daniel Lee, Leah Liston, Katherine Mastman, Kelly Milton, Victor Mroczka, Emanuela Montanari-Stephens, Todd Nissen, Sean O’Connor, Jennifer Oetken, Megan Paster, Kathryn Psillos, Ken Schagrin, Kent Shigetomi, Ari Sulby, Victoria Waite, Yingying Xu, Michelle Yang, and Wallis Yu
U.S.-Indonesia Agreement on Reciprocal Trade Team: Leslie Akinola, Leigh Bacon, Andrea Boron, Kristan Callahan, Robert Carrigg, Celeste Chen, Leah Cobelli, Sushan Demirjian, Rebecca Gudicello, Kate Hadley, Simon Hudes, Michelle Ker, Amy Kreps, Daniel Lee, Katherine Mastman, Andrew Medley, Kelly Milton, Emanuela Montanari-Stephens, Colette Morgan, Victor Mroczka, Sean O’Connor, Jennifer Oetken, Megan Paster, Kathryn Psillos, Leo Roytman, Kent Shigetomi, Ari Sulby, Robb Tanner, Bart Thanhauser, Victoria Waite, Yingying Xu, and Michelle Yang
Small Business, Market Access, and Industrial Competitiveness (SBMAIC) Agreement on Reciprocal Trade Team: Rebecca Gudicello, Krista Hilk, Justin Hoffmann, Daniel Matthews, Andrew Medley, and Sarah Short
Trade Litigation Team: Leigh Bacon, Victor Ban, Michelle Collopy, Mike Gagain, Kwan Kim, David Salkeld, and Sloane Strickler
Finance & Budget Team: Tameka Cooper, Zonda Fuller, Anita Kyler, and Michelle Secrist
Agriculture Agreements on Reciprocal Trade Negotiations Team: Robert Ahern, Sarah Fasano, David Jankowski, Jack Kamensky, Sarah Morningred, Erin Nicholson, Hannah Resig, Leo Roytman, Leslie Yang, Amanda Lee, Brittany Hendricks, Joey Ben-Maimon, and Grace Yanagawa
U.S.-Bangladesh Agreement on Reciprocal Trade Team: Sahir Amlani, Emily Ashby, Rob Carrigg, Leah Cobelli, Molly Hofsommer, Jack Kamensky, Leah Liston, Jennifer Oetken, Sean O’Connor, Katy Sater, Tamar Satterwhite, and Yingying Xu
Budget Approval Team: Fred Ames, Duncan Braid, Linda Chambers, Brett Doyle, and Keyden Smith-Herold

Way to Go Award – A peer-to-peer award that gives colleagues the chance to recognize each other for outstanding efforts and contributions resulting in significant benefits to USTR, and for going above and beyond the requirements of their own job to help other colleagues, demonstrating exemplary teamwork or customer service:

Ross Bidlingmaier, Rachel Hasandras, Krista Hilk, Yvonne Jamison, Andrew Medley, Judith Webster, and Madeline Yarbrough

Length of Service Award – Recognizes successful completion of service for every five years up to 50 years:

35 years of service: Yvonne Jamison
30 years of service: Tiffany Enoch
25 years of service: Scott Pietan, Mike Rogers, and Silvia Savich
20 years of service: Fred Ames, Neil Beck, Andrea Boron, Cassie Ender, Elizabeth Falkner, Matthew Jaffe, Daniel Lee, Kelly Milton, Ambassador Rick Switzer, Jeraun Thompkins, and Judith Webster
15 years of service: Jennifer Carton, Emily Fischer, Megan Grimball, Conor Harrington, Amanda Lee, Austin Pedersen, and Kate Psillos
10 years of service: Jennifer Bang, Alexander Chrismer, Leah Cobelli, Andrew Devine, Kate Gibson, Heng Loke, Collette Morgan, Sean O’Connor, Christina Olson, Katy Sater, and Yingying Xu
5 years of service: Emily Ashby, Victor Ban, Alex Martin, Jennifer Oetken, Harrison Vey, Scott Wilber, and Gulbin Yildirim

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