'Rockstar' Innovators Descend on Washington

A dream team of innovators have descended on Washington, D.C., where they spend six months within the federal government to work on initiatives to support entrepreneurs, small businesses and the overall economy.

Federal Chief Technology Officer Todd Park on Aug. 23 announced the inaugural batch of the Presidential Innovations Fellows – 18 innovators from academia, nonprofit organizations and the commercial sector. The fellows were picked from a pool of nearly 700 applicants.
The fellows “agreed to drop everything, come to D.C. in the middle of the summer and work incredibly hard to do great things for the American people,” Park said at an event held at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in downtown D.C.

Park was joined by U.S. CIO Steven VanRoekel, Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Jeffrey Zients, Office of Personnel and Management Director John Berry, and Veterans Affairs Department CTO Peter Levin, among other officials.