James O’Neal is a health and life sciences principal within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Alliance to Modernize Healthcare, a federally funded research and development (R&D) center. In this role, he leads a project responsible for the outreach and education program in support of the federal Covid-19 response for therapeutics.

O’Neal has enduring technical contributions at MITRE, a not-for-profit corporation operating federally funded R&D centers on behalf of U.S. government sponsors. According to his colleagues, the impact of his leadership has been felt across the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Food and Drug Administration (FAA), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and administrative offices of the U.S. courts.

He co-authored the Veterans Affairs (VA) cloud computing strategy to allow the department charged with providing healthcare services to eligible military veterans to effectively transition to cloud-based enterprise services.

Additionally, O’Neal helped manage the FDA’s business management team acquisition program. He also co-developed the federal acquisition simulation tool (FAST) to promote efficiencies in federal procurement processes.

“James is dedicated to making our nation more equitable, safer, and more resilient. Based on his unique contributions and the magnitude of his impact in the STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] field, I am honored to nominate him for this award,” said Dr. Jason Providakes of The MITRE Corporation, who nominated O’Neal for an Outstanding Technical Contribution Award.

BEYA presents this award to a person who has designed, managed, or assisted in the development of a product, service, system, or IP that is a technological achievement and offers broad impact and high value to society. Register here to join STEM leaders at the BEYA Conference, February 17-19.