Each year, NextGen hosts their Public Service Awards at the Next Generation of Government Training Summit to acknowledge and applaud individuals and teams who demonstrate public service and achievement. The awards recognize admirable individuals who are selected from the public service community for their intelligence, exuberance, and dedication to improving and invigorating government.

The National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) is privileged to have two of our own recognized as Government Innovator Public Service Award Finalists – Michael J. A. Davis, Brand Manager & Senior Designer, and Isaiah Morrison, Web Developer & Information Technology Specialist.

The Government Innovator category recognizes government leaders who have identified new opportunities and enhanced their organization in an innovative way. In the past, winners have been people who reimagined a process within their office and improved it or someone who changed the norm and improved results.

Davis is solely responsible for establishing the brand architecture and brand strategy for EDI. Since his arrival in March 2013, Davis has worked on numerous projects pointed at reshaping the office’s image and digital presence. Namely, Davis helped establish EDI’s new mission and vision statements, created NIH’s "EDI 365" and "Take the Pledge"" marketing platforms, and redesigned the EDI website.

"I am a public servant because I believe that everyday people deserve to have quality experiences with public services. Design plays an important role in that. It’s one of the most important drivers of better brand experiences. I think EDI’s new identity––the look, the feel, the experience––boldly challenges existing paradigms around EEO offices and the federal government."

As EDI’s only website developer for the past five years, Morrison fully provides the infrastructure, coding, testing, and support to ensure the site runs smoothly, always works, and is secure. His professional passions include web development and web accessibility and he has been fortunate enough to have been able to pursue these interests for the past 15+ years.

"As a web developer, I have a unique perspective on innovation at EDI. I try to innovate by utilizing my skills to support the EDI mission of cultivating a culture of inclusion where diverse talent is leveraged to advance health discovery by implementing solutions that are accessible by as many people as possible. Making the information a user is looking for easy to find and visually appealing has been integral to the success of our website. Being a NextGen Award finalist was truly a surprise for me. I consider my role to be behind the scenes. Receiving public recognition from NextGen has been inspirational and just adds fuel to my fire for being a public servant."

Davis and Morrison work hand in hand to conceive, design, develop, implement and sustain EDI’s website to meet the needs of the NIH user community and other stakeholders. Their chief aim is to provide a secure, reliable, accessible and dynamic web experience to broadly reach and encourage the best collaborative efforts among NIH’s large and diverse workforce, to meet the diverse health needs of Americans.

EDI Director, Debra C. Chew, Esq. expressed, "Michael and Isaiah have been instrumental in the launch of EDI and our efforts to position EDI as an innovative consultancy, one that is best in class. Each of them bring a level of creativity, innovation, and energy that has inspired the entire EDI team towards excellence. Their collaborative effort to reframe the EDI website was an incredible lift and our site is now recognized both inside and outside of NIH as the benchmark for other organizations. We are fortunate to have them both on the EDI team."" Leaders and people both in and outside of the NIH continually give feedback on the excellence of the website, which as it exists today is due predominantly to Morrison’s tech wizardry and Davis' creative talent. Join us in applauding them on this accomplishment!

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