New York City Hall.
Photo by Ethan Stark-Miller
NYC officials will honor a dozen city workers for pioneering ideas aimed at making government services better during the fourth annual NYC Hayes Innovation Prize ceremony on Tuesday night.
The winning projects – originating from eight public sector entities serving NYC – represent major technological and programmatic breakthroughs on affordability, government accessibility and public safety, among other topics.
Honorees were selected from 74 nominations across more than 30 agencies, and each winner received a $1,000 cash prize funded by the Frederick O’Reilly Hayes Prize Foundation.
FDNY safety
Among the winners was Joel Owhe of the FDNY, who led a job safety analysis application, a tool the department described as “groundbreaking” for improving fire fighter safety.
According to the Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI), which co-sponsored the awards alongside the foundation, Owhe this year turned a once paper-heavy and reactive system into a digital platform designed to improve the department’s ability to train, evaluate and safeguard members.
FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore applauded Owhe for launching the application.
“The FDNY congratulates Firefighter Joel Owhe on this well-deserved recognition from the Hayes Prize Foundation,” Bonsignore said. “His work reflects the innovative thinking that makes the FDNY stronger every day. His application has improved a critical safety process within our department, helping us better evaluate training operations and protect our members.”
Naloxone vending machines
Another award winner was Roxanne Anderson of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), who implemented public health vending machines to address the city’s overdose crisis.
Sterile syringes, sharps containers and naloxone are among the items stocked inside the machines. Since June 2023, the city’s first four public health vending machines have been used over 42,000 times and dispensed 4,500 naloxone kits and other resources.
“There is no challenge too big for New York City’s amazing public servants,” said Chief Technical Officer and Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI) Commissioner Lisa Gelobter. “Thanks to their bold vision and leadership, this year’s Hayes Prize winners achieved remarkable results that made our city more affordable, our government run better, and our streets safer for New Yorkers. In addition, our honorees deserve acclaim for raising the bar for government excellence and inspiring their colleagues to pursue their own greatness.”
Other winners of the Hayes Awards
Pavel Ilin of the NYC Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity, who spearheaded the complete rebuild and launch of the new My File NYC, a digital platform that gives New Yorkers a secure place to store their vital documents and share them when applying for city services.
Shawn Inshan and Mallory Rutigliano of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), who pioneered a toolkit with a Resiliency Exposure Inventory and Resiliency Exposure Forecast designed to understand whether communities, infrastructure, and environments are sufficiently protected from climate risks.
Caleb Wendling and Julia Klauss of OMB, who expanded the flood insurance coverage of overlooked city-owned buildings using mapping software, Python scripts, and direct outreach, to create a new list of all city assets.
Matthew Yarri of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), who developed a real-time performance dashboard and data analytics framework for the congestion pricing program.
Mike Kutzma of the MTA, who led the design and implementation of the MTA Data Lake Program, a suite of infrastructure and applications that serve to enable analytics at scale across the MTA.
Kenyatta (Kym) Williams of the NYC Human Resources Administration, who managed the Cemetery Management and Tracking System – a platform to manage burial records, plot mapping, and public access for burial operations at Hart Island.
Claire Boyd of the Department of Finance, who transformed the Property Modeling Group’s technical capabilities at DOF to enhance efficiency, analytical rigor, and long-term sustainability across operations.
Elan Carmel of the Department of Social Services (DSS), who directed the execution of a citywide initiative to strengthen oversight of food and nutrition services within city shelters.
Other finalists this year:
Janelle Blount and Raja Pathuri of HPD
Chris Gettings and Emily Torem of DOHMH
Ayesha McHugh of NYC Housing Authority (NYCHA)
Momina Min of NYC Public Schools
Theodore Mullally of DOHMH
Dana Nelson of NYC Emergency Management (NYCEM)
Matthew O’Malley of Department of Small Business Services (SBS)
Jayabalaji Rubalingam of MTA
Bharti Sharma of NYC Health + Hospitals
Courtney Yu of NYCHA
Khusro Zafar and Brunnell Velazquez of the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC)