VA employees among federal government workers honored with Sammies awards

VA’s Marcella “Marcy” Jacobs and VA’s Digital Service team received the Management Excellence Medal during the 17th annual Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals (Sammies)awards gala Oct. 2 at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C.

Jacobs and her team were among seven employees and teams from across the federal government receiving “Sammies” awards by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service. They were recognized for streamlining and simplifying online processes for Veterans to apply for and receive benefits, changes that led to consolidating VA’s numerous online portals into a more user-friendly platform for its Veteran customers.

“Marcy and the Digital Service team continue to work on the site, talking with Veterans every week to find ways to improve their online interactions,” said VA Secretary Robert Wilkie. “Since the launch of Vets.gov, more than 1.6 million Veterans have logged into a Vets.gov account, and more than 2 million visitors access the site every month.”

VA began restructuring its website with the launch of Vets.gov in 2015. When Jacobs took over leadership of the Digital Service team in early 2017, she added numerous features to the Vets.gov website, enabling Veterans to more easily discover, apply for, track and manage many of the benefits and services they have earned.

The Digital Service team was among 27 finalists announced in May 2018 and chosen from more than 300 nominations. The medalists were selected by a prestigious committee of leaders from government, business, foundations, academia, entertainment and the media.