AUVSI Announces 2022 Membership Awards Winners
April 28, 2022 | AUVSI News
Chapter of the Year, Member of the Year, Advocate of the Year, Donor of the Year, and new Hall of Fame winners were announced at XPONENTIAL on Thursday, April 28.
Five Chapters were awarded titles this year for:
- Chapter Recruitment – AUVSI DC Capital
- Chapter Development – AUVSI Florida Peninsula
- Chapter Communications – AUVSI Hampton Roads
- Chapter Leader of the Year – Darshan “Dash” Divakaran, President of AUVSI North Carolina
- Chapter of the year – AUVSI Lone Star
Member of the year was awarded to Dr. Will Austin, President of Warren County Community College. “Dr. Austin committed enormous time and resources to advancing the role of uncrewed systems in community colleges and universities,” said AUVSI President and CEO Brian Wynne. “We are grateful for his work positioning the AUVSI Trusted Operator Program as a critical workforce development tool, while he pushed for significant funding to scale the program, and served as a speaker, repair and maintenance workshop organizer, and partner at XPONENTIAL.”
The 2022 Advocate of the year is Todd Graetz, Director of the Drone Program for BNSF Railway. “In addition to serving as an AUVSI board member and chair of the PAC board, Graetz led a Beyond Visual Line of Sight ARC Working Group and participated in the AUVSI Enterprise Advocacy Committee. He is a strong voice for autonomous technology integration, and I can’t think of anyone who has done more for our industry in the past year in the advocacy arena,” said Wynne.
The AUVSI PAC Donor of the Year is the Honorable Frank LoBiondo, former Congressman and Founder and CEO of LoBo Strategies. “ LoBiondo serves on our PAC Board, which sets the direction for our PAC each year, as well as our AUVSI Board of Directors. He has been instrumental in helping our members understand the importance of campaign finance and encouraging support for the PAC among AUVSI members,” said Wynne.
New this year, the Hall of Fame welcomed individual winner Reginald Denny, and Technology Winner Immarsat, ELERA L-Band.
For more information about AUVSI visit AUVSI.org. For more information about the AUVSI XCELLENCE Awards and XPONENTIAL 2022, visit xponential.org.
