Diane Stephens Named Winner for the 2022 Women in Biometrics Award

Diane Stephens of the Information Access Division in NIST's Information Technology Laboratory has been named one of the 2022 Security Industry Association's Women in Biometrics. This award was presented May 24, 2022, at a special award ceremony during SIA GovSummit. 

Diane Stephens has spent nearly 20 years working in the field of biometrics. She began her career working on DHS’ US-VISIT program as a biometric subject matter expert and business owner of the DHS Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT). Stephens also served as the business owner for DHS’ Arrival Departure Information System, the biographic sister system to IDENT that stored the arrivals and departures for foreign nationals entering and leaving the United States. Prior to leaving DHS, she performed as the chair of the National Information Exchange Model Biometrics Domain. After 14 years, Stephens joined NIST under the U.S. Department of Commerce, working in the Information Technology Laboratory, Information Access Division, in the Image Group. She is a biometrics standards coordinator and editor of the ANSI/NIST-ITL standard, also known as “Data Format for the Interchange of Fingerprints, Facial and Other Biometric Information.” As a biometric subject matter expert, Stephens also represents NIST and the U.S. in national and international standards committees promoting the use of and adherence to standards to maintain system compatibility and interoperability.  She has been with NIST close to five years.