2019 Women in Biometrics Award winner: Debra Marcopulos, DHS OBIM
24 June, 2019
category: Biometrics, Government
Like many of today’s leaders in biometrics, Debra Marcopulos’ career path was influenced by the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “I actually became interested in the technology that was being developed to help secure our country, specifically fingerprint technology. So when opportunities for DHS’ mission to modernize this legacy technology became available, I eagerly accepted the position.”
Marcopulos is the section chief for planning and assurance in the Office of Biometric Identity Management (OBIM), the lead entity in DHS for biometric identity management services. Her impressive work in the field makes her one of our 2019 Women in Biometrics award winners.
“When I joined DHS, I was able to focus my career on biometrics and supporting system applications for those men and women on the front line of the DHS mission securing our country,” Marcopulos says. “I continued to develop and expand those skills and experience as part of a team that piloted a re-engineering of pedestrian travel.”
When I joined DHS, I was able to focus my career on biometrics and for those men and women on the front line of the DHS mission securing our country. I continued to develop and expand those skills re-engineering pedestrian travel
Marcopulos has more than 20 years of experience in biometrics and identity management. She was a consultant with Bart & Associates before moving into federal service with US Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Information Technology. Now with OBIM, she handles duties that support the delivery of IT solutions to homeland security stakeholders to enable biometric match, store, and share capabilities.
Her proudest accomplishment:
“When I came aboard with OBIM, one of my first major projects was to implement a solution to centralize IT work requests that specifically support biometrics functionality for our stakeholders. This was to ensure consistent prioritization of work to meet the stakeholder’s demands. This concept was established more than six years ago, and the foundation of that concept is actually still used within OBIM today. Most recently, I led OBIM’s transition to IT software delivery via Agile processes to reduce delivery time of our biometric solutions for our stakeholders from months and annual implementation down to weeks. This really helped make a difference at the system level, and it directly impacted and supported those frontline customers of our biometric system.”
Marcopulos has augmented her career to focus on advancing biometric IT solutions in areas such as iris and SAFe. She is a certified Scrum Master, a SAFe Certified Release Train Engineer, and holds a level III certification in acquisition and IT specialization from
DHS.
The Women in Biometrics Awards were co-founded by the Security Industry Association (SIA) and SecureIDNews. The 2019 winners will be recognized in late June during the SIA GovSummit in Washington, DC.
