The Addies: An annual celebration of excellence across Ad Hoc

Each December, our team celebrates The Addies, an awards ceremony we created to recognize our colleagues who have gone above and beyond to serve our customers, support each other, and make Ad Hoc a special place to work. As a remote-first company, we rely heavily on virtual meet-ups to stay connected, and The Addies is a meaningful and fun yearly event that helps us do that. It’s one of the ways we intentionally build shared experiences across our team.

These awards reflect the values we aim to embody every day: collaboration, curiosity, simplicity, and a commitment to public service. The awards ceremony is an opportunity to pause and celebrate the people who bring those values to life.

This year’s 4th annual event was completely virtual and featured awards for two individuals across 10 categories. Being recognized with an Addie is special because honorees are nominated by their peers. Team members submit nominations highlighting the impact their colleagues have had throughout the year, and a cross-functional panel reviews each nomination and makes the final selections. Below is the list of the 2025 winners and the categories.

Advocate: A team member who not only does amazing work but also teaches others how best to do this work.

Winners: Sarah-Jaine Szekeresh and Megan Salerno

Minimalist: Someone who embodies Ad Hoc’s core value of simplicity by addressing complexity and keeping processes, technology, or methods simple where possible.

Winners: Bobby Kerstan and Tze Lei

Connector: Someone who goes outside their role to shape and nurture Ad Hoc’s remote culture and connect team members.

Winners: Erin White and Andrew Steele

Diplomat: For someone who is able to resolve tensions, disputes, or sensitive issues between stakeholders, internal or external.

Winners: Cheryl Shimko and David Kennedy

Backbone: For critical, focused work behind the scenes, enabling other processes, teams, or services to be their best.

Winners: Kaelan Dowdall and Mandy Smith

Champion: Someone who has championed human-centered design, brought user needs to stakeholders, and consistently fought for user needs.

Winners: Jasmine Friedrich and Jeana Clark

Mad scientist: Someone who exhibits Ad Hoc’s core value of bias for action by bringing new tools, techniques, and ideas to a problem.

Winners: Mickin S. and Tanner H.

Steward: For going above and beyond program duties to ensure a government program is a success, such as covering another contractor’s work or resolving an issue that’s beyond our scope of requirements.

Winners: Thomas Ferrin and Wryen Meek

Gardener: For cultivating growth through consistent delivery, relationship building, and a consulting mindset.

Winners: Tommy Carpenter and Liz Townsend

Ink and Toner: For a successful pivot or adaptation to new circumstances.

Winners: Tim Foard and Jamie Fiore

It has also become a tradition to introduce a just-for-fun surprise category recognizing contributions that strengthen our culture and help people feel connected in a remote workplace. This year’s surprise category, The Baddies, honored team members whose personal wins, adventures, or unexpected talents brought joy to our Slack channels throughout the year.

• Corey K.: Street photography in #photography
• Micah T.: Snow camping in #outdoorlife
• Tyler Snell: Handmade hot sauce in #cooking
• Celi Ramos: Baby squirrel rescue in #pets
• Dan Munz: Hagrid costume in #halloween
• Gretchen Maciolek: Crocheted octopus in #makers

The Addies remind us that the work we do for our customers and the public is only possible because of the people behind it – those who share their knowledge generously, solve complex problems with creativity, support one another, and strengthen our community. Congratulations to the 2025 Ad Hoc Addie winners, and thank you to everyone who was nominated this year. Your contributions shape Ad Hoc every day!