Kevin Abernethy, who since January has been vice president for government relations at the University of Georgia in Athens, was honored his work in his previous job as chief of the civil division of the United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Georgia.

"In this role, Kevin co-chaired the legal defense of multimillion-dollar medical malpractice lawsuits directed against the Veterans Administration, represented the Department of Defense, represented the Department of Health and Human Services, and supervised the U.S. Attorney's False Claims Act practice," according to his nominator essay.