Celebrating Verkada's 2025 Safety Champions at VerkadaOne

Every day, safety and security professionals face the challenge of protecting what matters most: people, places, and the communities that depend on them.

This week in Chicago, we recognized individuals and organizations that have gone above and beyond in doing the mission-critical work of keeping their organizations safe with the 2025 Safety Champion Awards.

Impact Award: Driving Measurable Impact at Scale

We recognized John Mitchell, Information Technology Operations Director at YMCA of Austin in Texas, for the lasting impact he has made on the safety and security of his community. After launching a complete overhaul of the security infrastructure across the YMCA of Austin’s ten distributed sites, he introduced a security training program to teach employees how to effectively and responsibly use Verkada’s platform. With his team leveraging AI-powered features that enable real-time response, Mitchell was able to reduce illegal access to YMCA facilities by 40% and reduce emergency response time to less than 90 seconds on average.

Security Professional Excellence Award: Enhancing Safety with Integrated Systems

We recognized Christina Isetta, Director of Administration at United Cerebral Palsy of the North Bay in California, for her exceptional dedication to transforming security within her organization and community. She identified critical vulnerabilities in UCPNB's security infrastructure that made its multiple facilities frequent targets of theft. Through her strategic deployment of an integrated alarm system with talkdown horns paired with AI-enabled cameras, Isetta achieved remarkable results: a 50% reduction in repeat intrusion attempts within the first three months and a significant boost in staff confidence regarding their personal safety at work.

School Safety Excellence Award

We recognized Didar Hayytov, IT Manager at Triad Math and Science Academy in North Carolina, for his innovative approach to creating a truly safe learning environment that addresses both physical and emotional well-being. After identifying significant gaps in campus safety, he implemented a holistic physical security strategy that integrated advanced cameras and access control systems with visitor management systems that included a unique mental health screening for students. This comprehensive approach to campus protection resulted in unauthorized access attempts plummeting by 99.9% and emergency alert response times improving by 60%.

Each of these Safety Champions embodies the values and mission we’re working to achieve: the protection of people and places. We’re inspired by their commitment to making their communities safer and embracing new technologies, which serves as an inspiration to professionals across all industries.

Congratulations to all our winners, and more importantly, thank you for making our world a safer place.

The 2026 Safety Champion Award submissions will open in January 2026 at www.verkada.com/safety-champion-awards.