YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – America Makes announced the recipients of its 2025 Ambassador Awards and Distinguished Collaborator Award at its annual Members Meeting and Exchange event Tuesday.
The Ambassador Award Program, launched in 2017, recognizes individuals who demonstrate exceptional commitment to advancing America Makes and its mission. The 2025 class embodies a cross-section of the industry whose efforts have significantly shaped additive technology and showcase the strength of the additive manufacturing community, a news release states.
This year’s recipients are:
- David Beck, former branch chief, space industrial base and supply chain, U.S. Space Force.
- Stacey Eeman, director of industry strategy, SME.
- Thomas Pomorski, director of additive manufacturing, Ursa Major.
- Mark Shaw, chief engineer, National Institute for Aviation Research.
- Samantha Snabes, co-founder and catalyst, re:3D.
- Andrew Thompson, manager and deputy chief engineer of additive manufacturing, Northrop Grumman.
- Rich Wetzel, president of The Lanterman Group.
“We are honored to have a passionate and powerful membership base that proactively leads efforts across their industries and beyond that boosts our efforts as an institute,” said John Wilczynski, executive director of America Makes. “Today, we sit at a critical juncture within America Makes. By reinforcing and expanding our effective collaboration model, the dedicated efforts of our supporters are essential to strengthening the U.S. industrial base and igniting the next wave of technological breakthroughs in additive manufacturing.”
Also during the event, Adele Ratcliff, former director of the Innovation Capability and Modernization Office, was presented with the 2025 Distinguished Collaborator Award. Recipients of the award, established in 2014, are celebrated for cultivating collaborative relationships with academia, government and industry. Over the course of her career, Ratcliff, who recently announced her retirement after nearly 30 years of service, has been a key driver in significantly boosting the agility and readiness of the U.S. defense industrial base to respond to national security challenges, the release states.
“While additive manufacturing has become ubiquitous, we still face the challenge of qualifying parts at pace; the adversaries do not pause their efforts, neither can we,” Ratcliff said. “We must think strategically, how to enable manufacturing in austere environments with unstable infrastructure while maintaining quality and reliability for critical national defense applications.”
Pictured at top: Thomas Pomorski, Stacey Eeman, Mark Shaw, Samantha Snabes, Andrew Thompson and Rich Wetzel.