Ann Spungen and William Bauman of the Department of Veterans Affairs received Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals for developing “innovative medical advances and novel drug therapies” to help paralyzed veterans. (Courtesy of Partnership for Public Service)

Hundreds of federal leaders and employees gathered Monday night at the Oscars of the government workforce, an annual celebration to honor the achievements of the civil service.

The Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals, better known as the Sammies, were announced at a black-tie gala at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in downtown Washington.

The achievements of this year’s medalists range from helping paralyzed veterans to recovering close to $1 billion stolen from the Medicare system.

The crowd at the 13th annual awards was a who’s who of the federal government, including Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

The top medal, the Federal Employee of the Year, went to Rana Hajjeh of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and her colleagues for work on a global vaccination campaign. Edwin Kneedler, a career deputy in the solicitor general’s office who has argued 125 cases before the Supreme Court, won the Career Achievement Medal.

Rana Hajjeh of the Centers for Disease Control won for the Federal Employee of the Year. (Courtesy of Partnership for Public Service)

The other 2014 winners were:

●William Bauman and Ann Spungen of the Department of Veterans Affairs won the Science and Environment Medal for developing “innovative medical advances and novel drug therapies” to aid paralyzed veterans.

●Omar Pérez Aybar, Reginald France, Joseph Beemsterboer, Dan Bernstein, Randy Culp, Joseph Jeziorski and colleagues in the departments of Health and Human Services and Justice for uncovering hundreds of Medicare fraud schemes. Their work won the Homeland Security and Law Enforcement award.

●Sean Young and Benjamin Tran, Air Force engineers, won the National Security and International Affairs Medal for leading the development of an aerial sensor system to identify and destroy improvised explosive devices.

●Alan Lindenmoyer, a NASA program manager, received the Management Excellence award for helping launch “a new era of private-sector orbital transportation” while “dramatically reducing the costs to taxpayers of building and deploying rockets and spacecraft.”

●Sara Meyers of the Department of Housing and Urban Development was awarded the Call to Service Medal for setting up systems to analyze data to evaluate the performance of programs dealing with homelessness, public housing and rental subsidies.

●Michael Byrne, a former geographic information officer with the Federal Communications Commission, won the Citizen Service Medal for creating interactive, searchable online maps that put information about broadband availability in the hands of the public and policymakers.

Edwin Kneedler, a career deputy in the solicitor general’s office who has argued 125 cases before the Supreme Court, won the Career Achievement Medal. (Courtesy of Partnership for Public Service)

“The Service to America Medals are a powerful illustration of the good that government workers do every day and their impact on our lives,” said Max Stier, president and chief executive of the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, which awards the medals.

Speaking before announcing the winners, he said, “We have to reward the people who dare to challenge the status quo and take risks.”

Several winners said in interviews that they hoped the attention to their work would inspire other federal employees to reach high.

“The big thing to me is this shows them there’s still the ability to make a difference in federal work and federal service,” Young said.

Hajjeh, the top winner who will fly to Africa next week with a team that will help health-care workers who have not been affected by the Ebola virus prepare for a possible outbreak, said federal employees are “not used to getting recognition for our work.”

“Sometimes we don’t realize the impact we’re having,” the CDC researcher said.

Joe Davidson contributed to this report.