On April 27, members and supporters of the Chanticleer Intelligence Brief (CIB) met for the CIB Awards Ceremony, a longstanding CIB tradition that marks the culmination of the semester. The event takes place to recognize the hard work of CIB recruits, analysts, senior analysts and members, and to renew everyone’s pledge to make the organization even stronger in the coming year.

This semester’s celebration marked the 13th CIB Awards Ceremony, in the tradition of the group’s first-ever banquet, which was held in May of 2016. As in previous semesters, the coronavirus pandemic did not stop the CIB from doing its work, and the organization was still able to recognize a number of members who did outstanding work in the past several months.

During the ceremony, the CIB recognized its most promising members based on the consistency of their work this semester. The head of each membership desk nominated a member for the Regional Expert Award, which is given for distinguished semester-long performance as a CIB member. The award winners were: Giovanna Costantiello (North America); Tyler Connolly (Europe); McKenzie Tsiantoulas (Russia, second semester in a row); Casey Mazzone (Africa); Ryan Freyland (Asia); Aubrey Belanger (Middle East); and Brendan Valcone (Special Topics).

Additionally, the editors of the CIB’s Weekly Intelligence Brief publication recognized one of the contributors this semester whose work for the publication represents the highest standards of content selection, analysis and written delivery. The award recipient was Vladislav Chugunov (Russia).

The organization recognized its six Critical Mission Center (CMC) directors, who launched the CIB’s inaugural Applied Intelligence Internship earlier this spring. These are: Amy Yeagley (Asia), Abigal McClean (North America), Kevin Joyce (Middle East), Ana Maria Lankford (CIB Director), Tate Few (North America), and Scott Boster (Latin America). These six Directors were surrounded by 24 Critical Mission Center Support Officers, who became eligible to complete this internship in a subsequent semester. Of those Support Officers, four were announced as the Fall 2022 CMC Directors. They are: Liam Boyle (Special Topics); Giovanna Costantiello (North America); Justin Ross (Asia); and McKenzie Tsiantoulas (Russia).

The following awards were presented to the following CMC participants: The Highest Quality Oral Intelligence Product Award, presented to the CMC Director with the best overall delivery of oral intelligence briefs, went to Scott Boster (CMC Yankee) The Highest Quality Written Intelligence Product Award, presented to the CMC Director with the best overall Trend Analysis and Assessment Reports, went to Ana Maria Lankford (CMC Whiskey). The Highest Quality Current Intelligence Product Award, presented to the CMC with the highest-quality Current Intelligence Report Circulars, was presented to CMC Yankee, consisting of Scott Boster (Director), Scott McDonald, Nathaniel Cannon, Gabriel Hoehn and Brendan Valcone. Finally, the Critical Mission Center Support Excellence Award, which recognizes the two most valuable CMC Support Officers of the semester, went to Justin Ross (Zulu) and Preston Schaefer (Alpha).

On behalf of the CIB Executive Team, CIB Executive Director Ana Maria Lankford recognized the longstanding work of our graduating Executive Officers, Hannah Clegg, Piper Danzek, Sandra Ataalla, Jake Viator and Jared Gott. Lankford, who is also graduating later this year, was presented by CIB Faculty Mentor Dr. Joseph Fitsanakis with the CIB Achievement Award. This recognition is offered by the CIB Executive Team to an individual member of the organization who has gone above and beyond the call of duty in contributing to the CIB’s efforts.

Dr. Fitsanakis also recognized the three incoming elected CIB Executive Team members, namely Lukas Delaney (Executive Director), Scott Boster (Chief Operations Officer), and Sophie Sherwood (Counterintelligence Officer). These will be joined by Tessa Bentley, Ryan Freyland, Gabriel Hoehn, Sierra Mason, Abigail McClean and Kristian Nesheim, who have been appointed to the Executive Team.

The final recognition of the evening went to the CIB North America, headed by CIB Officer Jake Viator. The desk won this semester’s CIB Weekly News Trivia Quiz for the second time in a row, this time just one point ahead of the Europe Desk, which came in second.

The CIB wishes to thank all of its Executive Team officers, its senior analysts and analysts, as well as its members, for a highly successful semester, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Our organization looks forward to continuing to strengthen our work and output in the semesters to come. We also want to congratulate our graduating members and wish them our very best as they embark on their next steps in life.