Jeremy Grant, who has led the government’s effort over the past four years to prove that “killing the password” is possible, is leaving government.

Grant, who officially is a senior executive adviser for identity management as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has led the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) program since 2011.

In an email to staff, Grant said he’s unsure where he will go next, but plans to leave NIST in April.

“Leading the implementation of the NSTIC is hands down the best job I’ve ever had; I’m truly blessed to have been given the opportunity to serve in this role, and to have had the chance to work with such a talented and dedicated team,” Grant said in the email obtained by Federal News Radio.

He said Mike Garcia will become acting director of the NSTIC program office until a new director is named.

Garcia has been the deputy director of NSTIC since September 2013 and previously worked at the Homeland Security Department as a senior cybersecurity strategist.

Grant came to NIST after spending most of his career in industry, working at ASI Government and Maximus.

In coming to NIST, Grant has focused on two main jobs: getting funding out to pilot the concepts outlined in the January 2011 national strategy to secure online transactions, and to help coordinate the government’s move away from passwords through the Connect.gov — formerly the Federal Cloud Credential Exchange (FCCX) — program.

Both efforts are well underway and moving toward success. NIST transferred the care and feeding of Connect.gov to the General Services Administration last year. GSA said in December that agencies can use secure, online credentials from two providers — Verizon and ID.me — and have since added Google, Yahoo! and PayPal.

Currently, NIST and the departments of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs are implementing Connect.gov to accept third-party credentials.

NSTIC also recently announced it was accepting applications for a fourth round of pilot funding. Since 2012, NSTIC has awarded $30 million in grants to test and prove different secure, online identity management concepts.

Another part of Grant’s role was bringing together industry and government to create a dynamic Identity Ecosystem Steering Group. The goal of the group is to be a private sector-led steering organization to administer the development and adoption of the Identity Ecosystem Framework.

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Jeremy Grant, NIST

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