Joel Clement directed the Department of Interior’s Office of Policy Analysis and assessed the impacts of climate change on Native Arctic communities. In June 2017, Clement and dozens of senior officials were involuntarily reassigned as part of a larger systematic effort within the Trump administration to marginalize employees whose work focuses on climate change and other environmental issues. Clement wrote a scathing letter in The Washington Post entitled “I’m a Scientist. I’m blowing the whistle on the Trump administration,” calling out the administration for its dismissal of climate change issues and for silencing civil servants. Clement’s willingness to exercise his rights as a whistleblower rather than stay silent prompted widespread media coverage. Clement won the Callaway Award for Civic Courage in 2017 (Source: CPJ)

In a September 2015 press conference, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha risked her career to reveal research findings that showed children’s blood lead levels in Flint, Michigan, had doubled after the city’s water source was switched to the Flint River in April 2014. Despite immediate blowback from state and local officials, Hanna-Attisha persisted with her research and continued to speak out on the subject. After her findings were corroborated independently by The Detroit Free Press, she became internationally known as the face of those fighting the Flint Water Crisis (Source: CPJ)

Miranda Brown, Chief of the East and South Africa section for the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, blew the whistle on the sexual abuse of children in the Central African Republic by peacekeepers and the retaliation against Anders Kompass, the one senior official who reported it to law enforcement. Subsequently, she was told her contract would not be renewed. When she objected, her post was suddenly transferred from Geneva to Fiji. Despite these reprisals, Brown testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, bringing light to the epidemic of sexual abuse in the Central African Republic and the plight of those at the UN who try to combat it.

Jim Schrier, a veteran USDA meat inspector, reported clear humane handling violations involving market hogs at a Tyson Foods slaughter facility. After raising concerns to his supervisor, he was sent to work at a facility 120 miles away. His wife started a Change.org petition that has gathered more than 180,000 signatures asking the USDA to move her husband back to his original post near their home.

Dr. Aicha Elbasri was the spokesperson for the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur when she witnessed first-hand how the UN was obscuring the reality of atrocities being committed against Darfuris and failing to protect civilians. Unwilling to be a part of a mission that was lying to the public, Elbasri resigned eight months into the position and leaked thousands of documents illustrating the operation’s failings to Foreign Policy Magazine. Elbasri’s case garnered widespread international attention and in June 2014, the International Criminal Court called upon the UN to conduct an independent investigation into the allegations. As a result of Elbasri’s disclosures, the UN was pressured to conduct an internal review of the mission.

Phyllis McKelvey is a retired USDA Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) chicken inspector. Before leaving the USDA in 2010, McKelvy witnessed firsthand the damage the agency’s new poultry inspection model creates, including turning inspection duties over to company employees and increasing line speeds to the point where inspectors have only 1/3 of a second to view a carcass. Her concerns led her to start a petition asking the USDA to halt its plans, which gained more than 180,000 signatures.

Larry Alt and Pete Forcelli, agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF), helped expose issues surrounding the Operation Fast and Furious scandal, the program that resulted in federally-monitored guns ending up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

Peter Van Buren, a veteran Foreign Service Officer at the State Department authored the book We Meant Well, which exposed massive fraud while serving as the leader of two Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Iraq from 2009-10. It detailed how the U.S. wasted more than $44 billion in reconstruction efforts. In September 2012, he was forced to retire.

Eileen Foster, a former high-ranking official at Countrywide Financial and then Bank of America after its purchase of Countrywide in July 2008, exposed systemic fraud at Countrywide Financial and the corrupt activities of company officials that gave rise to the economic crisis.

Immediately following the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in April 2010, Wilma Subra found evidence of serious health risks for clean-up workers and Gulf Coast residents from crude oil, aerosol forms of oil, and dispersant used on the spill.

Samy Kamkar is a computer hacker who exposed the illicit global mobile phone tracking of all users, regardless of GPS or Location Services settings, on the Apple iPhone, Google Android and Microsoft Windows Phone mobile devices, and their transmission of GPS and Wi-Fi information to their parent companies.

Dr. Dean Wyatt, a former USDA Public Health Veterinarian, discovered humane handling violations at two slaughter plants in Oklahoma and Vermont. Though he was reprimanded and subjected to retaliation, he was ultimately vindicated by an undercover video released in 2009.

John Kopchinski is a former Pfizer sales representative whose whistleblower lawsuit launched a massive government investigation into Pfizer’s illegal marketing of prescription painkiller Bextra. Part of a $2.3 billion global settlement, the case was the largest healthcare fraud settlement in U.S. history.

Gabe Bruno was a former FAA Manager of the Orlando Flight Standards District Office. He alleged the FAA lacks a national security screening mechanism for mechanics with fraudulent certificates, leaving the industry open to potential terrorism.

While overhauling security for a major telecommunications company (independently identified as Verizon), computer security expert Babak Pasdar discovered the “Quantico Circuit” at the company’s facility that surreptitiously re-routed and captured all customer mobile phone communications. Pasdar’s findings were one of the pioneering disclosures that exposed the full extent of domestic spying on Americans.

While serving as a senior civilian Air Force aircraft mechanic, George Sarris discovered serious maintenance concerns with two types of aircraft critical for national security missions. Ultimately, he settled a Whistleblower Protection Act lawsuit with the Air Force.

Kit Foshee blew the whistle on the ammoniation process used by his former employer Beef Products Inc. (BPI) on its low-grade beef product later known as “pink slime.”

Frank Terreri joined the Federal Air Marshals Service after the 9/11 attacks and disclosed numerous security problems on behalf of 1,500 air marshals. He questioned policies that helped identify undercover air marshals and challenged endorsing news segments that revealed methods agents use to respond to hijacking. He was vindicated by the OSC in 2006.

Mark Klein, a retired communications technician for AT&T, revealed the details of the secret 2003 construction of a monitoring facility in San Francisco thought to be operated by the NSA as part of its warrantless surveillance program.

Cate Jenkins, a former EPA chemist, wrote memos to the EPA Inspector General, Congress and the FBI detailing the chemical composition of dust from the 9/11 attacks and its hazards to responders. She asserted the EPA lied about the known dangers of the dust which caused chemical burns in the lungs.

While evaluating $90 billion of mortgages Citigroup was buying from Countrywide and other lenders, former Citigroup vice president Richard Bowen tried to warn about the rise in defective mortgages. Bowen raised concerns that roughly 60% of prime mortgages were defective, as well as Citigroup’s practice of lowering its standards for subprime mortgage pools. In 2010 he testified before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and continues to face repercussions as a whistleblower today.

Gary Aguirre is a former SEC lawyer who reported wrongdoing by SEC officials for their failure to allow a proper investigation of one of the country’s leading hedge funds. Aguirre was dismissed following his attempt to subpoena John Mack, the future CEO of Morgan Stanley.

Rick Piltz, a senior associate in the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, resigns over the White House’s attempt to interfere with the program’s findings and manipulate them to overstate the degree of scientific uncertainty about human causes of climate change.

National Security Agency (NSA) Senior Executive Thomas Drake identified a massively wasteful and ineffective program that sacrificed security and privacy. Drake reported the program first using all proper internal channels (NSA, Congress, DoD IG), then later to a reporter in 2005. Prosecuted under the Espionage Act, he saw his case collapse by June 2011. Nonetheless, he was forced to mount a crushing legal battle for four years and his career was destroyed.

While working at UBS bank in Switzerland, banker Bradley Birkenfeld realizes that managers at the bank are encouraging American clients to evade taxes by putting their money in offshore accounts. Despite the recovery of billions of taxpayer dollars and the fact that he has helped to end the illegal UBS tax fraud scheme, Birkenfeld is ordered to serve a 40-month prison sentence.

Samuel Provance, system administrator for U.S. Army Military Intelligence at the Abu Ghraib prison, publicly revealed the role of interrogators in the abuses, as well as general efforts to cover up the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse itself.

Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.) safety officer David Graham breaks ranks with his employer and testifies to the U.S. Senate that Merck’s blockbuster arthritis drug Vioxx has killed as many Americans as the Vietnam War. Merck is forced to withdraw Vioxx from the market, and the F.D.A.’s reputation is severely tarnished.

Gerald W. Brown, a former firestop contractor and consultant, uncovered the Thermo-lag circuit integrity scandal and silicone foam scandals in U.S. and Canadian nuclear power plants, which led to Congressional proceedings as well as Provincial proceedings in the Canadian Province of Ontario concerning deficiencies in passive fire protection.

Jon Oberg, while working at the Department of Education as a researcher, discovered illegal payments to student loan lenders of federal tax dollars that department officials instructed him not to investigate. On his own time, he researched the payments and reported them to Congress, which in 2004 ended the payments prospectively, saving billions of dollars. In 2007, Oberg sued the recipients under the False Claims Act. Three years later, the Department of Justice announced it had settled four of the cases for over $57 million.

British government translator Katharine Gun leaks an e-mail detailing illegal activities by the US and UK in their push to invade Iraq. In the document, a U.S. National Security Agency official requests British help with spying on UN diplomats. Gun is arrested and charged with crimes before the case is finally dropped in 2004.

Department of Justice Ethics Advisor Jesselyn Radack warned FBI agents who sought to interrogate “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh without his legal counsel present.

Technical Director William Binney and Senior Analyst J. Kirk Wiebe retired from the National Security Agency (NSA) after trying to blow the whistle on NSA’s gross mismanagement and waste in connection with the failed data collection program known as Trailblazer.

Sherron Watkins was Vice President of Corporate Development at Enron. She is considered by many to be the whistleblower who helped to uncover the Enron scandal in 2001, as she alerted then-CEO Ken Lay to accounting irregularities within the company, warning that Enron ‘might implode in a wave of accounting scandals.’

John Munsell, a small-business owner and meat grinder, reported that a giant packing company (ConAgra) was the source of E. coli-tainted meat at his plant. His disclosures, along with deaths from the E. coli-tainted beef, spurred one of the largest recalls in history, though as much as 80% of the potentially tainted shipment had already been consumed.

Kathryn Bolkovac is a former police investigator who served as an International Police Task Force human rights investigator in Bosnia. She cooperated with Human Rights Watch to expose the misconduct and human rights abuses committed against young girls, forced into prostitution and used as sex slaves by U.S. military contractors and other UN-related police and international organizations.

Cathy Harris, a former senior inspector for the U.S. Customs Service (USCS) at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, disclosed to the media the USCS practice of discriminatory racial profiling. She verified that women of African descent were targeted as possible drug couriers when only 3% of those women were actually carrying drugs, whereas drugs were found on 30% of white travelers detained and searched. Harris’ revelations resulted in a landmark GAO study of USCS profiling practices, and federal legislation to reform these unconstitutional practices.

Marc Hodler was an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member who blew the whistle on the Winter Olympic bid scandal for the 2002 Salt Lake City games. Accusations included members taking bribes from the Salt Lake Organizing Committee during the bidding process. Ultimately, several IOC members were expelled and the IOC adopted new rules.

David Franklin files a whistleblower lawsuit against Warner-Lambert exposing illegal promotion of the drug Neurontin. The ensuing investigation uncovers illegal industry-wide practices and results in a $430 million penalty to resolve criminal and civil charges.

EPA veteran William Sanjour won a landmark lawsuit against the federal government which established the First Amendment rights of federal employees to criticize their employer.

Auditor Casey Ruud testified to Congress about missing plutonium, and public and worker health dangers, at the nation’s nuclear weapons reservation in Hanford, Washington. His testimony led to the halting of plutonium production in the US two years prior to the end of the Cold War.

John Michael Gravitt, a machinist foreman at General Electric, sued GE for defrauding the U.S. Department of Defense when GE began falsely billing for work on the B1 Lancer bomber. The case led to federal legislation bolstering the False Claims Act in 1986 that made it easier for whistleblowers to collect damages and a record settlement for Gravitt.

Frank Snepp, a CIA analyst at the US Embassy in Saigon, published Decent Interval about Operation Frequent Wind and failure to prepare for the fall of Saigon. Names, methods and sources were redacted from the book, but CIA Director Stansfield Turner had Snepp prosecuted for breach of contract, resulting in the loss of all income from the book’s publication.

GE engineers Gregory Minor, Richard Hubbard and Dale Bridenbaugh reveal safety issues at nuclear power plants and subsequently resign. Over the next 15 years, more than 500 additional whistleblowers disclose further issues, resulting in the halting of construction of three plants and the overhaul of the Three Mile Island clean up.

After a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex, Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover ties between the break-in and the White House. Anonymous source “Deep Throat” gives reporters information that eventually leads to President Nixon’s resignation. In 2005, Deep Throat is revealed to be W. Mark Felt, former associate director of the F.B.I.

NSA intelligence analyst Perry Fellwock exposed secret surveillance practices in an interview with Ramparts magazine under the pseudonym Winslow Peck. Legislation was passed in 1973 to stop the NSA from spying, but later ignored.

After police officer Frank Serpico reports police corruption to his superiors for several years and no action is taken, he approaches The New York Times with a story that ultimately forces New York City mayor John Lindsay to establish a commission to investigate police corruption.

A. Ernest Fitzgerald, a Department of Defense auditor, reports a $2.3 billion cost overrun in the Lockheed C-5 aircraft program. President Nixon reportedly tells aides to fire Fitzgerald, but he’s reinstated four years later. In the late 1980s, Fitzgerald plays a part in the investigation that reveals the Pentagon has purchased $200 hammers and $900 toilet seats.

John Paul Vann, an American colonel, reported to his superiors (and, later, the media) that American policy and tactics during the Vietnam War were seriously flawed. He was asked to resign his commission.

Through secret congressional testimony and a book entitled War is a Racket, retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler exposed government corruption known as “The Business Plot” that aimed to overthrow FDR’s presidency.

Julius Chambers, one of America’s first investigative journalists, admitted himself to New York’s Bloomingdale Insane Asylum and published an exposé proving patient abuse. 12 patients were subsequently released and laws were substantially re-written.

Confidential letters exposed by Benjamin Franklin proved the governor of Massachusetts misled Parliament to promote a military buildup in the new world. The governor was dishonorably discharged and exiled.