ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA – January 26, 2012. USACE IWR recently commended individuals and teams for their excellent work in 2010 and 2011 at its recent annual awards ceremony.
This year’s award winners and teams contributed to the Waterborne Commerce Statistics Center (WCSC) U.S. foreign transportation program, the Risk Management Center (a USACE National Center of Expertise (CX) and Directory of Expertise (DX)), Responses to Climate Change Program, Global Change Systems Program, Civil Works Regional Economic System, USACE Levee Safety Program, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) across multiple programs, USACE representation on the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), and customer care for IWR’s employees and centers. This year’s award winners include:
- Employee of the Year – James Lambert, Foreign Team Leader, Waterborne Commerce Statistics Center (WCSC). The WCSC foreign program consists of highly complex integrated databases. As team leader, Mr. Lambert coordinated the validation and correction of foreign trip and cargo records. He demonstrated initiative and skill in devising new work methods and procedures which saved time and resulted in substantial increases in the quality and timeliness of producing the U.S. foreign databases and products. Mr. Lambert led his team in the on-time completion of U.S. foreign transportation data for publication and submission into the OMBIL Navigation cube to be used for the annual Corps budget process, which is a critical deadline for WCSC. His leadership resulted in improved productivity of the team and program.
- Leadership Award of Excellence – Nathan Snorteland, Director, Risk Management Center. Mr. Snorteland’s vision for success and passion for quality, teamwork, and communication have been instrumental in successfully developing and implementing the risk-informed policies and procedures within the Corps Dam and Levee Safety Program. Through his tireless and steadfast efforts, Mr. Snorteland has met every challenge and adversity to demonstrate the benefits of this new process of prioritization and decision-making in an open and transparent manner. Mr. Snorteland’s significant contributions and accomplishments demonstrate his outstanding vision and leadership and have markedly advanced the influence and abilities of IWR, USACE, and the Nation.
- Scientific/Technical Employee of the Year – Joel Schlagel, Geographic Information Systems. Mr. Schlagel has become the leading expert on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and database design for both the Army and Department of Defense. He serves as technical lead for CorpsMap (the Corps standard GIS data portal), the Corps-wide implementation of enterprise GIS, the Defense Installation Spatial Data infrastructure (DISDI) Portal, the authoritative DoD-wide geospatial portal for installation and environment data and meta-data. His direct responsibilities at IWR include supporting Regulatory with their permit data base and developing the Watershed Information Decision Tool (WIDT).
- Special Act of the Year – Lauren Leuck, USACE representative to Council on Environmental Quality. Lauren has represented USACE on the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and has supported CEQ on several high-level environmental priorities for the Administration related to critical initiatives for USACE, including mountaintop mining, revision of the Principles & Guidelines, and the Federal Interagency Floodplain Management Task Force. Lauren has also served as IWR’s representative on the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force Sediment Management and Policy Workgroup and has worked on the Systems Approach to Geomorphological Engineering initiative (a bi-agency coastal landscape transformation initiative). She has supported regional sediment management and other coastal projects at IWR.
- Administrative/Technical Employee of the Year – Theresa Hoang, Executive Office Assistant. Ms Hoang, in addition to her duties as IWR’s Executive Office Assistant, provides dedicated and courteous customer care to all of IWR’s centers. She serves as one of IWR’s customer service representatives for payroll and international travel requirements and supports the Navigation Data Center’s work on data abstracts for OMBIL. Her integrity and hard work are reflected in the excellent services she provides to all individuals at all times.
- Product of the Year – Regional Economic System (RECONS). The Civil Works RECONS regional economic impact modeling tool was developed to provide accurate and defendable estimates of regional economic impacts associated with Corps spending. It can be utilized to track progress and to justify continued operation, maintenance, and construction work performed by the Corps. This modeling tool automates calculations and generates estimates of jobs and other economic measures such as income and sales associated with USACE’s ARRA spending and annual Civil Work program spending, as well as effects of economic activities such as water transportation and tourism spending associated with USACE core programs. A model certification and approval process is currently underway. Model development was funded under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Dr. Wen Chang led the effort.
- Product of the Year – USACE Levee Screening Tool. The USACE Levee Screening Tool is a critical component of the USACE Levee Safety Program. The tool will classify all Federal levees built and maintained by USACE, all Federally constructed and non-Federally operated and maintained levees in the Inspection of Completed Works Program, and all non-Federally built and maintained levees in the Rehabilitation and Inspection Program. It is a web-based product and is in production use across USACE to characterize risk posed by levees. Development of the tool was a team effort by David Margo, Jason Needham, Jeff Schaefer, Andy Harkness, and Dave Schaaf of the Risk Management Center.
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