WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Defense Programs today announced the recipients of the Defense Programs’ Employee of the Quarter Awards.

“The Defense Programs Employee of the Quarter Awards highlight the talent and expertise of the men and women from throughout the national nuclear security enterprise who promote our nuclear security agenda,” said Don Cook, NNSA’s Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs. “The contributions, hard work and strong leadership from each recipient are large reasons for the many successes that NNSA Defense Programs continues to enjoy.”

Recipients of the awards are recognized for going beyond the call of duty in supporting the mission of NNSA’s Defense Programs. The selection of the recipients is determined at each site following its own specific criteria. The recipients are as follows:

• Pamela J. Valdez, Los Alamos Site Office, is recognized for serving as acting assistant manager and facilitating every aspect of the transition of the new acting manager, ensuring that emerging and long term security topics were smoothly transitioned.
• LANS PMT-3/NPI-1 Packaging Team, Los Alamos National Laboratory, is recognized for providing Los Alamos Site Office stakeholders notification of a programmatic proposal with the potential to negatively impact routine operations.
• Rochelle Russell, Kansas City Site Office, is recognized for providing the support and energy to KCSO Quality Management System by creating and improving quality and management processes including continuous improvement and management reviews.
• Luis Lopez-Gaston, Kansas City Plant, is recognized for his role in supporting the MC4682 Dual Capacitor Product Realization Team at Sandia National Laboratories. He supported a demanding travel schedule to the vendor’s site overseeing test and production to ensure key deliveries happened without delay.
• Daniel Nakahara, Livermore Site Office (LSO), is recognized for providing support to the NNSA governance and reform initiatives, specifically for leading the Enterprise Operating Requirements Review Board effort for LSO.
• Robin Goldstone, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is recognized for serving as the primary author of the FastForward R&D Statement of Work.
• Kevin Thomas, National Security Technologies /Nevada National Security Site, is recognized for his contributions to the Remote Sensing Laboratory for his role in developing a stand-off X-ray generator controller.
• DeAnn Longand Dirk Schmidhofer, Nevada Site Office, are both recognized for their contributions in the commencement of what is now an ongoing successful shipping campaign of Zero Power Reactor fuel plates from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to the Nevada National Security Site.
• Peter J. Manghan, Pantex Site Office, is recognized for maintaining the quality instruction list for all items with delegated acceptance stamping and for resolving shipping and receiving nonconformance issues with various customers.
• Margie Ramirez, Pantex Plant, is recognized for developing the Explosive Technology integrated schedule for all deliverables and for helping to prepare work scope and cost estimates in support of high explosives production for the B61 Life Extension Program.
• Sean Lee Hendrickson, Sandia National Laboratories, is recognized for leading the deployment of the first production implementation of Oracle Data Integrator within Science and Engineering Information Systems at Sandia.
• Donny Brady, Sandia Site Office, is recognized for working to obtain oversight support for the Radiation Protection program despite having a serious illness.
• Jewell Lee, Savannah River Site Office, is recognized for undertaking a massive activity to research, analyze, and develop the NNSA’s position concerning M&O Waste Solidification Building project performance issues.
• James Gibson, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, is recognized for leading a team that services the tritium loading facility at Savannah River Site. The team has continued to perform standard maintenance on the rest of the facility while providing support to complete and start up the Purge Stripper/Z-Bed Recovery Stripper Glove Box Upgrade, UPS Bypass Switch installation, and the Helium-3 purification and bottling station.
• Harry E. Peters, Y-12 Site Office, is recognized for the integral role he played in the recent development of a Critical Decision 1 package and recommendation for a path forward to address issues related to the UPF project and FY 2013 budget.
• Kathy M. Bracic, Y-12 National Security Complex, is recognized for her work as the project engineer on the Nondestructive Laser Gas Sampling and Life Certification Ovens/Manifolds projects assisting with the completion of testing and readiness activities for both the north and south banks of the life certifications ovens/manifolds.