Great Federal Employees Initiative
Since May, Ted has addressed the Senate each week in honor of exemplary federal employees, thanking them for their hard work and unsung dedication to serving the American people.Himself a veteran public servant, Senator Kaufman hopes these stories will inspire Americans to consider careers as federal employees and plans to continue sharing examples of their important accomplishments throughout his term.
Anne Gallagher »
Anne is a native of Wilmington, Delaware, has worked at the Social Security Administration for eight years. In 1976, she began a lifetime of public service working for then-Senator Bill Roth in his Wilmington office. Her role, as Senior Caseworker for Constituent Services, was to intercede on behalf of Delawareans with federal agencies.
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Lisa Brown »
Lisa Brown serves as President Obama’s White House Staff Secretary. ... Nearly every memo destined for the President’s desk must first pass through the hands of the Staff Secretary.
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William Phillips »
Dr. William Phillips began working at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) in 1978. His findings have found important application in precision time-keeping, which is important for both private industry and for national security.
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Wendy Tada »
Wendy Tada has worked at the Department of Education for nine years. When she arrived at the Department in 2000, Wendy already had a great deal of experience working to expand opportunities for rural special-needs students in Hawaii and Alaska.
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Gareth Parry »
Dr. Gareth Parry has had a distinguished career at the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission advancing our nuclear safety. He is also a 2004
recipient of the distinguished Arthur S. Flemming Award for public
service. Gareth, who immigrated to this country from the United
Kingdom, has over thirty years of experience in developing models for
probabilistic risk analysis - or "P.R.A." He retired this September
after a long and distinguished career.
Ann Azevedo »
Ann Azevedo joined the FAA in 1997 with nearly two decades of experience in the private sector. Working from its facility in Burlington, Massachusetts, when she first started at the FAA, Ann served as the Risk Analysis Specialist for the Engine and Propeller directorate. In her current role as Chief Scientific and Technical Advisor for Aircraft Safety Analysis, Ann focuses on safety, risk management, and analyzing accidents.
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Gregory Symes »
Command Sergeant Major Gregory Symes had already served in the Delaware Army National Guard for seven years when he started working as a federal technician for the Guard in 1989. He continues to serve with dedication and distinction in his federal role with the Guard, staying on the forefront of ever-changing telecommunications technology.
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Stephen Anderson »
Dr. Stephen Anderson has worked at the EPA since 1986, and he has worked for over twenty years on promoting American leadership within the framework of the 1987 Montreal Protocol.
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Iris Morales »
No job is ever too big or too small for Iris as she quietly and competently plugs along, analyzing and correcting beneficiaries’ issues, whether it is securing a beneficiary’s lifesaving chemotherapy drugs or assuring beneficiaries that their co-payments are correct and they will be able to afford medical treatment.
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Kenneth Carfine »
A graduate of the University of Baltimore, Kenneth joined the Treasury department’s Financial Management Service in 1973. During his time there, Kenneth worked in banking, cash management, payments, check claims, and government-wide accounting.
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Zalmai Azmi »
Zalmai Azmi was fourteen years old when he fled with his family from Afghanistan. He arrived in the United States speaking very little English, and he became fluent while in high school.
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Erica Williams »
Erica Williams is an attorney with the SEC’s Enforcement Division. A graduate of the University of Virginia Law School, Erica has been with the SEC for five years. During that time, she has distinguished herself as a trial lawyer on several complex cases involving accounting fraud.
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Nicole Nelson-Jean »
When Nicole Nelson-Jean was just twenty-eight years old, she led a delegation of Energy Department negotiators in an effort to secure Russian nuclear materials in Siberia. Based out of our embassy in Tokyo, Nicole had to overcome the skepticism of her Russian counterparts, who were not accustomed to negotiating with someone her age.
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Dr. Janet Kemp »
Dr. Janet Kemp, who won this year’s Service to America Federal Employee of the Year Medal, organized a national suicide prevention hotline for veterans. As National Director for the VA’s Suicide Prevention Program, Janet oversaw the creation of the hotline to help combat veteran suicide, which has increased significantly in recent years.
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Allan Comp »
Allan Comp won the 2009 Service to America Environment Medal for his work at the Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining. He created the Appalachian Coal Country Watershed Team, a partnership between his office and VISTA volunteers who help local citizens and community groups organize clean-up projects and monitor water quality.
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Clare Rowley »
Clare Rowley is an Economic Analyst for the FDIC. She won the Service to America Call to Service Medal for helping to implement the FDIC’s mortgage modification program, which helped thousands of families stay in their homes after the collapse of subprime mortgages.
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Michael German »
Michael German, of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, has been working tirelessly to combat homelessness in America. The Interagency Council on Homelessness, which he leads, coordinates with over 850 state and local officials nationwide on efforts to help the homeless obtain medical care and permanent housing.
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Dr. Patricia Guerry »
Dr. Patricia Guerry has demonstrated great resolve while researching an elusive vaccine. Now serving as Chief of the Naval Medical Research Center’s Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Branch, she has spent nearly thirty years studying a microbe that causes food poisoning. Researchers discovered that the most common microbe involved in food-borne illnesses is Campylobacter.
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Amy Meyer »
Amy Meyer, who won the 2009 Service to America International Affairs Medal, arrived in Pakistan in 2006. As Director of the USAID’s Office of Economic Development in that country, she hit the ground running by working with local women to create dairy cooperatives.
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Dr. Thomas Waldmann »
The winner of the 2009 Service to America Career Achievement Medal, Dr. Thomas Waldmann, has been a medical researcher at the National Institutes of Health for over fifty years. Currently, Tom is Chief of the NIH National Cancer Institute’s Metabolism Branch, and the focus of his career has been researching disorders in which the body attacks its own cells.
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Sean Dennehy and Don Burke »
The 2009 Service to America Homeland Security Medal was shared by a pair of CIA employees who showed great intellect in solving a critical problem. In 2005, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence gave Sean Dennehy and Don Burke the task of improving information-sharing across the intelligence community.
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Ben Fisherow »
Ben Fisherow was awarded the 2009 Service to America Justice and Law Enforcement Medal for his work to prevent air pollution. As an experienced litigator with the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, Ben has spent over twenty years enforcing key provisions of the Clean Air Act and taking legal action against utilities that violate anti-pollution mandates.
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Orlando Figueroa »
When Orlando Figueroa took charge of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover project, in 2001, he set out to restore optimism and excitement after a string of setbacks. Less than three years later, under Orlando’s leadership, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover project successfully landed some of the most advanced technology ever created onto the Martian surface.
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Christine Spicer »
Christine Spicer had worked as a secretary in the Plan Benefits Security Division (PBSD) of the Labor Department's Solicitor’s office for more than twenty-five years when she suffered a stroke. That stroke left her sight and hearing impaired and unable to walk. Instead of retiring on permanent disability, Chris underwent a grueling program of physical, occupational, and speech therapy in order to return to work.
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Pearlie Reed »
Pearlie Reed was raised on a farm in the rural town of Heth, Arkansas, and he attended the University of Arkansas in Pine Bluff. He joined the USDA in 1968 as a student-intern for the Soil Conservation Service, and in the years that followed rose steadily in the from an entry-level soil conservator to District Conservationist, to Deputy State Conservationist, and he was eventually appointed as the State Conservationist for Maryland and California.
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Dave DiBetta »
In 1988, Dave DiBetta of Wilmington, Delaware, joined the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) as a Special Agent. Two years later, he was transferred to the Houston Division’s Special Response Team, which focuses on high-risk missions, where we served with distinction.
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Dr. Deborah Jin »
Dr. Deborah Jin serves as a research team-leader at the JILA-National Institute of Standards and Technology joint institute in Boulder, Colorado. Deborah’s team created a new form of matter, a major discovery in the race toward superconductivity.
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John Granville »
Working for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), John Granville exemplified the value of service above self. While on a mission in the Sudan to distribute hand-operated radio receivers to local villagers, so they could receive news about upcoming democratic elections, John was gunned down by militants.
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Denise Johnson »
Today, in parts of Africa and South Asia, hundreds of children each year still develop polio. While children in developed nations routinely receive the Salk or Sabin vaccines, this is a luxury for rural villagers in places like India, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Somalia. The CDC has set a goal of vaccinating every child on Earth. Leading this charge over the past decade, Denise Johnson serves as the Acting Chief of the CDC’s Polio Eradication Branch.
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Jeffrey Knox »
Before September 11th, Jeffrey Knox was a corporate lawyer on Wall Street. After that terrible day, Jeffrey was motivated to leave Wall Street and work for the Justice Department. As an Assistant U.S. Attorney from the Eastern District of New York’s Violent Crimes and Terrorism Division, Jeffrey Knox is on the front line in both the war on crime and the war on terror.
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Joe Connaughton »
For twenty-seven years, Joe Connaughton, a decorated World War II veteran, worked for the Army Missile Command’s Research Development and Engineering Division at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama.
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Brian Persons »
After receiving a degree in civil engineering, Brian Persons went to work in 1981 for the Navy Department as a ship architect at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, designing and maintaining the ships of our fleet.
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Dr. Douglas Lowy & Dr. John Schiller »
Working at the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute Center for Cancer Research, Dr. Douglas Lowy and Dr. John Schiller pioneered discoveries that led to the creation of the HPV vaccine against cervical cancer.
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Nicole Faison »
When she began her job as Director of the Office of Public Housing Programs in 2002, Nicole Faison inherited a HUD rental assistance program rated for thirteen years as a “high risk” program by the Government Accountability Office due to rampant waste, abuse, and fraud.
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Frazer Lockhart »
When the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Denver was designated as a Superfund site, it was estimated to take seventy years and nearly $40 billion to clean it up. Many advocated a permanent quarantine of the site, arguing that its rehabilitation was not worth the cost.
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Tracy Mustin »
Leading the charge to secure our ports, Tracy Mustin serves as Director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Second Line of Defense. Under Tracy’s leadership, her office has installed monitoring devices at more than a hundred airports, seaports, and border crossings in over forty countries, which help detect and prevent the trafficking of nuclear or radiological substances.
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Dr. Rajiv Jain »
Each year, it is estimated that two million patients develop infections while in U.S. hospitals for routine procedures. A hundred thousand of these patients die as a result, and the elderly and newborn are particularly susceptible.
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Dave Carballeyra »
Dave Carballeyra, the Air Force’s Director of Stereolithography, introduced new 3-D technology for bone and tissue imaging, which has improved treatment and rehabilitation care for wounded veterans.
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