Northrop Grumman


This is one in a series of profiles on the 2012 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal finalists. The awards, presented by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, recognize outstanding federal employees whose important, behind-the-scenes work is advancing the health, safety and well-being of Americans and are among the most prestigious honors given to civil servants. This profile features a finalist for the Management Excellence medal Elliott B. Branch, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for acquisition and procurement.

The Navy and the Marine Corps each year award about $90 billion dollars in contracts for everything from submarines and battleships to fighter jets, helicopters, complex weapons systems, trucks, uniforms and body armor. Keep reading →

This is one in a regular series exploring how federal agencies are finding and implementing innovative ways to drive efficiency and cut costs.

When it comes to budget cutting, there comes a time when some programs simply have to be dumped. Keep reading →

Kathy Martinez may have been blind from birth, but she sees a lot. She sees the potential in all people, regardless of whether they have a disability. She recognizes the value of accessibility technology, and she’s a promoter of its adoption. She realizes that disabilities sometimes affect minorities more profoundly than others, and works to overcome that.

As the assistant secretary of Labor for the Office of Disability Employment Policy, Martinez has a power-perch from which to help advance the idea of inclusive hiring and technology to enable people to be fully productive. She’s traveled far from the production floor of a Kwikset door lock factory where she operated a punch press. Keep reading →

One day early last year, Veterans Affairs Department chief technology officer Peter Levin happened to run into VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.

“He came up to me and said, ‘I hear you’re working on a special project.'” Levin’s project was a tool that would give veterans easy and quick online access to their personal health records. Keep reading →