The nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service today announced the 33 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal finalists – outstanding federal employees whose important, behind-the-scenes work is advancing the health, safety and well-being of Americans.
The finalists (see the full list below) will be honored in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday as part of Public Service Recognition Week. The Service to America Medals have earned a reputation as the most prestigious awards dedicated to honoring America’s civil servants.
“The Service to America Medal finalists epitomize the true spirit and value of public service,” said Max Stier, Partnership for Public Service President and CEO. “Their stories showcase the good that our public servants do each and every day behind-the-scenes on behalf of the American public.”
The finalists are contenders for nine Service to America Medals, including Federal Employee of the Year. Medal recipients will be announced on September 13 at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C. Medal categories include Science and Environment; Homeland Security; Justice and Law Enforcement; National Security and International Affairs; Citizen Services; and Management Excellence.
The finalists’ achievements range from medical and scientific advances for amputees and the treatment of diabetes in children, to helping disadvantaged Americans file their taxes and saving hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars through smart procurement practices. Twenty-eight of the nominees are from the D.C. metropolitan area. Others work in Atlanta, Houston, Utah and Germany.
The Service to America Medal finalists were selected from nearly 400 nominations submitted for consideration. Medal recipients will be chosen by a committee that includes leaders from government, academia, the private sector, the media and the philanthropic community.
Renamed The Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals in 2010 to commemorate the organization’s founder, the program has honored more than 400 outstanding federal employees since its inception in 2002.
Breaking Gov has published the profiles of 2011 finalists and winners since they were announced in September of last year.
Here are the 2012 Service to America Medal finalists:
Call to Service Medal – recognizes a federal employee whose professional achievements reflect the important contributions that a new generation brings to public service.
Shane Morris
Position: Supervisor, Diplomatic Courier Service
Agency: Department of State
Location: Germany
Achievement: Overcame numerous obstacles during the Arab Spring uprisings to ensure that U.S. diplomats in the Middle East could securely dispatch and receive classified documents and equipment. More »
Jacob Taylor
Position: Physicist
Agency: National Institute of Standards and Technology
Location: Gaithersburg, Maryland
Achievement: Came up with an original scientific theory that could lead to medical imaging in microscopic detail for better health care, while also developing innovative technology to allow greater quantities of data to speed across the Internet with less energy and at lower cost. More
Deborah Temkin
Position: Research and Policy Coordinator for Bullying Prevention Initiatives
Agency: Department of Education
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Leads the government-wide campaign against bullying, working with the White House and federal agencies to educate school districts and governments at all levels on what they can do to protect young people from this painful and sometimes fatal problem. More
Career Achievement Medal – recognizes a federal employee for significant accomplishments throughout a lifetime of achievement in public service.
James Cash
Position: Chief Technical Advisor, Office of Research and Engineering
Agency: National Transportation Safety Board
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: For nearly three decades, has used his engineering expertise to extract information from airplane cockpit recorders and other recording devices to determine the causes of major transportation accidents. More
H. Allen Dobbs
Position: Chief Medical Officer, National Disaster Medical System
Agency: Department of Health and Human Services
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Significantly improved the way disaster victims receive health care by creating electronic systems to track those receiving medical treatment, to quickly assign emergency medical teams and to assess emerging threats and resource needs. More
Patricia Hayes
Position: Chief Consultant, Women Veterans Health Strategic Health Care Group
Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Spent a career breaking barriers and advancing the health-care needs of women in a male-dominated veterans health-care system. More
Lynn Mofenson
Position: Branch Chief, Pediatric, Adolescent and Maternal AIDS Branch
Agency: National Institutes of Health
Location: Rockville, Maryland
Achievement: Played a pivotal role in preventing the AIDS epidemic among children by studying ways to prevent mother-to-child transmission. More
Citizen Services Medal – recognizes a federal employee for a significant contribution to the nation in activities related to social services (including economic development and assistance, education, health care, housing, labor and transportation).
Susan Angell, Mark Johnston and the Homeless Veterans Initiative
Positions: Executive Director, Veterans Homeless Initiative (Angell); Deputy Assistant Secretary for Special Needs, Office of Community Planning and Development (Johnston)
Agencies: Department of Veterans Affairs (Angell); Department of Housing and Urban Development (Johnston)
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Led an interdepartmental program that reduced veterans homelessness by 12 percent in one year as part of an ambitious national goal of finding shelter for all veterans by 2015. More
Heidi King and James Battles
Positions: Director, Patient Safety Solutions Center, TRICARE Management Activity (King); Social Science Analyst, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (Battles)
Agencies: Department of Defense (King); Department of Health and Human Services (Battles)
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Created and implemented a health-care professional team training program that has become the gold standard for eliminating thousands of preventable patient deaths each year due to medical errors. More
Livia Marques
Position: Director, People’s Garden Initiative
Agency: Department of Agriculture
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Led a nationwide initiative that resulted in the creation of more than 1,600 community-based “People’s Gardens” and the donation of 1.3 million pounds of produce to the needy. More
Michael A. McBride
Position: Supervisory Financial Analyst
Agency: Internal Revenue Service
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Achievement: Established partnerships with more than 4,000 organizations that have annually enlisted nearly 90,000 volunteers to prepare millions of federal tax returns for disadvantaged filers. More
Lance Rodewald
Position: Director, Immunization Services Division
Agency: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Achievement: Enhanced the nation’s publicly-funded vaccine programs to protect greater numbers of children against life-threatening diseases by adding new vaccines, modernizing distribution, and reducing racial, ethnic and economic disparities. More
Homeland Security Medal – recognizes a federal employee for a significant contribution to the nation in activities related to homeland security (including border and transportation security, emergency preparedness and response, intelligence and law enforcement).
Arthur M. Friedlander
Position: Senior Scientist
Agency: U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases
Location: Fort Detrick, Maryland
Achievement: Steered the development of new and highly promising anthrax and plague vaccines now in clinical testing and generated recommendations for post-exposure treatment of anthrax to protect the public in the event of a bioterrorist attack. More
Kelly Menzie-DeGraff and Team
Position: Director, Disaster Services
Agency: Corporation for National and Community Service
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Directed more than 300 AmeriCorps members deployed to Joplin, Missouri, where they coordinated the work of 60,000 unaffiliated volunteers who converged on the community to lend a hand and offer hope following the devastating tornado in May 2011. More
Nael Samha and Thomas Roland, Jr.
Positions: Program Manager, Office of Technology (Samha) and Program Manager, Office of Field Operations (Roland)
Agency: U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Location: Alexandria, Virginia
Achievement: Created a smartphone application that allows customs and border agents in the field to access law enforcement databases in real time, which has led to enforcement actions against more than 450 drug traffickers, weapons smugglers, illegal aliens and potential terror suspects since March 2010. More
Daniel Stoneking
Position: Director, Private Sector, Office of External Affairs
Agency: Federal Emergency Management Agency
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Forges unique partnerships with private-sector organizations to galvanize their participation in the planning, response and relief efforts for communities struck by tornadoes, hurricanes and other disasters. More
Justice and Law Enforcement Medal – recognizes a federal employee for a significant contribution to the nation in activities related to justice and law enforcement (including civil rights, criminal justice, counterterrorism, and fraud detection and prevention).
Shauna Henline
Position: Senior Technical Coordinator, Frivolous Return Program
Agency: Internal Revenue Service
Location: Ogden, Utah
Achievement: Saves the U.S. Treasury billions of dollars by leading the government effort to identify and bring to justice tax evaders and unscrupulous promoters of fraudulent income tax filing schemes. More
Michael Hertz
Position: Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division
Agency: Department of Justice
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Recovered billions of dollars from perpetrators of fraud against the federal government through innovative use of the False Claims Act. More
Kelly Maltagliati
Position: Special Agent-in-Charge, Archival Recovery Team, Office of Inspector General
Agency: National Archives and Records Administration
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Leads the recovery of thousands of priceless American historical documents stolen from the National Archives, including papers from the Civil War and Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. More
Louis Milione and the DEA Team
Position: Special Agent and Group Supervisor
Agency: Drug Enforcement Administration
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Led a high-stakes federal undercover investigation spanning three continents that resulted in the arrest and conviction of the “Merchant of Death,” the world’s most notorious arms trafficker. More
Management Excellence Medal – recognizes a federal employee for demonstrating superior leadership and management excellence through a significant contribution to the nation that exemplifies efficient, effective and results-oriented government.
Elliot B. Branch
Position: Deputy Assistant Secretary, Acquisition and Procurement
Agency: Department of the Navy
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Through savvy acquisition and procurement, ensures our warfighters have the right equipment when they need it, at the best possible value for the American taxpayer. More
Danette Campbell
Position: Senior Telework Advisor
Agency: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Designed and leads the government’s most successful teleworking program that has saved millions of dollars, increased productivity and boosted employee job satisfaction and commitment. More
Arleas Upton Kea
Position: Director, Division of Administration
Agency: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Simultaneously managed the critical tasks of doubling the FDIC’s workforce to respond to the nation’s financial crisis and overseeing a culture change initiative that led to employees being more satisfied with and committed to their jobs. More
Joeseph Kennedy, Ray Decker and Hakeem Basheerud-Deen
Positions: Deputy Associate Director (Kennedy), Assistant Director (Decker) and Deputy Assistant Director (Basheerud-Deen)
Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Successfully increased the number of veterans hired by the federal government by matching their skills with government careers. More
Alice Muellerweiss
Position: Dean, VA Learning University
Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Established a new unified approach to training and career development to help Department of Veterans Affairs’ employees nationwide more effectively meet the needs of the men and women who have served our country. More
National Security and International Affairs Medal – recognizes a federal employee for a significant contribution to the nation in activities related to national security and international affairs (including defense, military affairs, diplomacy, foreign assistance and trade).
Michell Bernier-Toth
Position: Managing Director, Overseas Citizens Services
Agency: Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Leads the effort to prepare the staff at U.S. embassies and consulates to help protect and evacuate Americans caught up in uprisings, wars and natural disasters. More
Richard Boly
Position: Director, Office of eDiplomacy
Agency: Department of State
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Created innovative social media and online platforms for State Department employees around the world to collaborate, share information and connect with important outside audiences. More
Joyce Connery
Position: Director for Nuclear Energy Policy
Agency: National Security Council
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Helped organize and create the agenda for an international summit that reduced and secured vast amounts of plutonium and highly enriched uranium, and that outlined additional steps to keep nuclear materials out of the hands of terrorists. More
Charles Scoville
Position: Chief, Amputee Patient Care Service
Agency: Walter Reed National Military Medical Center
Location: Bethesda, Maryland
Achievement: Enables combat amputees to lead active lives and potentially return to duty, through an internationally recognized rehabilitation program that uses a novel sports medicine approach. More
Science and Environment Medal – recognizes a federal employee for a significant contribution to the nation in activities related to science and environment (including biomedicine, economics, energy, information technology, meteorology, resource conservation and space).
Myron “Ron” Diftler and the Robonau2 Team
Position: Robonaut Project Lead, Robotics Systems Technology Branch
Agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Location: Houston, Texas
Achievement: Developed the first humanoid robot ever sent into space, a revolutionary machine with a unique human-like hand that can take over simple, repetitive or dangerous tasks now performed by astronauts. More
Barbara Linder
Position: Senior Advisor, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Agency: National Institutes of Health
Location: Bethesda, Maryland
Achievement: Developed and tested innovative ways to prevent and treat the growing epidemic of type 2 diabetes in children, particularly among minority and disadvantaged children who are at greatest risk for this disease. More
Kyle Myers
Position: Director, Division of Imaging and Applied Mathematics, Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories
Agency: Food and Drug Administration, Center for Devices and Radiological Health
Location: Silver Spring, Maryland
Achievement: Sets the scientific standards to ensure that the pictures produced by medical imaging devices are accurate and can be reliably used to assist in the diagnosis of serious diseases. More
Neal Young
Position: Chief of the Hematology Branch, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
Agency: National Institutes of Health
Location: Bethesda, Maryland
Achievement: Saves lives through cutting-edge research and treatments for patients with bone marrow failure diseases, including the rare and once deadly blood disorder known as aplastic anemia. More