FedsAtWork

Best Of 2011: Public Servants Recognized With National Awards

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This is one in a series of articles highlighting Breaking Gov’s best stories of the past year. As we reflected on our 2011 coverage of innovation, technology and management amongst the federal agencies and workforce, this was among the stories that stood out as delivering key insight into the top issues facing today’s government community.

Thirty four public servants were honored for their distinguished service, including nine individuals who were awarded Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals for their high-impact contributions to the health, safety and well-being of Americans at a Washington, D.C. gala Sept. 15. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 27, 2011 at 12:00 PM

Feds@Work: NASA Deputy CIO Takes Data Centers Down to Size

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NASA’s deputy CIO Deborah Diaz doesn’t just talk about data center consolidation. She’s rolling up her sleeves and making it happen at the space agency.

Since Diaz joined NASA in 2009, she’s been responsible for shrinking the number of data centers from 79 to 54 and eventually to 22, driven by the Obama administration’s effort to eliminate excessive and duplicative services. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 15, 2011 at 4:04 PM

Feds@Work: VA Analyst’s Efforts Help Health Data Access Effort

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Veterans, Medicare recipients and military health care beneficiaries today can download digital files of their available personal health data on a computer, smartphone or flash drive, providing them with instant access to critical information and promoting personal management of their own health care.

This groundbreaking development is possible because of additions to three government websites, all now containing a “Blue Button” icon that allows individual users to login, view, print and save copies of their available personal health information, some of which is extracted from organizational health records. More than 250,000 people had downloaded their health information through the fledgling Blue Button initiative by the spring of 2011, but there is a potential for millions of people to use the system. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 3, 2011 at 10:03 AM

Feds@Work: Public Servant Devotes Career To Americans’ Health

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During almost 30 years of public service, Dr. Lawrence Deyton has worked for three major government organizations, and at each stop along the way has made a huge difference in improving public health and the lives of Americans.

A first-rate researcher, clinician and administrative leader, Deyton has played an influential role at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in fighting AIDS, at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) tackling life-threatening infections such as HIV and hepatitis C, and at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking to reduce smoking and limit its damaging health effects. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 31, 2011 at 9:30 AM

Feds@Work: Giving A Voice To The Mentally Ill

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When Neal Brown began his federal career as an intern with the National Institute of Mental Health nearly 40 years ago, life was very different for Americans with mental illness. Beyond carrying a significant social stigma, they often were removed from their communities and placed in institutions, with no say in their treatment and sometimes living under abusive conditions.

In those intervening years, Brown has become a leading federal advocate for shifting care and government resources from the large psychiatric institutions toward a less expensive community-based rehabilitative model. In the process, he has helped bring mental health consumers into policy development, program design and services implementation at the federal, state and local government levels. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 26, 2011 at 9:00 AM

Feds@Work: Doctor Devotes Career To PTSD Sufferers

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When Dr. Matthew Friedman began his career working with veterans nearly 40 years ago, not a single person had been diagnosed with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. In fact, the term had yet to be invented.

Today, as the executive director for the National Center for PTSD at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Friedman is widely known as a pioneer in the field of traumatic studies. His career has been devoted to identifying the causes of and treatments for PTSD and advocating for those whose psychological well-being has been harmed by stresses of war and other jarring experiences. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 24, 2011 at 7:00 AM

Feds@Work: Demographer Contributes To Peaceful Voting Process

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Oliver Fischer, a young Census Bureau demographer, landed two unusual assignments that contributed to U.S. policy aimed at bringing about a fair and peaceful vote for Southern Sudan to declare its independence from the northern part of the country.

Starting in 2006 and continuing through the early part of 2011, Fischer had two roles-that of a census expert helping to set the stage for an accurate vote count, and later as a member of the State Department’s Civilian Response Corps working in extremely dangerous parts of Southern Sudan to provide American diplomats with information in the run up to the referendum. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 21, 2011 at 11:00 AM

Feds@Work: Transportation Program Thwarts Terrorism

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In February 2011, a college student from Saudi Arabia was arrested in Texas for plotting to bomb U.S. targets after trucking company officials alerted authorities about a suspicious chemical they were hired to carry. A few weeks earlier, a Greyhound bus driver in Virginia persuaded a hijacker to let the passengers offload. They notified the police, who were able to defuse the situation and arrest the individual.

These separate incidents had one common thread-the transportation employees had been trained through a federal terrorism and security awareness program known as “First Observer.”
The nationwide program, led by William (Bill) Arrington of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), recruits and trains volunteers from the trucking, school bus and motor coach industries, law enforcement as well as sports stadium personnel, parking lot attendants and other highway transportation professionals to observe, assess and report suspicious activities that might pose a serious public threat. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 14, 2011 at 1:30 PM

Feds@Work: Financial Watchdog Benefits Soldiers

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Serving as a management and financial watchdog for the Department of Defense (DOD) is an enormous task, one made all the more daunting in recent years by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the huge growth in military spending.

As the managing director for defense capabilities and management at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Janet St. Laurent has been more than up to the job. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 7, 2011 at 1:42 PM

Government Printing Office Embraces Technology To Do More With Less

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As the U.S. government’s primary resource for producing official information for 150 years, the Government Printing Office has had to adapt to changing technology and a demand to do more with less in the current economic climate.

In fact, the federal agency has seen its workforce diminish over the years by nearly 75 percent, said Public Printer Bill Boarman as a recent guest on NBC Channel 4’s Viewpoint program (see video). The office currently employs 2,200 federal workers and Boarman said that number will likely fall again in the coming months and years. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 27, 2011 at 1:21 PM
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