Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals

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: Innovation Unearths New Information In Old Documents

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While an original rough draft of the Declaration of Independence is filled with strike-outs and corrections made by Thomas Jefferson, one word that he tried to expunge sparked the interest of Fenella France, a preservation scientist at the Library of Congress.

Using a sophisticated and safe imaging technique that she helped develop, France confirmed that Jefferson originally described the American public in the Declaration of Independence as “subjects” before replacing it with the word “citizens.” Keep reading →

 /  Published December 1, 2011 at 3:31 PM

Feds@Work: IRS Employee Eases Student Aid Process

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When applying to college, students and their parents traditionally have worried about grades, aptitude test scores and application essays. And then there’s the complex financial aid process that requires the submission of detailed tax information.

Supplying the tax data, in fact, has long proven to be a huge headache for many families, and in some cases it’s a major barrier. But thanks to Julie Rushin of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), millions of students and their families are now benefiting from a new user-friendly system that takes away that worry about the tax information. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 1, 2011 at 3:35 PM

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: Providing Jobs, Preserving Treasures

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At the height of our nation’s economic crisis, 34-year-old Interior Department employee Mary Pletcher became the lead career executive for awarding and tracking $2.9 billion in economic stimulus funds used to preserve and restore iconic national treasures, provide vital infrastructure in impoverished Indian communities and create jobs.

Leading the largest single investment in public lands since the Civilian Conservation Corps of the New Deal, Pletcher managed funds for some 4,000 projects ranging from major improvements to Ellis Island to the nation’s largest dam removal and natural habitat restoration project on the Elwha River in Washington State. Under her leadership, Interior met all of the requirements under the stimulus law on time, and with no significant instances of waste or fraud. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 17, 2011 at 1:30 PM

Feds@Work: Protecting the Chesapeake Bay

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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled a long-awaited plan in December 2010 to restore the water quality of the troubled Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, a complex blueprint calling for six states and the District of Columbia to substantially reduce pollution in the nation’s largest estuary during the next 15 years.

Among those working behind-the-scenes at the EPA was Katherine Antos, a 31-year-old water quality team leader. Antos is credited by colleagues with being instrumental in helping the states develop and evaluate their individual environmental plans, and in assembling the comprehensive package to cut pollution that has been killing fish and wildlife, destroying wetlands and contaminating drinking water supplies. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 13, 2011 at 3:01 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

Dr. William Gahl: Medical Sleuth

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This is the last of a series of profiles on the nine standout public servants who received Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals (Sammies) honoring their high-impact contributions to the health, safety and well-being of Americans at a Washington, D.C. gala September 15. The awards, presented by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, are among the most prestigious honors given to America’s civil servants. This profile features the winner of the national science and environmental medal, Dr. William Gahl.

As the founding director of the Undiagnosed Diseases Program at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. William Gahl has brought together a unique combination of elite medical specialists, researchers and federal resources to solve baffling illnesses and provide desperate patients with information and possible solutions for their often life-threatening ailments. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 29, 2011 at 11:00 AM
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