2014 Peer Awards
Even though Randy Barth exudes qualities and examples of all the categories, he shines in Leadership and in giving his team the freedom to grow.
His positive, cheerful attitude is a pleasure to work with. He gets involved in all aspects of the project and goes above and beyond for every task at hand. His energy and expressive speech keeps the team focused in meetings. He is always there to support everyone with any help they need. He is meticulous and values quality work.
He is a great communicator, demonstrating excellent understanding of requirements in his emails. His emails are thorough and accurate with just the right amount of detail, leaving no room for misunderstandings or complications.
His technical expertise helped the Giovanni team use Bugzilla to track which build issues were fixed in which version, enabling the team to make the ‘version’ and ‘target milestones’ fields active for the Agile Giovanni project and to maintain the fields with the proper sprint numbers.
More importantly for the GES-DISC as a whole, Randy is the point person responsible for taking NASA technical mandates and turning them into actual workable policy for his group. We would like to take this opportunity to recognize Randy’s stellar accomplishments and present him with the 2014 Leadership Award.
Larry Schuler is a valuable member of the Scientific Visualization Studio. He has demonstrated exemplary technical skills, and has brought stability and innovative solutions to the environment that he is responsible for administering.
Larry is admired by his co-workers. He acts as a responsible mentor and takes the time to create a positive environment in which his coworkers can learn, brainstorm, and implement their plans. Larry has been instrumental in running the technical aspects of the Scientific Visualization Studio. This has helped to allow the animators and programmers to focus on their work instead of worrying about server stability.
We would like to recognize Larry’s stellar accomplishments and present him with the 2014 Technical Excellence Award.
Karen Fox is an outstanding team player. Her peers nominated her for her ability to work closely, efficiently and effectively with many EPO/Communication teams within GSFC, NASA and numerous outside entities. She is the backbone of Goddard’s Heliophysics team and as such was the leading force in developing and supporting the Comet ISON “Hangout”, an hours-long, live-streaming Google+ Hangout on Thanksgiving Day to track the comet’s progress.
NASA Goddard has become a go-to source for news about the imagery of the sun – the written stories, data visualization and video production that comprise these news releases are all assembled by a small GSFC team. Karen was instrumental in developing a breaking news plan for solar events that was tweaked and adopted by the HQ Office of Communications. This breaking news plan allows NASA to publish quickly and meet the national and international science media’s expectations.
Karen helps keep the Helio communications team organized and on track and is the hub for almost all the group’s communications. Karen is also involved in seeking out new stories to tell, and helps Goddard’s two Helio video producers get everything necessary to make videos about the stories she has uncovered. At the same time, she is constantly thinking about how the group can be more efficient and effective as a team, and has been highly successful at improving the team’s functionality. She is also cheerful, energetic and enthusiastic, which makes her a joy to work with. We would like to take this opportunity to recognize Karen’s stellar accomplishments and present her with the 2014 Team Player Award.
Jamee Serago is a valuable member of the project management team. Despite managing a giant workload, Jamee goes beyond her regular work responsibilities and steps in to help wherever needed. And she always does so willingly and with a smile on her face.
From the Peer Awards set-up to the All Hands meeting, she is there to lend a hand. And who do you think actually prints the certificates for every award we do? Jamee. Who makes the plaque for every employee for the Holiday Awards party? Jamee. Who helps us decorate for the Pumpkin Kill and the HOHO? Jamee. Badging problem? Benefits question? Check with Jamee.
No matter what challenge the PMO team is currently embroiled in, Jamee will be right in the thick of it working hard to resolve it. Most of the problems she works on are solved behind the scenes, unbeknownst to most of the employees at SESDA. Her proactive approach to problem solving often leads her to be taken for granted. We would like to take this opportunity to recognize Jamee’s stellar accomplishments and present her with the 2014 Unsung Hero Award.
As conference logistics coordinator extraordinaire, Paul Cursey has proven that he is willing to help anyone in need despite his busy work schedule as a machinist.
The Firefly Cube-sat group was two weeks away from shipping the satellite when a number of small parts came in that did not fit. The team needed to assemble the satellite that day and the machinist that they normally turn to was completely filled up with work that needed to be done immediately. Paul completed the work in a half an hour and the team was able to continue the satellite assembly that day. He selflessly helps everyone he can, behind the scenes, when groups need help and have no one else to turn to.
Paul will always accept the tasks that are laid before him and he does not suggest that the work be farmed out. This has resulted in his popularity as a “get things done kind of a person” that people go to when they want their job done quickly and accurately. So, Paul is truly an ‘Unsung Hero’ and worthy of this award. We would like to take this opportunity to recognize Paul’s stellar accomplishments and present him with the 2014 Unsung Hero Award.
Felix Noreiga is a skilled craftsman who makes prototype parts for Code 699 that cannot be made by outside vendors, from all kinds of materials. His vast knowledge of machining and experience make him an indispensable member of a team that is making flight quality parts that go into space. He has made parts for MAVEN and LADEE projects and is currently making parts for the EXO Mars/MOMA project.
Felix uses an Electric Discharge Machine (EDM), sometimes called a spark machine, whereby a finished part’s desired shape is obtained by using electrical discharges. The machine is computer controlled and the set-up or the programming through the Computer Numeric Control (CNC) is of major importance. Felix’s skill and experience with the CNC allows him to set up the machine such that the finished part is usable the first time – this results in saving the material and manpower cost of remaking the part and precludes schedule delays which the MOMA project can ill afford. Because of the uniqueness of his machining procedure he is able to occasionally lend a hand to projects outside of Code 699. We would like to take this opportunity to recognize Felix’s stellar accomplishments and present him with the 2014 Technical Excellence Award.
Aruna Muppalla has supported the 10G upgrade and implementation of IPV6 addresses for GES-DISC systems on the GSFC Science and Engineering Network (SEN). Aruna is the first in line for SEN user complaints. Not only does Aruna respond quickly after hours, she has shown great dedication and responds to calls while on vacation.
Aruna has provided solutions and work-arounds to resolve issues promptly and follows up to make sure the issue was resolved. She does this with an attitude that encourages quality solutions, making sure all policies are followed with utmost care.
Her technical expertise and pre-planning made implementation of the 10G Network and IPV6 addresses a smooth transition. We would like to take this opportunity to recognize Aruna’s stellar accomplishments and present her with the 2014 Team Player Award.
Jacob Reed is an outstanding team player. His peers nominated him for being extremely helpful, taking on new challenges and for his ability to work effectively and efficiently with others to get the job done. He is THE behind the scenes person for the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission’s communications and education outreach team. He is the web designer, webmaster, social media feeder, contact form replier, and touch screen application builder, without whom the job of getting the science content out to the public would be a hundred times harder.
Jacob designed and built the pmm.nasa.gov science and education pages and is conscientious about keeping them up to date. He has been designing and building an interactive touchscreen version that will be iPad compatible. He manages the mission social media accounts, updating them every day with good content. He is the driving force behind the GPM photo contests which have been very successful ways to engage the public. He also supports the Goddard web team by building pages for GPM content that will go on to the nasa.gov website.
While doing all this, Jacob is professional, responsive, and always ready to help, even with assignments that come up suddenly or with changing dates or material. He is one of his peers’ favorite people to work with at Goddard because they know that he’ll always have good ideas and can be counted on to not just do his job, but do it well and efficiently. We would like to take this opportunity to recognize Jacob’s stellar accomplishments and present him with the 2014 Team Player Award.
Elaine Vadnais has taken over all Configuration Management functions in addition to supporting the OPS team. High-priority GES-DISC CCRs and tickets need to be processed quickly and under pressure – Elaine is always there with a smile. Her accurate feedback makes trouble shooting easy and implementation quicker.
Elaine is always happy to do our installs, even when repeated installations are needed. She is quick to point out possible problems she sees and bring them to the team’s attention.
In particular, when doing cross-browser testing of a potential OPS release, Elaine is often asked to do an install every morning during the week or so of testing. She does this without complaint. This has made testing go much more smoothly.
Elaine demonstrates true team spirit, constant can do attitude and an ability to work well with everyone. We would like to take this opportunity to recognize Elaine’s stellar accomplishments and present her with the 2014 Team Player Award.
Michael Theobald is a task leader with excellent knowledge of tasks and day-to-day operations. He is a problem solver who never hesitates to provide a helping hand. He has a very busy work load but stops in a heartbeat to listen to a question and provide an answer – always with amazing speed and accuracy.
Mike knows the ins and outs of the very complicated S4PM system and when a problem or question arises, he is the go-to guy. He saves many people from their misery when they are trying to implement all sorts of data processing rules or are simply stuck in the dark corners of the various systems that nobody knows as well as he does. Want troubleshooting or a crafty workaround? Entangled in compilers and libraries? Looking for simple common sense? The solution is just a short walk to Mike’s office.
With all the pressures around, he manages to keep his calm and sense of humor. We would like to take this opportunity to recognize Mike’s stellar accomplishments and present him with the 2014 Technical Excellence Award.
As the social media lead for Goddard Space Flight Center, Aries Keck helps oversee dozens of individual mission accounts on Twitter, Facebook and other sites, but also helps direct much of the center’s high-profile social media outreach. In this capacity she has excelled at organizing NASA Socials, social media campaigns around events such as the Cosmos series and NASA-centric events such as Google+ Hangouts.
Working on multiple Hangouts over the past year – in both public and behind-the-scenes roles – Aries impressed her colleagues with her ability to handle whatever came at her during the planning and execution of multiple Hangouts over the past year. Publicly, Aries hosted several of the Hangouts, a job requiring poise, a nimble mind and the ability to listen to three people at one time. Behind the scenes, Aries also coordinated the practices, dry runs and experiments that have put Goddard in a leading position among NASA centers when it comes to hosting a quality Hangout.
A well-run social media event appears as if it happened on the fly, somewhat effortlessly. But that’s never the case, and Aries’ ceaseless and enthusiastic work behind the scenes this year made her a perfect recipient of an Unsung Hero award.
Ellen Gray’s job title is listed as “science writer and outreach coordinator” for the Global Precipitation Measurement mission. But the job was bigger than that as the launch of GPM’s Core Observatory approached this past February.
GPM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) – a fact that required an even greater deal of coordination and planning than for a typical mission’s communications effort. For more than a year leading up to launch Ellen helped manage a complex web of relationships while writing compelling stories and helping pitch the mission to interested media. Her behind-the-scenes work leading up to the successful communications campaign surrounding the GPM Core Observatory launch in Japan earned her this Unsung Hero award.
She represented NASA in Japan with professionalism and helped to cement the partnership with the JAXA. Prior to launch, she took Japanese language lessons to better represent NASA and to work more effectively with JAXA. Ellen has worked long hours, crossed the Pacific twice and ensured that this joint NASA mission was well represented. The successful GPM launch was due to a great team of engineers and scientists — but spreading the word of the mission was due in no small part to Ellen’s efforts.
