The drumbeat of low morale, budget cuts and pay freezes portray a dark vision of federal workers and the federal space itself. But in reality there is excellence brewing at every agency.
The Partnership for Public Service highlights some of those great stories in their annual Service to America Medals. The 31 finalists in seven categories represent a wide spectrum of federal achievements.
Tom Fox is the Vice President for Leadership and Innovation at PPS. He told Chris Dorobek on the DorobekINSIDER program that it is incredible to see the number of really dedicated public servants.
“The nominees include a scientist trying to find earth-like plantes elsewhere in the cosmos, to people domestically working to create jobs in a down economy to those who are working to find ways to help their agency work more efficiently and effectively,” said Fox.
All summer long we here on the DorobekINSIDER will speaking to the finalists. You will find all their stories by searching #Sammies on GovLoop.
But just to give you a taste of what is to come, Tom gave us some of his favorite nominees.
- William Borucki is a NASA space scientist who has been apart of the space program from the time we were building the space capsules. He has now designed, built and launched an incredible satellite that let’s us see 12,000 light years away. The satellite has discovered earth like planets elsewhere in the cosmos.
- Mark Demaria is a Meteorologist at NOAA. As a kid he used to look forward to the start of hurricane season while most kids his age looked to the start of baseball season. Now 30 years later he is creating groundbreaking models that let us better forecast the path and intensity of a hurricane. That work is saving lives, homes and businesses up and down the coast.
- Julie Segrea and Tara Palmore stopped the spread of a deadly hospital-acquired infection through the first-ever use of genome sequencing to identify the source and trace the transmission of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, creating a groundbreaking model for the healthcare industry.
- Terry Milholland is the CIO and CTO at the IRS. He overhauled IRS’ IT and tax processing systems, leading to quicker refunds and notices to taxpayers, reduce fraud and better internal management. The result of the better more effective use of technology is that taxes are being processed more quickly and frankly that is leading to faster refunds. And that is something we can all appreciate.
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