Awards - Center Operations Group

By Pete Castellano

Shelley Yak, and Dr. Wilson Felder address the Center Operations Group

On October 16, The Center Operations Group held an all hands meeting to discuss matters of interest to Group members. Group Manager Shelley Yak led the meeting, and Center Director Dr. Wilson Felder joined the Group as well.

Group members received awards for two accomplishments. Volunteers were needed to drive the Center Shuttle Van during an unanticipated absence of the regular driver. The following individuals received awards for their willingness to step up and volunteer to fill this need. Butch Dansby, George Smallwood, Raymond Stover, Janet Kinsell, Ken Beisel, Phil Askins, Geraldine Harvey, Daniel Petitt, and John Birney.

Volunteer Drivers (l to r) Geraldine Harvey, Service Liaison Staff Manager Dawn Zimmer, Janet Kinsell, George Smallwood, Butch Dansby, and Ray Stover

During the water emergency this summer, a team of dedicated professionals at the Center resolved that issue. The following team members received awards, Mary Lalasis, Deb Crawford, Kathy Fleming, Walt Vernon, Tom Grunwald, Keith Buch, Ken Crawford, Jim Woerner, Susan Linardo, Laurel Wittman, Michelle Holmes, Howard Kimpton, Nancy Davenport-Masi, Greg Falzetta, Dale Dingler, Holly Baker, Howard Kimpton, Kevin Scott, Don Campbell, and Carleen Houston.

Water Emergency Team member Mary Lalasis receives her award

Congratulations to all the Award Winners for their teamwork and excellence!

2007 Technical Leadership Award Winner

By Jason McGlynn

From left to right: Robert Cranston, IEEE Chair, John Frederick, and Mary Ann Boyce, AIAA Chair

On November 15, 2007, John Frederick was presented with the Technical Leadership Award by the Southern Jersey Professional Societies, comprised of the Southern Jersey Chapters of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The presentation was made at the 11th Annual Awards Banquet at the Mays Landing Country Club with an attendance of approximately 150 industry and government representatives from the local area. The purpose of the banquet is to recognize the significant engineering and scientific accomplishments of the Southern Jersey community. Nominations are open to all and can be made in six categories for work accomplished by area residents in engineering, science, and technology. This year’s selection process was very competitive, with 27 nominations made in the six categories. John was selected for the Technical Leadership Award from among a field of several highly qualified candidates due to his technical knowledge, and ability to influence people to work toward the completion of a goal.

Based on his extensive background in air traffic control (ATC) automation and his technical and leadership skills, in August 2005, John Frederick began leading the Verification and Validation (V&V) Protocol of Operations effort. The overall V&V Protocol of Operations defines a substantial change and enhancement to the Agency's Test and Evaluation (T&E) and acquisition processes that when fully implemented, will have a significantly beneficial effect on ATC system acquisition risk, cost, and ultimately Next Generation ATC system performance. In support of this mission, the Test Standards Board (TSB) was established.

In his role as the TSB Chair, John has been the principal advocate and driving force for the changes that have and are taking place. After doing the preliminary work of assessing the current state of FAA T&E, conducting customer and management surveys, and establishing best practices, John led the TSB in publishing the T&E Handbook containing standard processes for conducting high quality and consistent T&E that fulfills the mission of V&V; the V&V Operations Guide containing the procedures for administering and managing V&V processes and practices; the FY 2007 Test and Evaluation Proficiency Assessment that determined the skills testers need to remain on the cutting edge in T&E; and a White Paper detailing the results of the best practice information gathered and identifying those practices that need to be adopted. John also led three 2-day annual summits where he gave extensive briefings discussing the V&V process and T&E practice issues, resulting in improved cooperation/collaboration among the T&E community.

The Technical Center would like to congratulate John Frederick for winning the South Jersey Professional Societies Technical Leadership Award.