FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 28, 2005
NINE FEDERAL EMPLOYEES RECOGNIZED FOR OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NATION
Washington, D.C. – Government leaders will converge in the nation's capital on September 28th to honor the nine recipients of the 2005 Service to America Medals, which honor the outstanding contributions of federal employees across the country.
“National events, from the attacks of 9/11 to more recent disasters like Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, remind us of the vital importance of a strong and vibrant federal workforce,” said Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service. “There is nothing more critical to government's success than attracting the best and brightest to serve. Through the Service to America Medals, we give the best within government their due respect, and honor them for making a very real difference in the lives of people across our country and around the world.”
John Fox Sullivan, president of Atlantic Media Company, said: “We are delighted to join in honoring the achievements of federal employees, whose vital work contributes immeasurably to giving our nation a secure, economically vibrant, and just society. I am proud that their stories will reach more than 1 million opinion leaders who will read of their achievements in the pages of The Atlantic, Government Executive and National Journal.”
The awardees, from nine different federal agencies, are recognized in the following categories: Federal Employee of the Year; Career Achievement; Call to Service; Homeland Security; National Security; Social Services; Science and Environment; Justice and Law Enforcement; and International Affairs.
The 2005 Service to America Medal awardees are:
Orlando Figueroa, a NASA employee from Silver Spring, Maryland who led the development of the Mars Exploration Rover project.
Barbara Turner of Falls Church, Virginia, and recently retired from USAID, who spent a 40-year career fighting childhood diseases in Egypt, leading USAID's efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, and raising hundreds of millions of dollars to fund development efforts around the globe.
Kevin McAleenan of Washington, D.C., Director of the Office of Anti-Terrorism at Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security. Inspired to public service after the 9/11 attacks, this young lawyer quit his private sector job and moved across the country to establish the Office of Anti-Terrorism, which was created to help better secure the nation's ports and borders from terrorists and terrorist weapons.
Elizabeth Grossman, an attorney at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from Brooklyn, New York, who secured EEOC's second largest sexual discrimination settlement ever in landmark case against Morgan Stanley.
Alan Estevez of Washington, D.C., a Department of Defense employee who implemented the use of Radio Frequency Identification by the military, transforming military logistics for the 21st century.
Steven Bice, a CDC employee from Atlanta, Georgia, who developed the Strategic National Stockpile and CDC's Emergency Operations Center, two of the country's most effective emergency preparedness organizations in the public health field.
Tobin Bradley of Washington, D.C., a State Department employee who organized 15 local elections in southern Iraq and developed a voting system that the U.N. used as the basis for the January 2005 national elections.
Subhashree Madhavan and the Rembrandt Project Team of the National Cancer Institute Center for Bioinformatics at the National Institutes of Health, who created a national brain tumor database that could lead to new cancer treatments and revolutionize the way cancer research is conducted.
Terence Lutes, an IRS employee from Alexandria, Virginia, who led the development of the popular eFile system that has allowed millions of Americans to get their tax refunds in as few as 10 days, while also cutting processing costs for government by as much as 90 percent.
The Service to America Medals were created in 2002 by the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization committed to revitalizing federal government service, and Atlantic Media Company (publisher of Government Executive, National Journal and The Atlantic).
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The Partnership for Public Service works to revitalize our federal government by inspiring a new generation to serve and by transforming the way government works.
