FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 18, 2007
Contact: Sarah Howe
202-775-9111
PARTNERSHIP FOR PUBLIC SERVICE SELECTS THIRTY-ONE OUTSTANDING FEDS AS SERVICE TO AMERICA MEDAL FINALISTS
Washington, D.C. – The Partnership for Public Service today announced the finalists for the prestigious Service to America Medals at a Capitol Hill event. The awards honor civil servants who are making innovative and high-impact contributions critical to our nation.
This year’s finalists include a 2006 Nobel Prize for Physics winner — and public servants who boast achievements in fields including foreign affairs; cancer research; patent filing; bioterrorism; hurricane tracking; archeology; telemarketing fraud; weapons trafficking; bomb dog training; weapons technology; foreign language training and nuclear waste cleanup.
Finalists come from the Departments of Commerce, Justice, Defense, State, Energy, HUD, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, Executive Office of the President, EPA, USDA, IRS, NASA, Library of Congress, CIA, Voice of America, and the Army, Navy and Air Force. They work in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Atlanta, Denver, St. Louis, Tampa, Baltimore and Cincinnati — and in Korea, Lebanon and Nigeria.
“The Service to America Medals are so important, because they tell the true stories of the remarkable work that our federal employees do each and every day. There is not a day that passes where government does not touch our lives in some way — whether it is ensuring the safety of the food we eat, securing our homeland, or conducting cutting edge research to cure disease,” said Max Stier, Partnership for Public Service President and CEO. “By sharing the stories of these outstanding public servants a new generation will be encouraged to serve.”
A list of finalists is attached, with profiles of each on the Service to America Medals page at the Partnership’s website, www.ourpublicservice.org.
The medal finalists were selected from nearly 600 nominations, submitted by their colleagues in the federal government — the nation’s largest employer, with more than 1.9 million workers. Nearly half of the federal workforce will be eligible to retire within the next five years, creating the biggest loss of talent and expertise in our government’s history, as well as the need to bring hundreds of thousands of talented individuals into government service.
The Service to America Medals program was created to honor the best in our federal workforce and to inspire a new generation to consider public service careers by sharing the inspiring stories of unsung heroes with the general public. Surveys show that many Americans do not know what the federal government does for them each and every day -- or the fact that there are federal jobs available in practically every interest and skill area.
The 2007 Service to America Medal award winners, including Federal Employee of the Year, will be honored at a Washington, D.C. gala on September 19th. Nominations for 2008 will be accepted beginning September 20, 2007 at www.ourpublicservice.org. National sponsors include Siemens, our founding partner, and DuPont.
See the complete list of finalists and read their profiles at www.servicetoamericamedals.org.
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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.
