More than 100 NASA Glenn Research Center employees earned awards for their exemplary accomplishments in science, engineering, technology, leadership and administrative service as well as their contributions to NASA’s mission during the 2017 NASA Agency Honor and Center Awards Ceremony in Cleveland Aug. 23.
Janet Kavandi, Glenn’s center director, presided over the ceremony and introduced astronaut and retired Air Force Col. Michael T. Good as the keynote speaker before joining him on stage to present the awards.
“NASA Honor Awards are the most prestigious decorations given to our highest performing employees for their accomplishments in our aeronautics and space programs,” said Kavandi. “Today we recognize and applaud the exceptional contributions from the dedicated women and men at our center. We thank them for their service to NASA and the Glenn Research Center.”
NASA Glenn is proud to recognize the following Agency Honor Award and Center Award recipients:
Presidential Rank Award
The President of the United States of America has conferred upon Alan H. Phillips, of Albemarle, North Carolina who resides in Brecksville, the rank of Meritorious Executive in the Senior Executive Service for sustained superior accomplishment in the management of programs of the United States government and for noteworthy achievement of quality and efficiency in the public service.
NASA Small Business Goal Achievement Award
The Glenn Research Center earned the Small Business Prime Socioeconomic Goal Achievement Award, which was accepted by Janet Kavandi.
Senior Executive Service and Senior Technologist Appointments
Rubén Del Rosario, of Ponce, Puerto Rico who resides in Strongsville, was appointed to the position of Director, Aeronautics Directorate.
Laura A. Henry, of Westlake, was appointed to the position of Chief Counsel, Office of the Chief Counsel.
NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal
Marivell Baez for outstanding technical leadership as a senior LabVIEW Data Acquisition Systems programmer for test facility data systems and commitment to customer satisfaction.
David Frate, of South Euclid who resides in Avon, for his outstanding leadership of the complex Orbital Maneuvering System Engine/Thrust Vector Control Project for the Orion Program’s European Service Module.
Cleve Horn, of Cleveland who resides in Shaker Heights, for his exceptional technical leadership, outstanding performance and service in support of the Engine Research Building and the NASA Internship and Apprenticeship Programs.
Sandra Reehorst, of Cleveland who resides in Strongsville, for her outstanding leadership in infusing NASA power technology into operational use and in identifying expanded areas of application of Glenn’s technical competencies.
Dennis Rohn, of Parma Heights, for his outstanding sustained leadership in establishing, maintaining and enhancing Glenn’s systems engineering capability critical for in-house flight development projects.
Gary Ruff, of Oak Harbor who resides in Medina, for his outstanding leadership and scientific contributions to spacecraft fire safety research and development, and the Spacecraft Fire Experiment (Saffire) Project.
Gerard Welch, of North Olmsted, for his exceptional leadership in the creation and execution of methods to develop innovative concepts that address the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate’s strategic thrusts.
NASA Exceptional Service Medal
Maria Babula, of Toledo who now lives in Middleburg Heights, for her exceptional and sustained technical and managerial contributions to the Research and Engineering Directorate and NASA.
Penni Dalton, of Manhattan Beach, California who resides in Strongsville, for her exceptional service in support of the International Space Station electrical power system and the development of the replacement lithium-ion batteries.
Guillermo Del Carmen, of San Jose, California for his outstanding contributions to the NASA Safety Center and leadership of NASA’s Software Assurance Technical Discipline Team.
Richard Del Roso for exceptional performance resulting in multiple contributions to several projects, programs and initiatives leading to significant improvements to NASA’s deliverables.
Joan Haug for her exceptional service as lead purchasing agent in the Procurement Division, assuring timely, professional processing of simplified acquisitions to meet urgent project needs.
Susan Johnson, of Cleveland who now lives in Avon Lake, for her exceptional sustained performance to NASA and specifically to NASA’s aeronautics missions and goals through programmatic planning, development and execution.
Karen McLaughlin for her exceptional service in providing leadership, subject matter expertise, and employee development in support of financial initiatives at both the agency and center levels.
Joseph Morris for his exceptional sustained performance in support of Glenn’s facilities and the NASA mission.
Susan Nolan, of Parma Heights who resides in North Ridgeville, for her exceptional leadership in Glenn’s human capital consulting effectiveness and transformational influence on the Human Capital Consulting Division staff.
George Schmidt, of Seattle who resides in Westlake, for his outstanding leadership in managing propulsion engineering development activities.
Richard Sorge, of Westlake who resides in Sandusky, for his exceptional sustained efforts in facility and test program management at NASA’s Space Environments Complex.
NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal
Paul Butterfield, of Parma, for his exceptional leadership and exemplary support as an Aviation Environments and Technical Services Supervisor.
Carlos Grodsinsky, of Grosse Pointe Park who resides in Hinckley, for his exceptional public service in leading and implementing the unified state-wide aerospace vision, plus developing and operating over 40 unique International Space Station payloads.
Stephen Guzik, of Parma who resides in the Village of Wakeman, for his exceptional service in providing electrical installation services for critical test facilities at the NASA Glenn Research Center.
Lesha Zvosec, of Lorain who is currently living in Amherst, for her outstanding sustained administrative support to the National Space-Based Position Navigation and Timing Advisory Board and to NASA’s Director of Spectrum Policy.
NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal
Shanton Bland, of Berea who now lives in Oberlin, for his exceptional achievement of the critical upgrades to Glenn’s network infrastructure, resulting in improved operations, security and financial efficiencies.
Carol Ginty for her outstanding effort in leading the successful completion of the European Service Module (ESM) Structural Test Article test campaign for the Orion Program, resulting in a validated ESM flight structural design.
Christine Greenwalt, of Berea who resides in Olmsted Township, for her exceptional leadership and technical excellence in establishing and maintaining effective safety programs in areas of construction safety, fall protection and hot work.
Maria Theresa Havenhill, of Daet who now lives in Westlake, for her exceptional achievement in advancing the Glenn’s prominence in the development of International Space Station series reflight missions.
Leahmarie Koury, of Brookpark who resides in Lorain, for her outstanding dedicated service, technical skills and judgment in providing excellent procurement services to NASA programs and NASA Glenn.
Isaac Lopez, of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico who currently resides in Olmsted Township, for his exceptional achievement in organizing and conducting the development of the Convergent Aeronautics Solutions Project toward achieving a world-class Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate research portfolio.
Mark Manthey for his exceptional achievement in continuously demonstrating outstanding leadership in m
anagement improvement of the Procurement Division and in improved reporting to the center.
Charles Niederhaus for his exceptional contribution to the development of the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) architecture for the SCaN program.
Benjamin Vanlear, of Cincinnati who is currently residing in Lakewood, for his outstanding leadership in assembling and integrating the European Service Module Structural Test Article, ensuring readiness and avoiding costly schedule overrun.
Christopher Williams, of Berea who resides in Strongsville, for his exceptional achievement in the leadership and development of an innovative process to ensure the proper sustainment of Glenn Research Center’s test capability assets.
Gilbert Winter, of New Cumberland who now lives in Olmsted Township, for his exceptional leadership towards the improvements and sustained performance of the center’s and the agency’s cybersecurity posture and mission readiness.
Jan Wittry, of Indianapolis, currently residing in Strongsville, for her exceptional achievement in the lead role of open house public affairs officer during Glenn’s 75th anniversary.
Exceptional Public Achievement Medal
Helmut Bamberger, of Erie who resides in Strongsville, for his exceptional engineering achievement in cryogenic propellant research in Glenn’s Creek Road Cryogenic Complex.
NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal
Kevin Melcher, of Mount Gilead who resides in North Ridgeville, for his exceptional engineering of systems health management capabilities for NASA Human Exploration and Operations programs.
NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal
Beth Lewandowski, of Columbia Station who is currently residing in Lorain, for her exceptional contributions in modeling of musculoskeletal physiology and quantitative prediction of effects of space on crew health and performance.
NASA Exceptional Technology Achievement Medal
Milind Bakhle, of Mumbai who resides in Westlake, for his exceptional aeroelastic technology contributions that ensured a successful wind tunnel test of the distortion-tolerant fan for boundary layer ingestion propulsion.
Robert Manning, of Parma Heights who now lives in Strongsville, for his outstanding work in the development of an optical communications link design tool for NASA’s Next-Generation Space Based Relay Satellite System.
Santo Padula, of Avon Lake who resides in North Olmsted, for his exceptional development of a novel and time-saving method for training shape memory alloys, which is enabling new opportunities to incorporate them into products.
Roy Sullivan, of Green Tree, currently residing in North Ridgeville, for his exceptional development and validation of the theoretical basis and analytical method to predict durability of carbon-carbon composite structures on hypersonic vehicles.
Gregory Zimmerli, of Willoughby Hills who lives in North Royalton, for his outstanding performance and achievements in inventing and maturing the radio frequency mass gauge low-gravity propellant quantity gauge.
NASA Early Career Achievement Medal
Lori Arnett, of Berea, now living in Columbia Station, for her outstanding leadership and future potential at Glenn.
Rochelle Gallagher, of Brook Park who resides in Strongsville, for her exceptional performance and innovative programming in support of Glenn’s human capital development initiatives.
Jason Hartwig, of Cleveland, currently residing in Middleburg Heights, for his outstanding early career performance and leadership in cryogenic fluid management that enables science and technology objectives in multiple mission directorates.
Melissa Holodnak, of Cleveland who resides in Strongsville, for her exceptional performance, innovative improvements and leading change in accounting for real and personal property at both the agency and center levels.
Mary Lobo, of East Cleveland who lives in Woodmere Village, for her outstanding leadership and future potential at Glenn.
Antoine Moss, of Cleveland, currently residing in Parma Heights, for his exceptional early career performance with an emphasis on continuous improvement and ensuring a high level of customer satisfaction and exceptional contractor performance.
Kathryn Oriti, of Shelby who now lives in Westlake, for her outstanding excellence in contributing to NASA’s missions through superior technical acumen, leadership and project management skills as an early career employee.
Nicholas Schifer, of Bucyrus who resides in Stow, for his exceptional early career achievement as a researcher devising innovative test methods and developing components to mature Stirling technology for future NASA missions.
Elliot Schmidt for his exceptional contributions in the success of the Mechanical Vibration Facility commissioning and the European Service Module Structural Test Article test campaign.
Cory Smith, of Hudson, currently residing in Bay Village, for his exceptional performance and innovative improvements in NASA’s budget execution and financial analysis practices.
Mary Sours, of Sharon Center, now residing in Strongsville, for her exceptional improvements to center hot work and personal protective equipment safety programs, resulting in simplified procedures and reduced injury risk to center staff.
Aaron Swank, of Wellington, for his exceptional achievement and technical innovation in developing and enabling unique design concepts for aerospace communications applications.
NASA Silver Achievement Medal
Cheryl Bowman, of Cassville who resides in Valley City, for her exceptional achievements in developing the technical portfolio and developing collaborative partnerships for hybrid gas-electric propulsion technology.
Jeffryes Chapman, of Cleveland Heights, now residing in Rocky River, for his outstanding development of innovative modeling tools and techniques for thermodynamic systems that provide powerful capabilities to the aero propulsion research community.
Sandra Cook for her exceptional sustained administrative support to the Research and Engineering Directorate.
Mark George, of Parma, currently residing in Independence, for his outstanding contributions to the advancement and readiness of the NASA core value: safety across the agency.
Jason Hanna, of Spencer who is currently residing in Litchfield, for his exceptional impact to the transfer and protection of NASA technology and external partnerships in the development and implementation of information technology solutions.
Katherine Harcula, of Vermilion who resides in Lorain, for her outstanding achievement in the development and advancement of the Aerospace Risk Management Process.
Christopher Hartenstine, of Manheim who resides in North Olmsted, for outstanding leadership in transforming Glenn’s approach to selecting key partners to share resources and providing assistance to increase involvement and interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Dallas Jenkins, of Cincinnati, currently residing in Medina, for his outstanding innovation in establishing effective safety programs and health and safety plans for confined-space entry and site-excavation safety procedures.
Patricia Loyselle, of Petoskey who resides in Lakewood, for her exceptional contributions in developing electrochemical power and energy storage systems, with specific contributions to the Convergent Aeronautics Solutions Multifunctional Structures for High Energy Lightweight Load-bearing Storage project.
Leah Mcintyre, of Canton who currently resides in Strongsville, for her exceptional contributions to Orion as the requirements and processes management lead and exemplifying NASA core values of safety, integrity, teamwork and excellence.
Margaret Nazario, of Bay Village who resides in Strongsville, for her exceptional achievement in collaboration with Orion Program international partners to successfully resolve critical issues for the European Serv
ice Module Structural Test Article test campaign.
Monica Palivoda, of North Royalton, currently residing in Burton, for exceptional performance as the executive assistant to Glenn’s center director.
Denise Ryant, of Cleveland who resides in Brunswick, for her outstanding performance in the areas of human resource processes and information technology resource management for the Facilities, Test and Manufacturing Directorate.
NASA Career Service Recognition Awards
Forty-Year Service Award:
James Blankschaen
Thomas St. Onge
Cynthia Acquaviva
Randall Kwasny
Susan Nolan
Monica Palivoda
Alan Downey
Dale Stalnaker
Anderson Marlow
Henry Kacher
Forty-five-Year Service Award:
Donald Swedinovich, Jr.
Jimmy Simek
Fifty-Year Service Award
Lawrence Schroeder, Jr.
Marvin Goldstein
Center Awards
Joseph Connolly for embodying the spirit of diversity leadership with unwavering commitment to developing relationships with tribal colleges and recruiting and mentoring Native Americans.
Vincent Satterwhite for outstanding diversity leadership through mentoring early-career employees, diverse hiring and developing programs to promote diversity in the next generation of employees.
Calogero Dirienzo for demonstrating technical excellence and exemplifying the “yes-if” approach in analyzing the risk of the Facility Characterization Test using Morpheus in the B-2 Facility.
Scott Mahnke, of Avon Lake, for contributions that have improved the Glenn Safety Program and partnership with the NASA Safety and Health Division to provide a safer environment at Glenn.
Timothy Ruffner, of Avon who resides in Grafton, for consistently excellent performance as a supervisor and leading the development of others in the supervisory discipline across the agency.
Luz Jeziorowski, of Fairview Park, for sustained and effective leadership resulting in high morale and team spirt among employees, while serving as chief of the Occupational Health Branch.
Wendy Berndt, of Albion who lives in Brook Park, for outstanding achievement as the management support assistant for the Research and Engineering Directorate’s Propulsion Division.
Denise Kelly, of Fairview Park, currently residing in Olmsted Falls, for outstanding administrative support to the Space Flight System Directorate and contributing to the efficient operation of the center.
Kathryn Roser, of Lakewood, currently residing in Bay Village, for her exceptional performance as the executive assistant to Glenn’s deputy director.
Mary Salvo, of North Olmsted, for outstanding clerical support to the Office of Human Capital Management Directorate.
Michael Barrett for satisfaction of NASA/Federal Acquisition Institute (FAI) requirements for the Senior-Expert Level. It grants membership into NASA’s Professional Acquisition Community and is recognized throughout the federal government.
Trudy Kortes, for satisfaction of NASA/Federal Acquisition Institute (FAI) requirements for the Senior-Expert Level. It grants membership into NASA’s Professional Acquisition Community and is recognized throughout the federal government.
Debra Millard, of Amherst, for exceptional technical and mentoring leadership as the program manager for the Glenn Multiple Award Construction Contracts, making an invaluable impact to the Facilities Division Project Management Branch and small business contractors.
Ronald Matthews, of North Royalton, for exceptional procurement management of the Technical Information, Administrative and Logistical Services (TIALS 2) and Glenn Engineering and Scientific Support (GESS 3) contracts and an innovative approach to reduce transactional costs for the center.
For information about Glenn, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/glenn
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