1 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 

+ + + + + 

BRIEFING ON EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY AND CIVIL 

RIGHTS OUTREACH 

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THURSDAY 

DECEMBER 3, 2015 

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ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND 

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The briefing convened at the Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission, One White Flint North, Commissioners' Conference 

Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, at 9:30 a.m., Stephen Burns, Chairman, 

presiding. 

NRC COMMISSIONERS: 

STEPHEN G. BURNS, Chairman 

KRISTINE L. SVINICKI, Commissioner 

WILLIAM C. OSTENDORFF, Commissioner 

JEFF BARAN, Commissioner 

 
2 

NRC STAFF: 

MARGARET M. DOANE, General Counsel 

ANNETTE L. VIETTI-COOK, Secretary of the Commission 

VICTOR MCCREE, Executive Director for Operations 

VONNA ORDAZ, Director, Office of Small Business and Civil 

 Rights 

JOEL KRAVETZ, Civil Rights Program Manager 

TUWANDA SMITH, Outreach and Compliance Coordination 

 Program Manager 

MICHAEL CASE, Director, Division of Systems Analysis, 

 Office 

 of Nuclear Regulatory Research 

KRISS KENNEDY, Deputy Regional Administrator, Region IV 

THERESA CLARK, Co-Chair, Native American Advisory 

 Committee 
3 

1 P R O C E E D I N G S 

2 9:31 a.m. 

3 CHAIRMAN BURNS: Good morning, everyone. Let me 

4 find my notes here to open our meeting. I want to welcome our panel 

5 that we'll hear from this morning, other staff, and members of the public 

6 may be in the room or listening in. 

7 We're meeting today as the Commission to receive a 

8 semi-annual update on the progress and opportunities related to Civil 

9 Rights Outreach and Equal Opportunity Compliance. As we all know, 

10 recruitment and retention of highly competent and skilled workforce is 

11 essential for the agency to excel in carrying out its mission. 

12 Our permanent workforce declined approximately 1 

13 percent in Fiscal 2015, and we do expect a smaller workforce over the 

14 next few years as we implement Project Aim 2020 recommendations. 

15 And as the agency looks toward the future it'll be important to assure 

16 that we have a balanced and high-performing workforce at all levels. 

17 So, we look forward this morning to hearing from the staff about the 

18 agency's Diversity Management and Inclusion Programs, and efforts to 

19 promote Equal Opportunity across the agency. 

20 Would any of my colleagues like to say any opening 

21 remarks? If not, I'll turn it over to the EDO, Vic McCree. 

22 MR. McCREE: Good morning, Mr. Chairman and 

23 Commissioners. 

24 The purpose of the briefing today is to provide a status 

25 report and highlight accomplishments of the agency through the Office 

26 of Small Business and Civil Rights, SBCR. The specific programs that 
4 

1 we'll be presenting today are the Equal Employment Opportunity 

2 Program, also known as the Civil Rights Program, and the Outreach 

3 and Compliance Coordination Program. Additionally, Office Director 

4 Vonna Ordaz will brief you on Affirmative Employment and Small 

5 Business Programs. 

6 This is my first Equal Employment Opportunity Small 

7 Business and Civil Rights Commission briefing as EDO, and I believe 

8 it's fitting that this particular briefing occur relatively early in my tenure 

9 given the importance of these programs to the overall effectiveness and 

10 efficiency of the agency. 

11 As I stated a number of times over the past two 

12 months, the agency's priorities include fulfilling our safety and security 

13 mission, taking care of our people, demonstrating our values, and 

14 communicating effectively. This particular briefing highlights our focus 

15 on the priorities of people and values, and can be viewed as somewhat 

16 of a barometer of the overall health of the agency. 

17 SBCR programs also provide the impetus for our 

18 efforts to carry out the agency's obligations under various Civil Rights 

19 and Small Business statutes. Quite frankly, they've done a 

20 commendable job of meeting these requirements, as well as 

21 developing and sharing opportunities to recruit, develop, and retain a 

22 diverse workforce. 

23 This year, SBCR has chosen what I believe is a very 

24 timely and appropriate theme entitled, "Engaged in Change." I'm 

25 extremely proud of the accomplishments and the dedication of the 

26 people in SBCR. Their efforts contribute directly to accomplishing the 
5 

1 agency's mission, as I indicated, improving our culture, and embracing 

2 the agency's values. That being said, it's also worth noting that there's 

3 still more work to do. 

4 I'll now turn the presentation over to Vonna Ordaz, 

5 Director, Office of Small Business and Civil Rights who will introduce 

6 our program participants and begin the briefing. Vonna. 

7 MS. ORDAZ: Thank you, Vic. Good morning, 

8 Chairman Burns and Commissioners. 

9 We're happy to provide a briefing today about the 

10 NRC's continuing efforts to make important progress in the areas of 

11 Equal Employment Opportunity, Diversity Management and Small 

12 Business programs. 

13 Over the past year, SBCR has continued its dedication 

14 to our mission and there have been many new and innovative changes 

15 regarding agency policies, programs, and initiatives to support positive 

16 changes in our culture at the NRC. With this in mind, the theme that 

17 has resonated with SBCR and our colleagues is Engaged in Change. 

18 This morning we will share some significant strides and 

19 how the NRC has engaged in progressive changes over this past year. 

20 Joel Kravetz from SBCR, Civil Rights Program Manager, will provide an 

21 update regarding the changes in the status of Equal Employment 

22 Opportunity, statistical trends of cases, and training. Tuwanda Smith, 

23 SBCR's Outreach and Compliance Coordination Program Manager, will 

24 talk about positive changes that have resulted in stronger partnerships, 

25 increased compliance with regulations, and NRC-wide support to 

26 minority-serving institution programs. Mike Case from the Office of 
6 

1 Research, and Kriss Kennedy from Region IV will share some 

2 wonderful diversity and inclusion initiatives, and best practices that 

3 reinforce positive changes across the agency. And Theresa Clark, 

4 Co-Chair of the Native American Advisory Committee, will provide a 

5 joint Advisory Committee Statement that offers their perspectives of 

6 diversity and inclusion at the NRC. 

7 Their comments will reflect that there is truly a strong 

8 nexus between embracing diversity and unlocking the potential of all of 

9 our employees. But first, let me take a minute to share with you some 

10 recent exciting changes for the NRC in the areas of Affirmative 

11 Employment, and Diversity, and Small Business Initiatives. 

12 SBCR is the process of deploying the Diversity 

13 Dialogue Project known as DDP. The term Dialogue stands for 

14 Diversity Inclusion Awareness, Leading Organizational Growth, 

15 Understanding, and Engagement. The DDP is modeled after a project 

16 created by NASA, and it's all about change; change to strengthen 

17 organizational effectiveness of the NRC through diversity and inclusion 

18 awareness. 

19 The project will help develop a greater appreciation for 

20 the value and positive impacts made by diverse groups in meeting the 

21 mission of the agency. Participants can address diversity inclusion 

22 topics in a safe environment that develops relationships through 

23 interaction. It's hopeful that the agency will use feedback from the pilot 

24 DDP sessions to help guide future diversity and inclusion initiatives and 

25 further increase the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey Engagement 

26 Score. The Diversity Management and Inclusion Council, known as 
7 

1 DMIC, is sponsoring this effort. And DMIC is co-chaired by both SBCR 

2 and OCHCO. 

3 We're anxious to begin the first cohort in early calendar 

4 year 2016. We anticipate the duration of this first cohort to be 

5 approximately six months; and, moreover, it's hopeful that DDP 

6 participants will serve as Diversity Ambassadors promoting the NRC's 

7 Diversity Management and Inclusion Program. Slide 5. 

8 In the area of workforce diversity, the agency made 

9 some recent strides to enhance diversity at senior levels and to fulfill the 

10 EDO's expectations of a more diverse workforce. However, we note 

11 that the recent Senior Executive Candidate Development Program, 

12 known as SES CDP, Class of 2017 included only four women among 

13 selectees which is approximately 15 percent. Two of the women came 

14 from technical offices, and two from corporate offices, and none of the 

15 women were minorities. The previous SES CDP class was 40 percent 

16 female. We acknowledge that there is room for improvement in this 

17 area. The Executive Resource Board had an initial briefing of this 

18 declining trend and the follow-up briefing is scheduled in January to 

19 collectively discuss a path forward. 

20 Also, we note that the Nuclear Safety Professional 

21 Development Program, known as NSPDP, is an important feeder 

22 program that has had a positive impact on the overall hiring of 

23 entry-level women and minorities in the past. However, this year only 

24 five of the 23 NSPDP hires or 22 percent were female, and 22 percent 

25 were identified as minorities. In comparison, four years ago the 

26 NSPDP class was 40 percent female and 50 percent minority. 
8 

1 This will remain a challenge as we reduce the size of 

2 the agency and limit recruitment. However, both OCHCO and SBCR 

3 have highly encouraged selecting officials to consider the grant 

4 recipients from minority-serving institutions for their entry-level 

5 positions and broaden their selections beyond the typical schools that 

6 we recruit from. These individuals have received NRC grant money, 

7 they are highly qualified, and they can be non-competitively selected. 

8 All of these avenues are available and possible with collaboration and 

9 open minds of all of those involved in the process. 

10 In the area of engagement, we recognize that we can 

11 do better with a renewed focus and commitment of agency senior 

12 leaders and managers in making more progress to enhance diversity 

13 and inclusion across the agency and at all levels. 

14 Within the past year or so, we created a Veterans 

15 Employee Resource Group, known as VERG, to support the diversity 

16 and inclusion of veterans. We also created a Diversion Inclusion 

17 Management Council to support diversity in the workplace, an Advisory 

18 Committee for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender employees 

19 and their allies, and also the Executive Sponsor Program to engage 

20 senior executives with our current EEO Committees, as well as many 

21 more initiatives. 

22 As a path forward to help foster a more diverse and 

23 inclusive culture at the NRC, we are focusing on developing behaviors 

24 that reflect the five inclusive habits; Fairness, Openness, 

25 Cooperativeness, Supportiveness, and Empowerment, otherwise 

26 known as FOCSE. This is called the New IQ which was developed by 
9 

1 the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Veteran 

2 Affairs. 

3 The New IQ is calculated based on certain responses 

4 to certain questions in the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. 

5 SBCR has spent considerable time meeting with various office directors 

6 and regional administrators to enhance their knowledge of the New IQ, 

7 and to support them with any strategies to enable stronger inclusion in 

8 our organizations. NRC will be using this innovative way to help 

9 improve teamwork and productivity in the near term. 

10 Additionally, because of the agency's commitment to 

11 diversity and inclusion, our path forward also includes taking a look at 

12 the employee life cycle in the areas of recruitment, development, and 

13 retention to identify ways of enhancing employee engagement. 

14 We have recently contracted with the IVY Planning 

15 Group, a prominent local diversity and inclusion firm, which is a 

16 women-owned small business and they are represented here today. 

17 IVY Planning has already reached out to many executives, OCHCO, 

18 and others to gather important data and will complete their interviews 

19 shortly, and produce recommendations for our agency. 

20 Now turning to Small Business. The NRC continues 

21 to maximize the opportunity of change regarding small business firms 

22 located in historically under-utilized business zones, known as Hub 

23 Zones, to support the NRC through prime contracts. A local 

24 construction support firm was recently selected for an award of $3.5 

25 million. The NRC continues to support several small business events 

26 to help build and enrich the portfolio of firms to be considered for future 
10 

1 contract opportunities. 

2 And another area of change is in the area of agency 

3 contracts awarded to service-disabled veterans. During FY 15, the 

4 NRC was very proactive in attending several service-disabled 

5 veteran-owned conferences to assist in helping such veterans succeed 

6 in business. The NRC awarded $9.3 million to service-disabled 

7 veteran-owned small businesses, and hopes to continue this positive 

8 trend. 

9 As a result of the Small Business Programs 

10 collaborative efforts as of FY 14, the agency has maintained an SBA 

11 Scorecard Letter Grade of A for four consecutive years. While the SBA 

12 Scorecard has not been released yet for FY 15, the agency met five out 

13 of five Small Business goals, so we are anticipating positive news when 

14 the grades officially get released in the spring. Next slide, please. 

15 In closing, the NRC has been recognized throughout 

16 the Federal government as a model agency for supporting diversity and 

17 inclusion in the workplace, and as one of the top performing agencies of 

18 the Annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey in the area of 

19 engagement. This year we are proud to acknowledge that there were 

20 three employees who were granted NRC Honorary Meritorious Service 

21 Awards for EEO Excellence; William Burton from NRR, Carolyn Faria 

22 from OE, and Dr. Natasha Greene from Region IV. Also, Vanice Perin 

23 from NRO was granted the SBCR Director Award for her unwavering 

24 dedication and outstanding commitment to EEO and diversity programs 

25 at the NRC. Would the four of you please stand to be recognized? 

26 (Applause) 
11 

1 MS. ORDAZ: As we share our messages with you 

2 today, and as I brief you for the last time as the Director of SBCR, I can 

3 say that I have truly enjoyed my experience learning more about EEO, 

4 minority-serving institutions, grants, diversity and inclusion, and Small 

5 Business. More importantly, I've enjoyed working across the agency 

6 and building relationships with all of my colleagues in these areas. I can 

7 guarantee you that the dedication of the NRC people that I've 

8 experienced over the past four years in this role make the agency a 

9 better place. And before I close, I'd like to ask all of the members of 

10 the agency's eight EEO Advisory Committee Members, two Affinity 

11 Groups, BIG and Globe, one employee resource group, VERG, the 

12 EEO counselors, the University champions, headquarters and regional 

13 DMACs, the DMIC members and our executive sponsors for the EEO 

14 Committees, as well as the SBCR staff to please stand to be 

15 recognized. 

16 (Applause) 

17 MS. ORDAZ: I want to take a moment to thank each of 

18 you for your true dedication and hard work to the mission of the SBCR 

19 and agency mission. Each of you have competing demands of your 

20 primary duties and responsibilities, yet you unwillingly, or willingly, 

21 excuse me, incorporate your collateral -- 

22 (Laughter) 

23 MS. ORDAZ: A faux pas, willingly incorporate your 

24 collateral duties into your work day. Let's applaud their tireless efforts. 

25 (Applause) 

26 MS. ORDAZ: I want to commend everyone who stood 
12 

1 for being Engaged in Change and for making a difference every day at 

2 the NRC. Without you, we could not function. And now I'll turn it over 

3 to Joel Kravetz. Thank you. 

4 MR. KRAVETZ: Thank you, Vonna. Good morning, 

5 Chairman and Commissioners. Thank you for the opportunity to brief 

6 you this morning on Equal Employment Opportunity or EEO complaint 

7 trends, as well as actions and activities related to EEO during Fiscal 

8 Year or FY 2015. Next slide. 

9 In FY 2015, there was a slight increase in the number 

10 of both formal and informal complaints filed at NRC. Specifically, in FY 

11 2015 there were 28 informal complaints, as compared to Fiscal Year 

12 2014 when there were 26 informal complaints. In FY 2015, there were 

13 22 formal complaints, as compared to 17 formal complaints filed during 

14 Fiscal Year 2014. 

15 NRC is engaged in change, and as such it is neither 

16 unhealthy, nor unexpected to see a slight increase in complaint activity 

17 during times of change. In fact, it's a good indication that people are 

18 aware of, and are willing to use these processes. 

19 Moreover, while the trend line shows an overall 

20 increase, the increase is not dramatic, and recent complaint activity is 

21 modest as a percent of NRC's total workforce. Specifically, in FY 

22 2015, roughly one half of one percent of NRC employees filed 

23 complaints of discrimination, and that compares quite favorably when 

24 analyzing EEO complaint trend statistics across the Federal 

25 government. Next slide. 

26 As this slide demonstrates, the most frequent bases of 
13 

1 alleged discrimination are age, sex, race, with reprisal following closely 

2 behind. And together, those bases comprise over four-fifths of the 

3 bases alleged in FY 2015. And this breakdown is very similar to the 

4 breakdown in Fiscal Year 2014 where the same four alleged bases 

5 were alleged in similar percentages last fiscal year. There was a small 

6 increase in reprisal complaints as reflected in the percentage of cases 

7 increasing from roughly 12 to 18 percent between FY 14 and FY 2015. 

8 Next slide. 

9 The most frequent issues of alleged discrimination in 

10 FY 2015 were complaints alleging harassment or hostile work 

11 environment. And there were about one-fifth of all complaint activity in 

12 FY 2015 related to complaints alleging harassment or hostile work 

13 environment. And this is in line with the Federal government as a whole. 

14 The other most common issues raised in Fiscal Year 

15 2015 were claims alleging either non-selection or non-promotion, or 

16 claims alleging evaluations or appraisals. And, again, like 2014, those 

17 were the most common issues raised over the last two fiscal years and, 

18 indeed, very similar to what we see when examining EEO trends within 

19 the Federal government as a whole. 

20 Because there was also an increase from about 9 to 18 

21 percent in claims alleging non-promotion between Fiscal Year 2014 

22 and Fiscal Year 2015; again, as I mentioned during a prior slide, with 

23 only a small percentage of NRC's workforce filing complaints, even a 

24 modest increase in the number of individuals filing complaints will 

25 impact the percentages. 

26 I will next highlight some of the accomplishments in 
14 

1 areas of change for SBCR. Next slide, please. 

2 The Civil Rights and Diversity Directorate conducted its 

3 second ever joint EEO Counselor and Advisory Committee Conference 

4 this September. Attendees included representatives of the Diversity 

5 Management and Inclusion Council, the Executive Sponsor Program, 

6 the Diversity Management Advisory Committee, all eight EEO 

7 Committees, the Veterans Employment Resource Group members, 

8 representatives of BIG and Globe and, of course, our collateral duty 

9 EEO counselors both here at headquarters and in all four regions. 

10 The theme of the conference was Diversity and EEO, 

11 Engaged in Change. And it included informative topics and dynamic 

12 speakers like Rachel See, an attorney from the National Labor 

13 Relations Board who, while a Federal employee, transitioned from male 

14 to female. Her personal story of change was riveting, eye-opening, 

15 and educational. Next slide. 

16 The two-day conference was very well attended with 

17 over 100 participants, and very well received by those who participated. 

18 And I want to thank all the collateral duty EEO counselors, both past 

19 and present, who help the EEO program succeed here at NRC. They 

20 provide NRC employees with access to the EEO program. Next slide. 

21 I will next highlight three important areas and focus on 

22 their impact at NRC. First, like the NRC, the Equal Employment 

23 Opportunity Commission or EEOC also issues Management Directives 

24 to provide guidance to their regulations. Most recently, after 16 years, 

25 the EEOC revised its Management Directive 110 which provides 

26 guidance on the Federal sector EEO process. We're currently in the 
15 

1 process of examining the new Management Directive 110 issued by 

2 EEOC to see what impact, if any, it has on SBCR's EEO program. 

3 Second, you may recall that Melody Fopma, the 

4 Associate Director of the Civil Rights and Diversity Directorate informed 

5 the Commission in June of 2015 at a similar briefing that a finding of 

6 age discrimination, only the third in the history of NRC, was made by a 

7 District Court Judge early in 2015. By way of an update, I wanted to 

8 inform you that OCHCO, OGC, and SBCR have had an opportunity to 

9 analyze and reflect on that District Court decision, and are working 

10 closely to develop training for managers and supervisors on Lessons 

11 Learned. This training will be implemented in 2016. 

12 Last, in the summer of 2015, the EEOC issued a very 

13 important decision referred to as the Baldwin case. In the Baldwin 

14 case, the EEOC concluded that all claims alleging sexual orientation 

15 are inherently claims alleging sex discrimination in violation of the Civil 

16 Rights Act of 1964. 

17 Now, the EEOC recognized in Baldwin that there is still 

18 an Executive Order that requires agencies like NRC to have in place a 

19 policy and procedure for processing claims of sexual orientation. 

20 However, the EEOC said as a best practice that all claims alleging 

21 sexual orientation should be processed in the Federal sector EEO 

22 process as claims alleging sex discrimination of violation of the Civil 

23 Rights Act of 1964. We have trained our Civil Rights staff and our 

24 Collateral Duty EEO Counselors to recognize when such claims come 

25 forward in order to properly process them. 

26 I would like to thank you all for your time and attention 
16 

1 to this important area as we continue to engage in change as an 

2 agency. I will now turn it over to my SBCR colleague, Tuwanda Smith. 

3 MS. SMITH: Thank you. Chairman, Commissioners, 

4 EDO, thank you for the opportunity to present on the Outreach and 

5 Compliance Coordination Program. Next slide. 

6 The OCCP consists of two major areas, Equal 

7 Opportunity Compliance Programs to promote non-discrimination and 

8 fair practices, and NRC conducted and assisted programs. And the 

9 Minority-Serving Institutions Program which provides support and 

10 assistance to institutions of higher education, including Hispanic, Black, 

11 Asian American, Pacific Islanders, American Indian, and Alaska 

12 Native-serving institutions. Next slide. 

13 What I'd like to do today is to provide insight regarding 

14 engaging change through partnerships focused on program alignment, 

15 and performance. I would also like to acknowledge our partners who 

16 have helped us be very successful this year; the Departments of Justice 

17 and Education, Health and Human Services, Environmental Protection 

18 agency, White House offices, institutions of higher education, public 

19 and private organizations, other Federal agencies, stakeholders, and 

20 NRC offices, groups, committees, and employees. 

21 Next slide. 

22 Engaging our partners have helped us to develop our 

23 infrastructure, increase our capacity, and to produce our goals and 

24 performance results. Next slide. 

25 When we look at developing infrastructure and 

26 capacity in the compliance area, our Federal partners, NRC offices 
17 

1 such as OGC, IG, as well as our Director of Resources weighed in on 

2 our newly developed MDs Handbook, and our External Complaint 

3 Processing Investigation Procedures Manual, our Compliance Review 

4 Guide, and our Mediation Process to insure that we have uniform 

5 coordination across the Federal government, internal guidance, as well 

6 as knowledge management succession, and openness and 

7 transparency in NRC's procedural processes. Next slide. 

8 Likewise, OCCP was able to assist the Department of 

9 Justice -- next slide. Please. Was able to assist the Department of 

10 Justice with amendments to its Title VI regulations that govern 

11 discrimination in our federally-assisted programs based on race, color, 

12 and national origin. We also were able to collaborate with our 

13 Acquisition Management Office and our Small Business Program to 

14 make sure that we make contract awards in the areas of limited English 

15 proficiency, investigation, mediation services, and along with OCIO 

16 were able to issue a contract for Section 508 compliance assessment 

17 for NRC's website, as well as consultant services for our published 

18 documents. Next slide. 

19 In looking at how we achieved our performance 

20 results, with the assistance and coordination of OGC, OI, affected 

21 offices, and stakeholders we were able to do complaint processing of 

22 one formal complaint alleging sex discrimination, conduct a mediation, 

23 as well as an investigation that's currently underway. With assistance 

24 of AMD and our Grant offices we conducted 65 pre-award compliance 

25 reviews to insure and identify any concerns of discrimination before 

26 AMD makes our agency grant award. And we've conducted 
18 

1 post-award monitoring of those grantees. Next slide. 

2 We facilitated LEP translation services for OI to help 

3 with public meetings and witness interviews, and transcription services 

4 for OCFO in carrying out their time management project. We 

5 participated and cosponsored the 2015 National Environmental Justice 

6 Conference, and we collaborated with NMSS as well as other offices. 

7 NMSS conducted a workshop at that conference. Next slide. 

8 In the area of minority-serving institutions program, our 

9 biggest infrastructure accomplishment was the development of a MSI 

10 Information and Data Collection System which was briefly mentioned a 

11 year ago to the Commission. We put it in execution this year and were 

12 able to produce five MSI reports, and five MSI plans. This particular 

13 system has reduced staff hours in collecting information across the 

14 offices. With the help of OCHCO, our University champions, offices, 

15 our committees, and our groups we've been able to promote 

16 non-competitive employment of our grant program students which can 

17 be looked at as a return on investment for the agency. Next slide. 

18 We supported, along with other NRC offices, the 2015 

19 Symposium for Gallaudet Undergraduates. We also co-hosted a visit 

20 from the University of Texas-San Antonio, which was supported by the 

21 EDO office, OCHCO, Research, and our Hispanic Employment 

22 Program Advisory Committee. We also co-hosted a pre-college 

23 symposium for Fort Valley State University STEM Academy students, 

24 and that was also supported by the EDO's office, NMSS, NSIR, NRO, 

25 Region II, ASLBP, a number of other offices, COI. I just did that wrong, 

26 you changed you thing, OIS, OIC, whatever, you got it. Okay. And 
19 

1 Blacks in Government. Next slide. 

2 We served on the Training Committee, and 

3 participated in White House 2015 HBCU conference, and in 

4 collaboration with NMSS, we participated in the National Congress of 

5 American Indians Conference. This was NRC's first time on the 

6 agenda. The conference featured the agency's Tribal Liaison 

7 Program, Tribal Colleges and Universities Program, and our Small 

8 Business Program. The Small Business Program, with collaboration 

9 with AMD, was able to contract for over $27 million to American Indian 

10 and Alaska Native-owned businesses. 

11 For eight consecutive years, NRC has received the 

12 Top Supporter Award for its assistance to HBCU-accredited 

13 engineering programs. This has been done through collaboration and 

14 coordination of efforts with OCHCO, our University champions, our 

15 Affinity Groups, committees, and volunteer employees. As you can 

16 see, our partners have been very instrumental in helping us develop our 

17 infrastructure, increasing our capability and ability to provide services, 

18 and performance results. 

19 Again, I'd like to thank you for the opportunity allowing 

20 me to present today, and I'd like to turn the brief over to Mike Case. 

21 MR. CASE: Good morning. Thanks for the 

22 opportunity to speak with you today. 

23 I want to talk to you today about our efforts to focus on 

24 people in the Office of Research. By our people focus, I mean how we 

25 engage our people and leverage their diversity and inclusiveness to 

26 more effectively accomplish the mission. Next slide. 
20 

1 The people's strengths of the Office of Research have 

2 changed over time. Maybe 10 years ago, the office had talented 

3 technical people, but the Center of Technical Expertise resided more 

4 with the contractors and the National Labs. Today, we strike a better 

5 balance between our staff and the Labs. Coincident with the advent of 

6 New Reactor Licensing, we've been focusing on improving the 

7 technical skills of our staff. Now through projects such as the 

8 State-of-the-Art Consequence Analysis or SOARCA, and the Level 3 

9 PRA, the Research staff now provides the technical impetus for key 

10 projects and the Labs are in support. Research now has a wide range of 

11 engineering, scientific, and support staff skills. Our management team 

12 is talented and diverse, as well. Next slide. 

13 The Office of Research has built and maintained the 

14 investment in the diverse technical skills of our staff through an active 

15 participation in a range of agency Human Resource programs. In 

16 addition to our participation in agency recruiting programs, such as the 

17 ones shown on the slide, we are heavily involved in programs that build 

18 the technical skills for the staff. These includes the Graduate 

19 Fellowship Program where we've sponsored eight individuals over the 

20 past two years; the Intergovernmental Personnel Act Assignee 

21 Program where we are sponsoring three individuals from Sandia 

22 National Lab this year, and the Foreign Assignee Program where we're 

23 currently sponsoring three assignees from three diverse countries. 

24 We hope to continue to take advantage of these opportunities in the 

25 future to accomplish the mission and enhance our diversity and 

26 inclusion. Next slide. 
21 

1 Our people's strengths are enhanced through the 

2 office's initiatives to promote diversity and inclusion in support of the 

3 mission. First and foremost in this effort is emphasizing with the staff, 

4 Research's role and unique contributions to the NRC Safety and 

5 Security mission. Besides providing direct technical support to the 

6 regulatory and regional offices, we provide a longer term perspective to 

7 many of the agency's safety issues, as well as state-of-the-art tools for 

8 use in regulatory applications. We fully integrate international 

9 experience into our products reflecting the global diversity of technical 

10 expertise. Through our user-need process, and our international 

11 cooperation activities the office insures that individual staff members 

12 can articulate the line of sight connection between his or her activity and 

13 the safety or regulatory outcome. Next slide. 

14 The Office of Research uses a variety of 

15 communication tools to promote staff inclusion in all the research 

16 activities. Some are periodic like the researcher, and some are just in 

17 time communication vehicles used to keep the staff informed during 

18 periods of change. For example, the Moving up the Pike Newsletter 

19 was used to keep the staff informed of issues when we were moving 

20 back into the White Flint complex from Church Street. Next slide. 

21 Research uses inclusive activities to break down 

22 barriers to improve staff collaboration skills. When we first arrived at 

23 Church Street, a group of staff volunteers created the CHILL 

24 Committee which stood for Church Street Information Living and 

25 Learning. This committee led many of our events, such as holiday 

26 parties and diversity day celebrations aimed at enhancing team work 
22 

1 and insuring that the Research staff felt connected to the rest of the 

2 headquarters staff at the White Flint campus. We are continuing 

3 CHILL back at White Flint under a new name called Research 

4 Embrace. Next slide. 

5 Inclusion is a precursor to increased participation and 

6 involvement in agency's programs, processes, and activities. A good 

7 example of participation in agency programs is Research involvement 

8 in diversity activities. Our employees proudly serve on a number of 

9 Equal Opportunity Advisory Committees. About 11 staff members 

10 from Research serve in a leadership capacity as chairs, co-chairs, or 

11 committee members. Next slide. 

12 The climate of inclusion and diversity leads to some 

13 higher levels of effectiveness where employees not only participate in 

14 agency processes, but are willing to work to optimize agency 

15 processes. During the move back from Church Street, and with the 

16 support of Admin, OCHCO, CIO, and NTEU, nine employees 

17 volunteered to participate in a six-month shared space pilot. In this pilot 

18 they would telework for at least three days and share an 80 square foot 

19 workspace with another employee. This pilot could result in a program 

20 that optimizes agency space and reduces our footprint. We will 

21 continue to look for these types of opportunities to optimize processes, 

22 especially in the context of Project Aim. Next slide. 

23 Keeping the focus on people by choosing the right 

24 people and investing in their development, and leveraging diversity and 

25 inclusion activities to enhance contributions to the mission leads to 

26 positive results. Above are the Research Federal Employee Viewpoint 
23 

1 Survey results and they are pretty positive. For the New IQ indicator 

2 where we received some great support from SBCR, and the six major 

3 feds indices, the Office of Research scored above both the Federal 

4 government average and the NRC average. Next slide. 

5 Finally, an enhanced people focus in Research gives 

6 us a capacity to manage change. This slide depicts several recent 

7 accomplishments. We have already successfully managed change in 

8 situations such as the Church Street move, as well as reducing and 

9 consolidating corporate functions. New challenges such as new office 

10 leadership and Project Aim lie ahead. We look forward to meeting this 

11 challenge. And now I'll turn the presentation over to Kriss Kennedy. 

12 MR. KENNEDY: Thanks, Mike. Good morning, 

13 Chairman, Commissioners. It's a privilege to be here on behalf of all of 

14 the Regions to brief you on regional activities to enhance diversity in our 

15 workforce. 

16 With me today is Dr. Natasha Greene. Natasha is a 

17 Radiation Protection Inspector in the Division of Reactor Safety, and 

18 the Chair of the Region IV Advisory Committee for African Americans. 

19 As Vonna indicated earlier, Natasha was recognized earlier this year 

20 with a Meritorious Service Award for Equal Employment Opportunity 

21 Excellence for her outstanding work in furthering diversity in Region IV. 

22 I note that sitting next to Natasha is Jerome Murphy. 

23 Jerome, after this meeting, is headed down to Region IV, Texas, to be 

24 the Division Director for the Division of Resource Management and 

25 Administration. I'd also note that Jerome's lanyard -- based on 

26 Jerome's lanyard that he brings a diversity to Texas as a Pittsburgh 
24 

1 Steeler fan. 

2 MR. MURPHY: Go Steelers. 

3 MR. KENNEDY: That maybe we're limited on. So, 

4 Jerome, we're looking forward to having you down in Texas. Next slide, 

5 please. 

6 Each day at work, I walk past a quilt that hangs on the 

7 wall outside the Regional Administrator's office, and this quilt was 

8 created several years ago by Region IV staff to celebrate and recognize 

9 diversity in Region IV. It is made up of 25 individuals panels created by 

10 the staff. Individually, the panels represent the cultures, heritage, 

11 interests, and experiences of those that created them, and each panel 

12 is connected or woven together to create a beautiful quilt. Each time I 

13 pass by the quilt, I'm reminded of the diversity and collective strength of 

14 our organization resulting from that diversity. And I'll point out that 

15 Natasha was instrumental in the creation of this quilt. Next slide. 

16 The dictionary defines diversity as a condition of 

17 having or being composed of differing elements, especially the 

18 inclusion of different types of people, such as people of different races 

19 or cultures in a group or organization. In Region IV, we continuously 

20 strive to achieve diversity in our workforce. Diversity in culture, 

21 background, personal experiences, professional experiences, all 

22 contributing to diversity in thought. Through diversity, we create a 

23 more interesting and vibrant work environment. We are more 

24 innovative, more productive, and we make better decisions. We value 

25 diversity as a source of enrichment and opportunity. Next slide, 

26 please. 
25 

1 Diversity at all levels in the organization is achieved 

2 through our recruiting and hiring activities, and the development of our 

3 staff through training and experiential opportunities. The value of 

4 diversity in the workforce is achieved through education, awareness, 

5 and recognition of the benefits that diversity brings to our decision 

6 making and the accomplishment of our mission. Next slide, please. 

7 Some of the Region IV activities and accomplishments 

8 in the past year that we have been -- that we've used to support the 

9 Comprehensive Diversity Management Plan include participation in 

10 recruiting fairs at universities, including minority-serving institutions, at 

11 professional organizations and veteran organizations, presentations to 

12 student groups at universities, including minority-serving institutions, 

13 experiential opportunities such as temporary promotions, rotational 

14 assignments, and developmental assignments for the staff, training 

15 opportunities, coaching and mentoring, staff participation in career days 

16 and STEM or Science, Technology, Engineering and Math activities at 

17 public schools, hosting visits by university students to the Region IV 

18 office, including most recently Women In Nuclear from Texas A&M 

19 University. And, finally, insuring that we have diverse rating panels to 

20 support identifying the best qualified applicants for job openings. 

21 Our goal is to meet the Nuclear Regulatory 

22 Commission's Strategic Objectives and Region IV's office-level 

23 operating plan measures within an environment that supports 

24 openness, collaboration, and diversity. This plan is carried out at all 

25 levels within Region IV, and we're not unique in the conduct of these 

26 activities, as each region conducts similar activities. These activities 
26 

1 assist us in hiring a cadre of staff that will contribute to achieving the 

2 mission of the NRC and develop our future leaders in the agency. 

3 Next slide, please. 

4 We have a very active Region IV Diversity 

5 Management Advisory Committee led by Lola Gomez, with Advisory 

6 Committees representing African Americans, Asian Pacific Americans, 

7 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender employees, Employees with 

8 Disabilities, Federal Women, Hispanics, Native Americans, older 

9 Americans, and our newly formed Veteran Employee Resource Group. 

10 In Region IV, veterans make up 43 percent of our workforce. Next slide, 

11 please. 

12 These committees sponsor various activities 

13 throughout the year, not only to recognize and celebrate diversity, but 

14 also to provide training workshops for the staff on a variety of subjects, 

15 including building trust, giving and receiving feedback, and working as a 

16 team to achieve our goals. We include fashion shows where Region 

17 IV staff don and display cultural clothing and outfits, and we typically 

18 include an international potluck lunch. Next slide, please. 

19 We've had some very inspirational keynote speakers 

20 at our diversity Day celebrations, and I'll highlight one, Clay Dyer. Clay 

21 was born with a unique disability. He was born without any lower 

22 limbs, no arm on the left side, and a partial arm on the right. Clay talked 

23 about his experience as a disabled individual, and how his disability and 

24 limitations had not dampened his determination and positive spirit. His 

25 message was, "If I can, you can." And he shared his experience as a 

26 disabled individual, a professional sport bass fisherman, and a family 
27 

1 man, bringing new perspective on acceptance, overcoming limitations, 

2 and reaching goals. His dynamic presentation left the NRC staff 

3 inspired, refreshed, and energized. Next slide, please. 

4 Our recent Diversity Day Celebration theme was 

5 Opening our Minds and Embracing Our Differences, and included 

6 presentations by Ron Johnson, the President of the Prairie Island 

7 Indian Community Tribal Council, and a presentation in recognition of 

8 our veterans. These celebrations are an effective means to educate 

9 each other on our different cultures, our capabilities, and increase our 

10 awareness of the value of a diverse organization in accomplishing our 

11 mission. They're also a great opportunity to enhance our safety 

12 culture through training and workshops. Next slide. 

13 As leaders in the NRC, we need to continuously insure 

14 that we have a diverse organization to enhance our creativity, our 

15 problem-solving, our strategic thinking, and our decision making. We 

16 strive for a diverse organization, not because we have to, but because it 

17 makes us a stronger and more effective organization. 

18 Thank you for the opportunity to be here today to 

19 discuss the activities that are occurring in Region IV, as well as the 

20 other regions to insure that we have -- that we achieve and maintain a 

21 diverse organization. And with that, I'll turn it over to Theresa Clark. 

22 MS. CLARK: Thank you, Kriss. Good morning, 

23 Chairman, Commissioners, Mr. McCree, and all who have joined us 

24 here and remotely. 

25 First, let me thank each of you for your personal 

26 commitment to support diversity and inclusion. It's an honor to speak 
28 

1 to you today on behalf of the Diversity Management Advisory 

2 Committee, or DMAC, which represents nine different organizations. 

3 These are the Advisory Committee on African Americans, the Advisory 

4 Committee for Employees with Disabilities, the Advisory Committee for 

5 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender employees, the Asian Pacific 

6 American Advisory Committee, the Diversity Advisory Committee on 

7 Ageism, the Federal Women's Program Advisory Committee, the 

8 Hispanic Employment Program Advisory Committee, the Native 

9 American Advisory Committee, and the newly established Veterans 

10 Employee Resource Group. 

11 These organizations help make our agency a great 

12 place to work by championing a variety of ideas, backgrounds, and 

13 cultures. Alongside that variety, DMAC is a living example of the motto 

14 that's on all of our coins, e pluribus unum, out of many, one. Our 

15 organizations share similar goals, and we work best when we work 

16 together across committees and with offices across the agency. 

17 This year has been a busy one. I'd like to highlight just 

18 a few of our many accomplishments. Our organization sponsored 

19 numerous well attended celebrations recognizing our constituencies. 

20 If you heard music and laughter filtering out from the auditorium, it's 

21 likely that was one of our committee events. We also facilitated 

22 multiple professional development seminars. 

23 In September, as Joel mentioned, our members 

24 enthusiastically participated in the agency's second Joint Equal 

25 Employment Opportunity Conference. We appreciate the significant 

26 efforts of the Office of Small Business and Civil Rights in executing this 
29 

1 program. 

2 Our constituencies gained much over this past year. 

3 I'm pleased to note that just last month an additional female joined the 

4 agency's most senior leadership ranks as Jennifer Uhle became the 

5 Director of the Office of New Reactors. In addition, Vonna Ordaz will 

6 become Jennifer's Deputy in the spring, marking the first time that a 

7 technical office has women in all of its office level management 

8 positions. When Cathy Haney moves to Region II next year, half of the 

9 regions will be led by women. Also, the agency welcomes this year its 

10 first African American Executive Director for Operations. 

11 Trends in performance appraisals and awards are 

12 improving for employees over the age of 50, and representation of 

13 African Americans and Hispanics in the feeder group of grades 13 

14 through 15 looks promising. 

15 Though I'm proud to acknowledge our many 

16 accomplishments, I also want to describe two focus areas; fostering a 

17 diverse future, and strengthening diversity in management. First, as 

18 the Chairman mentioned, the agency is responding proactively to 

19 challenging times to Project Aim. DMAC continues to emphasize the 

20 essential nature of its activities in fostering the open, collaborative work 

21 environment needed to execute our safety and security mission. 

22 We're concerned about future demographics as we 

23 right size. The proportions of staff across gender, race, and age have 

24 been basically constant over the last several years, and may be 

25 negatively affected as opportunities for hiring and promotion are limited. 

26 This is particularly of concern for administrative and corporate staff 
30 

1 below Grade 13. Given the high numbers of minorities and women in 

2 these disciplines, our attention to this group directly affects the agency's 

3 overall goals. Also, the agency shapes its future through the Nuclear 

4 Safety Professional Development Program. As Vonna mentioned, 

5 however, the 2015 participant group included a proportion of females 

6 and minorities well below that of the overall agency. We encourage 

7 the agency to use its recruiting and hiring abilities to foster a diverse 

8 future for the agency through this program. 

9 The agency has room to improve its diversity and 

10 management. I'll focus on women, but our committees have made 

11 similar observations about minorities. Our proportion of females in the 

12 senior executive service is still below the government-wide average, 

13 although it's similar to that of other technical agencies, such as NASA. 

14 Only three women currently lead major technical organizations. We're 

15 pleased to see increasing diversity in our senior leadership, as I 

16 mentioned before, and we look forward to having more women in our 

17 agency's top positions. 

18 The agency leaders of tomorrow come from today's 

19 senior staff and supervisors. These groups are overwhelmingly male. 

20 At Grade 12 and below, females represent more than four-fifths of the 

21 total. By Grade 15, the fraction falls to a fourth. As Vonna mentioned, 

22 the most recent Senior Executive Service Candidate Development 

23 Program including an even smaller fraction, four women among 26 

24 candidates. Only two of these women came from technical offices, 

25 and none of the women were minorities. We must do better. We must 

26 demonstrate our commitment to diversity at all levels. DMAC will 
31 

1 continue to be proactive in our focus on career development and to 

2 support the agency in analyzing available data. We look forward to 

3 additional agency efforts to understand and address the root causes of 

4 these disparities. 

5 To summarize, we live in a diverse and interconnected 

6 world. At work, our variety and our cooperation make us stronger. 

7 We look forward to an agency that reflects the outside world at all 

8 levels, and we look forward to working with our partners to achieve it. 

9 Thank you for your attention, and I'll turn it back to Mr. McCree. 

10 MR. McCREE: Thank you, Theresa. As you've heard 

11 this morning, people in the NRC recognize that we're more innovative, 

12 more productive, that we make smarter and better decisions when 

13 we're willing to embrace and leverage the talent of people with diverse 

14 experiences and perspectives, but we're not perfect. We continue to 

15 emphasize the importance of improvement in both how we engage in a 

16 healthy way in difficult conversations, and how we actively listen to one 

17 another. Doing so cultivates an environment where everyone feels 

18 included and valued, which I think is a hallmark of any open 

19 collaborative work environment. 

20 I challenge each member of the NRC to do their part to 

21 display our value of openness and respect by continuing to embrace 

22 diversity and demonstrate our excellence value by actively supporting 

23 our ongoing Change Management efforts. 

24 I'd be remiss if I didn't also acknowledge the fact that 

25 this is Vonna's last Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 

26 briefing as Director of the Office of Small Business and Civil Rights, so I 
32 

1 want to publicly thank her and commend her and her staff for their 

2 outstanding, her for her outstanding leadership, and her and her team 

3 for doing a fine job. So, on behalf of your colleagues both here in the 

4 room and who've joined us from the regions, and who have benefitted 

5 from your hard work in these important areas, well done. 

6 (Applause) 

7 MR. McCREE: Chairman and Commissioners, this 

8 concludes our remarks, and we're ready for your questions. 

9 CHAIRMAN BURNS: Well, thank you all for your 

10 presentations. We'll begin questions this morning with Commissioner 

11 Ostendorff. 

12 COMMISSIONER OSTENDORFF: Thank you, 

13 Chairman. Thank you for your briefings and your presence here today. 

14 I look around the room and I -- as many of the 

15 Commission members have commented on previous sessions, we're 

16 always very pleased to see this robust engagement by folks sitting 

17 behind you. And the significant cross-agency involvement of many of 

18 you in trying to embrace diversity initiatives, et cetera, is very 

19 refreshing. So, I note the very large attendance here today, but it's not 

20 unique. We've seen this at prior meetings, as well, so that just is a real 

21 credit to the leadership at this table that I'm looking at, but also the 

22 people here behind you, and the various office directors across the 

23 agency. 

24 Not all agencies have this kind of meeting. I've served 

25 many years at the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, 

26 worked on Capitol Hill, and I'll just tell you, this is the first -- you know, 
33 

1 I've been in the workforce close to 40 years now, the first agency I've 

2 been at where there has been significant continued ongoing focus on 

3 these types of initiatives, and I think that's something just to pause and 

4 comment on as important, because it shows the leadership focus. And 

5 while as Victor and Vonna mentioned, we still have much more work to 

6 do, the good news is that we're talking about these issues in a very 

7 open manner with the highest levels of the agency. That does not 

8 always happen. 

9 I add, Vonna, my thanks to that of Victor for your 

10 leadership. And while we all know that you have a very strong team in 

11 SBCR, your leadership is evident in the accomplishments and the 

12 progress your organization has made during your time in charge, so 

13 we're all very grateful. And congratulations on your new assignment. 

14 Let me ask -- comment, and then I'm going to ask a 

15 couple of questions here for Vonna and Vic. On the SES CDP 

16 selection stats, I appreciate your highlighting that, and I just 

17 would -- you know, think it's important for the Commission after you had 

18 your January 2016 meeting, for us to get some feedback when you 

19 have your briefing coming up here next month on this topic. But I do 

20 want to ask a question, perhaps of Vonna, and then anybody else from 

21 the NSPDP piece as far as the demographics. And those have been 

22 commented on by Theresa, in addition to Vonna's comments. 

23 Are there any observations or comments you have on 

24 the population pool? You did mention minority-serving institutions, but 

25 I want to see more broadly, is the pool of applicants for these 

26 slots -- how diverse is that group? 
34 

1 MS. ORDAZ: In the SES CDP, we are seeing diverse 

2 applicants, so the pool is there to a certain degree. But what we need 

3 to do is more in terms of helping to grow and develop these individuals 

4 so they can more competitively selected. There's been a number of 

5 activities such as mentoring and shadowing, and all other events, but I 

6 think we need to do a more concerted effort, and I'm confident that the 

7 ERB will come to some solutions in that area to help make it more 

8 plentiful in the future. 

9 COMMISSIONER OSTENDORFF: Victor? 

10 MR. McCREE: Commissioner, first of all, I do 

11 appreciate your question. I think it's a very valuable one, and at its core 

12 is the value and effort that we place in leadership development and 

13 talent management, otherwise known as Succession Planning. Our 

14 focus as a Senior Leadership Team over the last 12 to 18 months has 

15 been on the Executive Team, current Executives. I believe that there 

16 are lessons that we're learning and have learned that are applicable 

17 that we can apply in terms of developing people for executive 

18 leadership roles, that we can apply at the supervisory level and below to 

19 further enrich the pool, if you would, of people across the board, 

20 including folks with diverse backgrounds and experiences, such that 

21 they're more competitive, if you would, when they apply for an SES 

22 Candidate Development Program. So, we will be more intentional about 

23 those activities in the future. 

24 COMMISSIONER OSTENDORFF: Okay, thank you. 

25 I'll just comment that the Small Business Program 

26 accomplishments are significant, demonstrates ongoing leadership, 
35 

1 solid management and attention to detail, so I just applaud those 

2 involved in those efforts. 

3 Joel, I want to go to your Slide 11, if I can, just for a 

4 moment. 

5 MR. KRAVETZ: Of course. 

6 COMMISSIONER OSTENDORFF: And I wanted to -- I 

7 think Slide 11. Yes, the -- you made a statement that the NRC 

8 promotion, non-selection claims increased from 9 percent to 18 

9 percent. And I know that we're dealing with some small numbers 

10 overall, but put aside the numbers just for a minute. Are there any 

11 Lessons Learned you're seeing from your experience that gets into 

12 clarity of performance evaluation expectations, performance objectives 

13 where people are being formally counseled at midyear reports, report 

14 time periods. I'm trying to understand, you know, standards and what 

15 expectations are. Anything you've learned in that area? 

16 MR. KRAVETZ: At this point, it would be premature to 

17 draw any Lessons Learned from the complaints filed in Fiscal Year 

18 2015, in large part because they're still in investigation. 

19 COMMISSIONER OSTENDORFF: Okay. 

20 MR. KRAVETZ: Or they haven't been adjudicated yet 

21 because they're new complaints. They're not -- the few promotion 

22 claims that we've have, and you pointed out it only takes a few to 

23 increase the percentage, the finding of discrimination that was made by 

24 the District Court Judge was also a non-promotion or a non-selection 

25 claim. So, the Lessons Learned in large part from that can probably be 

26 carried over. And I know there will be training provided in 2016 to 
36 

1 managers and supervisors in that area, so that hopefully the agency as 

2 a whole, and those who are empowered to make selection decisions 

3 will be better trained in the area to avoid the mistakes of the past. 

4 COMMISSIONER OSTENDORFF: Okay, thank you. 

5 Mike, I appreciate your highlighting the Office of 

6 Research activities, and highlighting how its engaged in change. A 

7 couple of things caught my attention, the play on words, Moving On Up 

8 the Pike Newsletter, and the CHILL becoming Research Embrace, so I 

9 appreciate, in particular, your highlighting the Office of Research staff 

10 participation in the various EEO Advisory Committees. That's really 

11 important for us to support, but please pass on our Commission's 

12 acknowledgment of that representation on the EEO Advisory 

13 Committees. 

14 MR. CASE: Okay, will do. 

15 COMMISSIONER OSTENDORFF: And I was also 

16 pleased to see the FAS results. In particular, I look at Tony Barnes, 

17 my Navy colleague here in his work in this agency on inclusion, quotient 

18 implementation and how the agency overall stacks up compared to the 

19 rest of the Federal government in this area. So, I think Tony is back 

20 there. Getting on you, Tony, for your efforts in this area. 

21 Kriss, I have to maybe have a different professional 

22 opinion on your advice to Jerome. 

23 (Laughter) 

24 COMMISSIONER OSTENDORFF: While it is certainly 

25 an option for Jerome to introduce a great diverse element in going down 

26 to Arlington for his -- with his Steelers lanyard, and I know Miriam is look 
37 

1 at me, as well, and if Bill Magwood were here, he would have the same 

2 comment. I'll also note there's also an alternative option for Jerome to 

3 consider, getting with the program. 

4 (Laughter) 

5 COMMISSIONER OSTENDORFF: Been a complaint 

6 made the last two times I've gone down to Region IV before I've gone to 

7 the office, each time I've gone, there's a Waffle House right there off 

8 Lamar Boulevard that's looking out over the stadium. I won't say it's a 

9 religious experience, but Tammy Bloomer on my staff in one trip, who's 

10 a big Steeler fan, and Amy Cubbage on my staff is a big Patriot fan have 

11 had to endure breakfast with me there. So maybe, Kriss, you could 

12 take Jerome to breakfast there and have him open his eyes a little bit 

13 wider to the new environment he'll be in. 

14 MR. KENNEDY: Commissioner, I do take pleasure in 

15 knowing that Jerome's office overlooks AT&T Stadium. 

16 (Applause) 

17 COMMISSIONER OSTENDORFF: There is justice. 

18 We're very pleased to see Jerome assume this new position, so we 

19 wish you well, Jerome. 

20 Kriss, thanks for highlighting the Region IV efforts, you 

21 know, especially what you've done with your committee structures, and 

22 with Natasha's efforts, appreciate it greatly. Any changes you've seen 

23 to Region IV, any change or two you want to highlight that you've 

24 implemented as a result of some of the Diversity Management Advisory 

25 Committee recommendations? 

26 MR. KENNEDY: I think we -- and Natasha can provide 
38 

1 any input she wants to, as well, but I think the DMAC Committee is very 

2 focused on making the diversity day celebrations more than just 

3 celebrations, and so they work with Mark and I, too, on what kind of 

4 workshops and training do they want to bring to the region? And, so, 

5 we've had a number of good presentations and training opportunities, 

6 and workshops, and I mentioned a couple, building trust and giving and 

7 receiving feedback. So, I think the committees are very good about 

8 working with us and recognizing areas that we can enhance our culture, 

9 our workplace culture and provide that training to the staff. And that 

10 has carried on over the last several years, bringing that training to the 

11 region. 

12 COMMISSIONER OSTENDORFF: Okay, thank you. 

13 Theresa, just -- and I'm out of time. I just want to thank 

14 you for representing the Advisory Committees here today, and for 

15 highlighting the significant role they play in this agency's health and 

16 welfare, so thank you. Thank you all. 

17 CHAIRMAN BURNS: Thank you, Commissioner. 

18 Commissioner Baran. 

19 COMMISSIONER BARAN: Thanks. Well, thank you all 

20 for your presentations, and really more importantly for all the work 

21 you're doing to promote diversity and inclusion at NRC. Vonna, I want to 

22 join Vic and Commissioner Ostendorff in thanking you for the terrific 

23 work you've done over the last few years. Thank you for that. It really 

24 does show. 

25 I appreciate that -- I was going to ask about NSPDP 

26 and that class, and the SES Candidate Development Program class, 
39 

1 and the under-representation we're seeing there particularly with 

2 respect to women. And I appreciate that you asked about that, and I 

3 appreciate the comments that Vic made about that. I think that's 

4 something we really need to focus on and turn around, because those 

5 numbers are pretty low, you know, for women in those programs. And 

6 they're important programs for all the reasons that people have 

7 discussed. And just in hearing the presentations and preparing for the 

8 meeting ahead of time, I was pretty struck by those numbers. 

9 As Theresa discussed, the Joint Advisory Committee 

10 statement expressed some concern about the potential consequences 

11 of expected staffing reductions on the agency's diversity. And so far it 

12 looks like from the demographic data we're not losing ground on 

13 diversifying the agency and its workforce. 

14 Vonna, can you talk a little bit about how we make sure 

15 that future staffing reductions don't result in a less diverse workforce 

16 here? 

17 MS. ORDAZ: Certainly. And I also welcome OCHCO 

18 to add anything they'd like to. Clearly, you know, it has to be a 

19 collaborative effort across many programs, OCHCO, SBCR, agency 

20 Managers and others to help maintain and retain a diverse workforce. 

21 There's all types of career enhancing opportunities, but it will be a 

22 challenge. And I would just offer that we have to continue doing more 

23 of developing every employee in the agency, men, women, minorities, 

24 individuals with disabilities, veterans to help retain the folks that we 

25 have on staff, as well as in the targeted recruitment areas to focus and 

26 be more broad in our mind set in how we make those selections. And 
40 

1 it's not about picking -- you know, having a certain numerical 

2 component of your organization, but it's folks from different 

3 backgrounds and experiences. We have seen some wonderful results 

4 when we broaden our thinking to expand our teams. 

5 MR. McCREE: I can't say anything else. I think Vonna 

6 has said it all. 

7 COMMISSIONER BARAN: Okay, thanks. 

8 I wanted to just ask about, the background materials 

9 indicated that the agency used the Alaska Native Corporation 8(a) 

10 Program for the first time this year, and I just wanted to hear a little bit 

11 more about that, how many contracts were awarded, were these 

12 sole-source contracts, or competitive contracts? Can someone just 

13 give us a little bit more description about developments in that area? 

14 MS. ORDAZ: Certainly. I will ask James to come up to 

15 the podium, but just a little background. Alaska Native Corporations are 

16 companies where the shareholders are comprised of Alaskan Natives 

17 and their descendants. You know, what we do is we decide -- we work 

18 closely with AMD on identifying who are -- you know, through our 

19 collaborative process, we vet all of the different types of companies so 

20 we can make sure that we have the most capable company to support 

21 the NRC's requirement. But in terms of the value and the numerics, I'll 

22 let James answer that. 

23 MR. CORBETT: Yes, we awarded two this year, one 

24 was the Navarro, the administrative assistant and secretarial and 

25 administrative services contract. That one is governed by the 

26 Department of Labor rates, so one of the things that we always have to 
41 

1 do, Vonna mentioned, are they capable. We also have to insure that 

2 they're good value. We don't get out of that by going a socioeconomic 

3 route, so we did Navarro. And we also did -- recently awarded to Talu. 

4 It's a company -- it's an Alaska Native company that does -- is going to 

5 do all the furniture for the facilities. So, anything we do related to 

6 furniture, those are the two that we did. 

7 COMMISSIONER BARAN: Okay. And tell us a little bit 

8 about -- so, if -- 

9 CHAIRMAN BURNS: And, Jim, can you just identify 

10 yourself so we have -- 

11 MR. CORBETT: Oh, James Corbett. I'm the Director of 

12 the Acquisition Management Division in the Office of Administration. 

13 CHAIRMAN BURNS: Thanks. Sorry. 

14 COMMISSIONER BARAN: No, go ahead, or I should 

15 go ahead. 

16 (Laughter) 

17 COMMISSIONER BARAN: I'm going ahead now. So, 

18 in cases where under this program the agency awards a sole-source 

19 contract, tell us a little more. How do we make sure we're getting good 

20 value for our money in that case? In the absence of competition, 

21 which would normally discipline the prices, how do we make sure we're 

22 getting a good price, getting good value under the contract? 

23 MR. CORBETT: Well, even though -- what those 

24 programs give us is sort of a streamlined competition in the sense that 

25 we can select a company that we determine is capable. It doesn't 

26 relieve us at all from doing our due diligence, so we do market research, 
42 

1 we do a government cost estimate internal to the agency. In these 

2 cases, we had copious historical data on what we've paid in the past for 

3 those type of services. We had contracts for the furniture, for instance. 

4 We also had secretarial services. And, again, I mentioned earlier that 

5 the secretarial side is covered by Department of Labor. They set a 

6 standard for those categories, so we have to pay that. So, that one is a 

7 little bit easier knowing that we got it. We check GSA schedules, we 

8 do a lot of work to make sure that we can do price reasonableness, is 

9 the price they're charging us reasonable? We also do a lot with past 

10 performance, where have they done this work? In the case of the 

11 furniture, NIH and other large agencies, they handle all of their furniture, 

12 so they're quite capable, and we check the past performance. 

13 COMMISSIONER BARAN: Thank you. Thank you 

14 very much. Thanks, again, to everyone for all your work. 

15 CHAIRMAN BURNS: Thank you, Commissioner. I 

16 could pile on this Steelers thing. Jerome, I will send you a picture I took 

17 on behalf of my daughter who lives in Pittsburgh. On my beer cozie it 

18 says Yinz are in Stiller Country in front of the Eiffel Tower, so not only 

19 will we have there, but we have at least two people in France, or did at 

20 that time. Anyway, I do want to thank you all for your presentations. 

21 I think the interesting thing about the presentations we 

22 had here today, we're talking about particular programs, structures that 

23 get us on the right track in terms of diversity and inclusion, assuring 

24 that, you know, in accordance with the laws of this country that rights 

25 are protected. 

26 We also talk about what I'll call a lot of, you know, some 
43 

1 people say the soft things. And that -- which are very important, I think, 

2 to the fabric of really our society, and fabric -- and important to 

3 improving the diversity and inclusiveness of our society. And those are 

4 things like our heritage dinners that we have, the events that have been 

5 described in the regions, the types of things that Mike was discussing. 

6 I think one of the great things I think that I've noticed since returning is I 

7 think the focus in some of our committees is looking at not only, you 

8 know, celebrating the committee -- the committee celebrating diversity, 

9 but also focusing on what can I do, what can we do as a committee to 

10 improve opportunity for our employees, and also -- those all are sort of 

11 bound together. A lot of them -- those are, as I say -- when I say soft 

12 things, they're soft things because, you know, you can't hold on to it, but 

13 they are very important, I think. So, building into the structures that we 

14 have in terms of what we're doing. 

15 I want to focus on a couple of things. Again, Vonna, I 

16 express my appreciation for your service in SBCR and, of course, wish 

17 you well in your new opportunity. But give me a chance for sort of 

18 recollection over, you know, what you've learned, what you've seen 

19 over the last few years, what are your sort of observations from your 

20 experience? 

21 MS. ORDAZ: I could go on for a long time. What I 

22 would offer, though, is I've seen in the past four years really a change in 

23 relationships across the agency. We were originally pretty much stove 

24 piped in many ways across offices, and across even committees, if you 

25 will. And there's been much more of a blending. You know, coming 

26 from the technical side and now in a corporate office, I just see -- and 
44 

1 I've been interested in this in many meetings that we have, how do we 

2 get the two components closer together? But I've seen a lot more 

3 relationship-building. I've seen more committees working across each 

4 other's groups to come together, to join together for one common goal. 

5 And it's really been a strong showing over the years, whether it's the fun 

6 Jeopardy game where everyone comes together and ASLBP always 

7 wins, or it's, you know, some of the other joint events where they're 

8 really focused on recruiting and helping with, you know, mentoring and 

9 resume writing for some of these programs such as SES CDP. So, I 

10 think that's really been strong. 

11 I've seen more interest and support from the 

12 leadership across the agency, and I think that has been very 

13 remarkable. We'd like to really focus at the middle level management. 

14 I think there's some work to do there, and they're very busy. First-line 

15 supervisors, in particular, extremely busy, I know, but more support in 

16 their area would be helpful. 

17 I've also seen with all my interactions downtown with 

18 my colleagues from other agencies and with the EEOC, I've seen quite 

19 a bit of how NRC is viewed from the outside, and it's pretty remarkable, 

20 almost embarrassing sometimes because, you know, we'll talk to our 

21 colleagues from EEOC and they'll say okay, so what can we -- what do 

22 you see that we can do better? And they'll say -- they'll laugh and say 

23 no, we look at you, we look at your agency, whether it be the OCHCO 

24 Programs, or the -- you know, our programs across the agency, there's 

25 been some very -- people model, truly model some of the things that we 

26 do here. And it's not just our office, it's the whole agency. So, that 
45 

1 really -- it makes you feel good, but then it makes you want to work 

2 harder to keep up the great effort that we're doing here at the NRC. 

3 CHAIRMAN BURNS: All right, great. One of the things 

4 that struck me, I think, from a couple of presenters, I think, including you 

5 and Joel, if you look at some of the complaints -- in the complaints area 

6 in terms of the hostile work environment. That's the example that strikes 

7 me, but also efforts, I think, talking about this dialogue effort and things 

8 like that which really, I think, go to -- and I know, I think it's either -- it 

9 may have been the last meeting either Sheryl or Maria, and we'll hear 

10 from NTEU later, but I think we're making that point about in terms of 

11 sort of -- you know, it's the civility. I think what is it, Howard County had 

12 a civility matters bumper sticker a few years ago from the school 

13 system, I think, sponsored. But, I mean, I think that's a good thing 

14 to -- I think that address -- you know, we don't know in terms of 

15 particular -- when you look at particular complaints and all that, but I 

16 think it's a good way of connecting where work, you know, where work 

17 may -- can pay off, is this sort of, you know, encouraging civil dialogue, 

18 you know, respectful exchange of views and things like that. And I 

19 know coming out of, you know, my last experience where -- and I've 

20 said to those people before, one of the differences was, you know, I had 

21 to get consensus, which means nobody was ticked off enough to raise 

22 their hand and say no to something. And a lot of that, I mean, in terms 

23 of -- you know, my own personal experience and sort of increasing that 

24 across different national cultures and national, you know, policies and 

25 things like that. It's that kind of, you know, encouraging that kind of 

26 civil dialogue in that sphere, but also I think in our's. So, I encourage 
46 

1 those efforts and the learnings we can get from that. 

2 I think that those efforts, I think, will pay off in the long run. 

3 One of the things I want to ask, in terms of -- I think you 

4 mentioned using opportunities like the HBCU Conference, National 

5 Congress of American Indians Conference, can you tell me a little bit 

6 more about what we're doing at those types of conferences that's sort of 

7 putting us forward, Tuwanda? 

8 MS. SMITH: Well, I'll start with the National Congress 

9 of American Indians. That's an excellent segue. What we do, for 

10 example, the Tribal Colleges and Universities Program interact with 

11 different segments of the community, we help build educational 

12 opportunities, employment. We work on problems, issues, and 

13 concerns. We're really the segue in the first phase that people see 

14 about assistance and support to those particular groups, so the 

15 contracting part of that, the grant part of that, the ongoing support and 

16 assistance allows the communities to be open to the technical aspect of 

17 the NRC and the regulatory processes. So, sometimes when you're 

18 doing inspections or things of that nature, you're focused on carrying 

19 out that deliverable, but the people part of that, get to know NRC a little 

20 bit different in a better light, and are more receptive, so it blends 

21 together because our community, education, employment, condition 

22 climate or the environment, all those things kind of generate and gel 

23 together. So, outreach is very important to what we do. 

24 The other part is when we work on like Environmental 

25 Justice Conference, we are helping our colleagues be able to interface 

26 around the world with other Federal agencies to talk about best 
47 

1 practices and things of interest, to talk to people in the communities and 

2 have them get involved. One of the things I really liked over the almost 

3 10 years I've been here is the idea of public involvement and interest, 

4 and that we bring something to the table. So, those are the kind of 

5 outreach things, and they kind of blend across what our mission is, what 

6 the agency's overall mission is. 

7 CHAIRMAN BURNS: Yes. I think -- thanks for that. I 

8 think those are great opportunities. A lot of you have talked 

9 about -- whether it's formal conferences, NCAI, or HBCU, it's going out 

10 into schools, you know, getting out into community organizations, 

11 because I do think, and those are planning -- I think I talked at one -- I 

12 remember talking to Tony about going to -- my daughter used to work 

13 for the Girl Scouts, had me come speak to a Girl Scout conference in 

14 Johnstown, PA. And about three or four young women, early teens, 

15 high schoolers come up to me and said well, I'm interested in math and 

16 science. I'm interested in those types of things. So, doing that, I think 

17 we get our brand out, if you will, our name out there. And, again, 

18 understanding what we do, giving an understanding of what we do, 

19 what the opportunities are. So, I encourage those types of activities. 

20 Going back to the recruiting thing, are -- do you all 

21 see -- you mentioned in terms of the minority grant -- the serving 

22 institution, the grants program, are there particular things we ought to 

23 be looking -- and it looks like we -- I didn't look at particular statistics, but 

24 we have some success transferring or transitioning people potentially 

25 into NRC employment. Are there other things we can do with that in 

26 terms of looking at that program that sort of helps? Because I know, 
48 

1 and having been in Margie's position before, it can be tough sometimes. 

2 I remember in the Honors Program sometimes it was tough there 

3 getting entry-level folks in, so we wound up at one point switching 

4 to -- I'm sorry, I'm going -- we were switching into sort of mid-level 

5 recruiting, so I don't know what -- if there are any ideas you have. And 

6 then I'll stop. 

7 MS. ORDAZ: I think continued education to the 

8 first-line supervisors, the selecting officials to make sure they know that 

9 is available, that you can non-competitively select these individuals. 

10 And, honestly, I've been here for 25 years almost now, and didn't know 

11 that existed until I came to this office, but we've been working really 

12 close with our colleagues in OCHCO, and they've been doing a 

13 wonderful job getting the word out to first-line supervisors through all 

14 their different avenues. But it's really always, you know, when you're 

15 making these selections it doesn't have to be somebody that looks like 

16 us. It can be somebody that has a different background, and part of it's 

17 culture, part of it's mind set. And we just always need to pick the most 

18 qualified individual, but we need to be open to all the avenues we can 

19 choose from. 

20 MS. SMITH: I just wanted to add, another piece of that 

21 is that our offices are very good in going out to the institutions to talk 

22 about what it's like in the workplace and, therefore, we have instances 

23 where they literally mold or model the curriculum around what's really 

24 going on in the day to day activity of the world here so that we easily 

25 transition from the classroom to the workplace. And when our offices 

26 can see that there is a feeder group out there, they're more open to that. 
49 

1 CHAIRMAN BURNS: Okay, great. Thanks, Tuwanda. 

2 MS. ORDAZ: Can I just mention one other thing? 

3 Tuwanda and her team have done a lot of work over the years to 

4 partner minority-serving institutions with those institutions of higher 

5 education, and they've had a lot of successes. We won't go into detail 

6 on them today, but that has really helped. It's almost the train the trainer 

7 concept, so there's really a pipeline to help encourage those individuals 

8 to enhance their skills. 

9 CHAIRMAN BURNS: Okay, thanks. Commissioner 

10 Svinicki. 

11 COMMISSIONER SVINICKI: Well, good morning, 

12 everyone. And I want to thank everyone for their presentations. And, 

13 also, as Commissioner Baran noted, really all of the efforts that go on all 

14 year long on the activities we're discussing today. 

15 Vonna, I appreciate that you talked about, you know, 

16 it's embarrassing that the NRC is frequently held up as a model, but I 

17 also appreciate that Victor mentioned up front that there's always work 

18 to be done. And that this is a journey, and we have to keep striving. 

19 So, you know, we balance the fact that we have significant 

20 accomplishments, which we applaud, and commend, and we should 

21 take time to be gratified by that. But I always am struck by the 

22 self-critical honesty that we present at this meeting, which I think is very 

23 helpful. And that's always a prelude to someone who's going to be real 

24 honest, because I love honesty. So, let me be honest. 

25 On the SES CDP selection, so I just -- I want to share 

26 some observations. And I know that all of your look at these things a 
50 

1 lot more systematically, so please take this for what it's worth. My 

2 experiences here as a Commissioner, you know, are anecdotal, and I 

3 just observe the things that are available to me. But I struggled a bit, I 

4 have no basis for fault the selections in this particular class of 

5 candidates, but I know that some of the non-selected applicants feel 

6 some level of discouragement and perhaps a lack of understanding of 

7 why they weren't selected, so I know among the activities you're looking 

8 at is perhaps better feedback. 

9 Perception is not always accurate, but perceptions is 

10 very, very powerful, and we need to remember that. Future diversity in 

11 SES CDP classes will be directly correlated to whether or not these 

12 applicants and others with whom they discuss the process, their faith in 

13 the selection process is very important. And if they become 

14 discouraged, now we're basically asking people to perhaps try again in 

15 the future. They're willingness to do that is going to be correlated to 

16 their view of the overall selection process. So, I think that helping them 

17 to have the understanding and feedback of why they were not selected 

18 is absolutely essential to future diversity in the SES CDP. So, I would 

19 just remind you of that and I'm, you know, aware of some instances I 

20 think of personal discouragement. I'm not sure. I tried to encourage 

21 people, you know, to seek that feedback and apply again in the future, 

22 but it takes some amount of labor on their part. And I think we should 

23 all care a lot about how the non-selectees understand that process. I 

24 think that that's essential going forward. 

25 I did want to say that, Theresa, I appreciate a very 

26 thoughtful statement you made on behalf of the committees, and 
51 

1 particularly your acknowledgment the GS-12 and below, how our 

2 diversity statistics are different there. And if we are looking at certain 

3 categories of skills in that area, that the agency finds that we might have 

4 a shrinking need. I would say in addition to going out and hiring from 

5 those who benefit from some of our grants programs, I think that we 

6 should strike a balance with opportunities to develop employees that 

7 may not have the skill sets right now. We know that they are 

8 outstanding performers, they're longstanding agency employees, so I 

9 hope that in addition to taking advantage of the rich set of applicants 

10 that we get from outside the agency, we don't forget that there are 

11 important opportunities to take solid contributors here at NRC and 

12 develop them into skills categories where we may project that we will 

13 have a greater need in the future, or we project that we, you know, will 

14 maybe have retirements. So, I think you need to balance going 

15 outside versus cultivating what you have. And, again, it's just -- I'm not 

16 faulting it. I'm just saying it's important to be mindful of both. 

17 I do think that some of our IQ scores are clearly the 

18 strength of Fed survey results in some of those areas. It's clearly an 

19 outgrowth of a lot of the activities that we talked about today, the 

20 indicators that are baked into the inclusion quotient. I think I have a 

21 direct correlation with a lot of the activities that we've talked about 

22 today. 

23 I do want to say, though, on succession planning as a 

24 broad topic, which Victor, I think, you integrated into one of your 

25 responses. Again, my experiences are anecdotal, but I -- you know, 

26 every year that goes by, I have another year's worth of observations. 
52 

1 And Vonna said, you know, we don't have to pick people who look like 

2 us, but I hope to continue to grow my confidence that as we look at 

3 succession planning, we challenge our assumptions about what it takes 

4 to be a successful future EDO, what it takes to be a successful General 

5 Counsel. Because it is human nature to look for well, the type of 

6 people who have been successful Directors of NRR, look like this, and 

7 have this background. And I think that you have to constantly 

8 challenge yourself to say why couldn't a future successful EDO have a 

9 very different skill set, have a very different career journey, and just be a 

10 very different type of person? I think you reflexively kind of go to well, 

11 this is the profile of people who have done this in the past. Because, 

12 Vonna, you said you don't have to pick people who look like us, or look 

13 like the incumbent, but we have to pick qualified people. What I'm 

14 asking us to do is dig to that layer saying we make assumptions about 

15 what it is to be qualified for these jobs. I don't know why. This is 

16 probably going to be controversial. I don't know why a future EDO 

17 couldn't come out of the legal professions here? We have a lot of -- so, 

18 I think we have -- so we profile in a way. I think it's just something that 

19 we do, and make assumptions about who will be successful. And then 

20 that just gets embedded into these, you know, panels of qualifications 

21 and how the factors we're looking at, and how they get rated. So, I'm 

22 asking us to peel those layers back of, you know -- I know -- well, and 

23 the other thing you might say is well, you know, but this agency has 

24 been pretty darned successful, Commissioner Svinicki, so why do you 

25 want to challenge that? If success in General Counsels and EDOs has 

26 looked like a certain thing, why challenge it? But we don't know what 
53 

1 we're missing out on, I guess is what I'm trying to say. 

2 So, I look to grow, to continue to grow my confidence 

3 that the ERB and other panels that, again, this is another challenge, are 

4 composed of the type of people who've already been successful in 

5 these positions. So, is that an inherent mindset that causes us to say a 

6 successful director, you know, of NMSS looks like this, just because 

7 they've always looked like that. 

8 So, this gets way beyond, you know, I think some of the 

9 more apparent on the surface things of race and gender. It really gets 

10 to what kind of people could be successful? And, you know, I get 

11 asked this, what makes a successful NRC Commissioner? And my 

12 answer is always, I think really different types of people can be a 

13 successful NRC Commissioner. And I know the leadership ranks 

14 here, we need people with specific technical skill sets and 

15 competencies. And I'm not saying we should ever shortchange that. 

16 But I think -- and, you know, I'll be honest enough to tell you some of 

17 what I base this observation on, is I'll engage with some of our rising 

18 generation of NRC employees and professionals, and I'll be so 

19 impressed by them, so I'll mention to their management or their boss' 

20 boss' boss, and I'll say well, you know, so and so was here at this facility 

21 when I visited, very impressive individual. And they'll say oh, you 

22 know, that person could be a future EDO or Office Director. And a lot 

23 of times I hear that about people who look a lot like the EDOs and Office 

24 Directors that we've had. And then I think well, why not so and so, or 

25 somebody else? You know, why -- so, again, just -- so everyone is 

26 well intentioned, but those biases and, you know, we are a product of 
54 

1 our experiences. And it takes a constant questioning attitude, which is 

2 great in nuclear because that's the mindset we have, but I think even we 

3 can continually challenge ourselves about assumptions, about what 

4 kind of person is likely to be successful doing what? And if they don't 

5 have some of the requisite skill set, we have a lot of these wonderful 

6 activities and programs that I think give us opportunities to equip those 

7 people with maybe the narrow elements of this or that that they lack. 

8 So, I guess this is my little sermonizing from the table, but I just ask all 

9 of us really to be challenging ourselves all the time. Even in my own 

10 office I have administrative assistant positions, and historically I think 

11 Commissioners, you know, model after what other Commissioners 

12 have done, and divvy up work. Then in my office people will come to 

13 me and say well, do I ask your Chief of Staff about that? And I say no, 

14 you ask my administrative assistant, Janet. You know, she handles it. 

15 So, we need to think differently about just, you know, what is each 

16 person capable of contributing? Not what their job title is, but what 

17 capacities do they have, and how could we even advance that further? 

18 So, thus ends the sermon. I don't know if anyone wants 

19 to respond at all -- 

20 MS. ORDAZ: Yes. 

21 COMMISSIONER SVINICKI: -- to what I've said. An 

22 amen chorus is fine. 

23 (Applause) 

24 MS. ORDAZ: Thank you very much. 

25 COMMISSIONER SVINICKI: Thank you. I just 

26 wanted to say that the words are very encouraging. We greatly 
55 

1 appreciate it. And it's all about removing barriers and biases. And one 

2 of the things -- 

3 MS. ORDAZ: But -- 

4 COMMISSIONER SVINICKI: It's just that we 

5 don't -- unless we really challenge it, we don't know that they're there. 

6 MS. ORDAZ: You're absolutely right. So, we're really 

7 encouraged by this diversity dialogue project we mentioned earlier, 

8 because it's all about looking at those types of things. What's really on 

9 your mind, and does it need to be on your mind? How can you change 

10 that mindset and that culture that you've always had? So, we're really 

11 encouraged by that. Thank you for your words. 

12 COMMISSIONER SVINICKI: Okay, thank you. And I 

13 look -- I hope you're well rested because I look forward to all the 

14 contributions you are going to make in New Reactors. Thank you. 

15 MR. McCREE: And, Chairman, if I might. 

16 Commissioner, the only thing I'd add, the Chairman had mentioned our 

17 programs, our processes, our hard programs and processes that put us 

18 in an area where we can leverage diversity in all that we do. And then 

19 the soft activities. I think that's a great analogy. 

20 One hard programmatic activity we've been engaged 

21 in as a Senior Leadership Team over the last year and a half, I believe 

22 sets a -- will create an environment where we can be more open, if you 

23 would, and looking at an individual's performance and the roles that he 

24 or she has had, as well as their potential, are the two dimensions that 

25 we're focused -- have been focused on, as opposed to their 

26 "qualification and expertise," if you would. So, I believe that will open 
56 

1 the aperture a bit in our ability to develop people in a way that when we 

2 are at a point where we're implementing selections, that we're able to 

3 consider a more diverse pool. So, it is a journey, and we're well on our 

4 way to getting to an even better destination. 

5 CHAIRMAN BURNS: Thank you. At this point, 

6 we'll -- I invite forward Maria Schwartz to speak on behalf of the NTEU. 

7 Maria is the Chapter Executive Vice President Chief Steward of the 

8 National Treasury Employees Union Chapter here at the NRC. 

9 Welcome, Maria. 

10 MS. SCHWARTZ: Thank you. Good morning, 

11 Chairman Burns, Commissioners, EDO McCree, NRC Managers and 

12 my fellow bargaining unit employees. It's a pleasure to be able to 

13 address you again on behalf of the NTEU in this forum. 

14 NTEU, as we stress at these meetings, is the exclusive 

15 representative of our bargaining unit employees. I'm joined this 

16 morning by NTEU Chapter 208's President, Sheryl Burrows, and 

17 several of our officers and stewards. 

18 As the scheduling note for this briefing points out, its 

19 purpose is to provide the Commission with a semi-annual update on the 

20 progress and opportunities related to Civil Rights Outreach and Equal 

21 Opportunity. This is a very important briefing because it keeps the 

22 agency focused on the importance of inclusion and diversity for 

23 organizational good health. 

24 In that respect, all members of the NRC family should 

25 celebrate our progress in this area. And as our EDO mentioned also, 

26 we must be mindful of the challenges that confront us. This forum is 
57 

1 also important because it provides a mechanism to bring our successes 

2 and challenges in this area to the Commission's attention. 

3 As I worked on our safety culture policy statement a 

4 few years ago, I looked at the several studies addressing organizational 

5 culture that stress that organizational climate or culture is always 

6 controlled by the leader. 

7 NTEU has been focusing many of its comments over 

8 the last year on the important role that supervisors play within the 

9 agency. This morning, I would like to continue that focus as I speak to 

10 one of the challenges that our agency faces; specifically, the challenge 

11 of the double standard in the workplace. 

12 Merriam Webster defines double standard as a set of 

13 principles that applies differently and usually more rigorously to one 

14 group of people or circumstances than to another. It's easy to see why 

15 those experiencing the negative consequences of a double standard 

16 become demoralized and complacent. The slides you saw earlier 

17 illustrate areas where employees feel that they are being treated 

18 differently than their colleagues because they are members of a 

19 protected class. Double standards of behavior create imbalances in an 

20 organization, and create mistrust. The bottom line is the old cliche, 

21 "Double standards never work at work." 

22 Unfortunately, NTEU continues to see disparate 

23 treatment, this double standard approach across the agency in various 

24 settings. As the Affirmative Employee Specialist in SBCR can attest, 

25 NTEU has been a steadfast advocate for our employees who have 

26 suffered under such treatment based on their inclusion in a protected 
58 

1 class, accompanying them to intake discussions and in mediation 

2 meetings. 

3 Since the collective bargaining agreement was 

4 recently revised to include a mass dignity clause, NTEU can now also 

5 advise our employees that they have the additional option of filing a 

6 grievance to address instances where relationships in the workplace 

7 are not conducted in a civil business-like manner. 

8 None of these avenues, however, will prevent double 

9 standards from continuing unless there is an ongoing commitment to 

10 our agency's values. Because within those isacre values bookended 

11 by integrity and in respect there is no room for double standards. 

12 Sometimes it's called favoritism, sometimes it's called discrimination, 

13 sometimes it's called passing the buck. It doesn't always have a 

14 specific label, but it in all cases it is a flawed and highly subjective view 

15 that promotes one employee or group of employees so that they enjoy 

16 greater autonomy, opportunity, and empowerment over another 

17 employee or group of employees. This is significant to the employees 

18 who experience the negative consequences of a double standard, but it 

19 is also significant to the organizational health of the agency, which as 

20 we see in our FES scores has a significant impact on employee 

21 engagement and, thus, the agency's ability to perform its mission. 

22 NTEU continues to hear from employees who 

23 experience double standards. When a double standard of behavior 

24 affects our employees' working conditions, NTEU brings these to 

25 management's attention. If outside the grievance process, 

26 management generally responds by asking us if this is a specific 
59 

1 situation, or there are several employees involved. NTEU appreciates 

2 this concern; however, while it is important to address the behaviors of 

3 a supervisor who is impacting an entire branch, it is also just as 

4 important when only one employee is involved who knows to borrow an 

5 expression, that they can't win for losing. And despite the successes 

6 of the Behavior Matters Program, or the Recitation of NRC Values in 

7 various forms, many situations are not adequately addressed, and the 

8 supervisor in question appears too often to continue to be unaware and, 

9 therefore, unaccountable for their inappropriate behaviors. 

10 Over the last year, NTEU worked with an employee 

11 degraded and held accountable for alleged poor performance under 

12 utterly abusive circumstances that occurred on a regular basis over a 

13 length of time. That employee's supervisor continues to supervise. 

14 NTEU worked with a male employee banned from the facility while his 

15 case was pending for less egregious behavior than the alleged 

16 behavior of a female employee in a supervisory position who was 

17 transferred to another position while her case is pending. 

18 NTEU has also observed for want of a better term 

19 serial abusers who seem to look for vulnerable employees to bully and 

20 actually have a reputation for doing so. If these supervisors are not 

21 only not removed from supervisory positions, they continue to advance 

22 in the organization. 

23 Interestingly, though, NTEU has also worked with 

24 several employees who had difficulties with a supervisor, who seemed 

25 to single them out. When rotated from their supervisor to another area 

26 of the agency, these employees went from a minimally satisfactory 
60 

1 performance to an excellent performance and truly engaged in their 

2 work. 

3 NTEU is aware that there can be difficult employees to 

4 manage in any organization. However, we believe that the way these 

5 situations are handled is what distinguishes a good supervisor from a 

6 mediocre one. And we believe that supervisor aspiring to move ahead 

7 in the agency look to their own management for signals as to what 

8 behaviors are acceptable. This, in turn, reflects on the organizational 

9 health of the agency, in general. 

10 NTEU would hope that because everyone should be 

11 treated with dignity and respect, the direct message to an offender from 

12 their supervisor would be look at what I do. This is how I expect you to 

13 conduct yourself in the workplace. And, of course, double standards 

14 have an even more harmful effect on an organization when supervisors 

15 apply a double standard to their own behaviors, when they say, in 

16 effect, I expect this of you, but you can expect a very different this from 

17 me. But, unfortunately, this is a surefire way of a supervisor to erode 

18 their own credibility. But, unfortunately, not just their own credibility, 

19 when employees see that this kind of double standard exists, it 

20 heightens their awareness that they could also befall the very same 

21 behaviors since apparently the agency either directly or tacitly 

22 condones it. 

23 In the previous EEO briefing in June 2015, the Office of 

24 the Chief Human Capital Officer emphasized their commitment to build 

25 individual readiness by stressing the importance of leadership at all 

26 levels in order to build self-management and self-leadership skills. 
61 

1 This is important, and NTEU applauds these efforts, but training that it 

2 aimed at empowering our employees simply does not negate the 

3 important behaviors that our supervisors and upper level managers 

4 must model for our employees, as well. 

5 OCHCO stated at that time at the same EEO briefing 

6 that they will continue to improve employee engagement by supporting 

7 improvements in the workplace in response to the Federal Employee 

8 Viewpoint Survey and other data gathering tools. Again, in the results 

9 to 2015 test scores, responses to questions addressing confidence in 

10 the leadership are very low. A culture that supports a double standard 

11 of behaviors, a double standard of accountability, a double standard of 

12 rewards, or a double standard of opportunities is a culture that cannot 

13 be sustained. A culture that is marked by double standards destroys 

14 trust, erodes confidence in leaders, and undermines the expectations of 

15 a positive safety culture, which in turn undermines the ability of the NRC 

16 to fulfill its mission. 

17 Engaging in and perpetuating a double standard here 

18 at the NRC must be challenged, and must be changed. This is 

19 extremely important in the context of this EEO briefing, but equally 

20 important in every aspect of our agency's organizational health. Thank 

21 you very much. 

22 CHAIRMAN BURNS: Thank you, Maria. 

23 Well, I want to again thank each of the presenters for 

24 their presentations today, and as well as thank our eight EEO Advisory 

25 Committees and the newly formed Veterans Employee Resource 

26 Group that are voluntary and work in partnership within the agency, and 
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1 SBCR, and with the offices to make NRC an even better place to work. 

2 This has been a great overview of the programs and 

3 policies we have in place. As I say, both policies and programs, but 

4 also in terms of those other types of activities that I think can encourage 

5 and increase our cohesiveness as an agency. And I want to thank you 

6 all for that, and for the ideas and perspectives presented. 

7 And one last comment I'll make. We've -- I think one 

8 of the things we do is -- and I've heard a number of the presenters today 

9 talk about the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, and what learnings 

10 we can get from that. And I would remind everybody we're right now in 

11 the middle of the Inspector General's Safety Culture and Climate 

12 Survey. I think -- I spoke to the IG yesterday. We have about a 35 

13 percent participation rate so far. I think that it's open at least about 

14 another week, but I would encourage all of our staff to get their views in 

15 there, take the survey, because it is something that we can use to better 

16 the agency. So, if you haven't done it, get to it. Okay? And with that, 

17 thanks very much. 

18 (Whereupon, the proceedings went off the record at 

19 11:14 a.m.) 

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