# People, teams celebrated for going extra mile in 50th annual Employee Recognition Awards

/ Published Dec. 13, 2017

A total of 43 individuals and 13 teams received 56 awards at the 50th annual Defense Logistics Agency Employee Recognition Awards ceremony, Dec. 12 at the McNamara Headquarters Complex, Fort Belvoir, Virginia.Army Lt. Gen. Darrell Williams, the director of DLA, thanked those who put on the event and noted that the words of the agency’s third director, Air Force Lt. Gen. Earl  C. Hedlund, upon creating the first such ceremony in 1967, still ring true.Then and now, the personnel receiving these awards, Williams said, “are willing to do more than their job descriptions call for and are doing their jobs in a superlative fashion.”In addition, “there were scores of nominations this year — which means there was a lot of pride and performance out there, sitting in this room and across our workforce,” Williams noted.He added that although this made choosing “the best of the best” from the entire workforce a challenging task, he appreciates the supervisors who took the time to write up award nominations.“It is so important to maintaining and improving our culture that we have at DLA,” he said. “I encourage all our supervisors to nominate even more employees next year and increase the workload of our judges,” he said, bringing a laugh from the audience, which included friends and family of the awardees, along with senior leaders from across DLA.“We continue this ceremony each year to show our appreciation for the phenomenal accomplishments of the DLA workforce, and also to draw inspiration from their examples,” Williams said.He noted that in his travels around the nation and around the world since becoming director in June, he has witnessed firsthand DLA employees’ commitment to serving their customers — whether the warfighter overseas or other federal agencies providing relief to Americans struck by disasters, as was the case this fall with the three back-to-back hurricanes.“Your experience, your knowledge and your talent and your dedication to supporting the warfighter and to all of our strategic goals creates and cements an excellent reputation among all our customers,” Williams said.“It’s obvious to me that even in the performance of your routine duties, you never forget who it is that you’re serving.”“I’m incredibly impressed by what I see as the director,” he said.

In addition, the director shared the late-breaking announcement from the Office of Personnel Management that William J. Kenny, executive director of Contracting and Acquisition Management at DLA Troop Support, was among the selectees for the 2017 Meritorious Executive Presidential Rank Award, to be presented at a ceremony in the coming weeks.The 2017 DLA Employee Recognition Awards are as follows.**Top 10 Employees:**
      - Michael Daigle, DLA Distribution 
      - Devin Humphrey, DLA Distribution 
      - Emanuel Lee, DLA Distribution 
      - Renee Ellis, DLA Land and Maritime 
      - Army Sgt. 1st Class Nicholas Braddock, DLA Energy 
      - Marc Chesson, DLA Distribution 
      - Ana Bossman, DLA Aviation 
      - Larry Baas, DLA Land and Maritime 
      - Shannon Fry, DLA Distribution 
      -     Saddia Walton, DLA Installation Management    ****

**Leader of the Year:**
      - Level 1:	Brett Bodine, DLA Energy 
      - Level 2:	Michael Rector, DLA Logistics Operations 
      - Level 3:	Michael Timbang, DLA Distribution 
      - Level 4:	Terra Nguyen, DLA Information Operations 

**Employee of the Quarter:**
      - Category A: Trevor Downing, DLA Distribution 
      - Category B: Tremain Hampton, DLA Disposition Services 
      - Category C: Aybike Arslan, DLA Energy    ****

**Team Awards:**
      - Small: Joint Strike Fighter Expedited Cataloging Team, DLA Information Operations 
      - Medium: F/A-18 Foam Filler Long Term Contract Team, DLA Aviation 
      - Large: DPMAP Implementation Team, DLA Human Resources    ****

**Equal Employment Opportunity Awards:**
      - Outstanding DLA Employee with Disabilities: Thomas Comeans, DLA Land and Maritime 
      - Achievement in EEO by a Supervisor or Manager	: Roy Dillard, DLA Troop Support 
      - Achievement in EEO by an Employee: Jose Ramos, DLA Troop Support 
      - Achievement in EEO by an Organization: DLA Troop Support    ****

**Military Personnel Awards:**
      - Field Grade Officer of the Year: Air Force Lt. Col. Rolandis Crawl, DLA Joint Reserve Force 
      - Company Grade Officer of the Year: Air Force Capt. Dawn Pieper, DLA Distribution 
      - Senior Noncommissioned Officer of the Year: Air Force Master Sgt. Gabriela Camarillo, DLA Aviation 
      - Junior Noncommissioned Officer of the Year: Army Staff Sgt. William Fernandez, DLA Distribution 
      - Senior Reserve Officer of the Year: Army Reserve Maj. Bruce Neighbor, DLA Land and Maritime 
      - Junior Reserve Officer of the Year: Navy Reserve Lt. John Elswick, DLA Distribution 
      - Senior Reserve Noncommissioned Officer of the Year: Navy Reserve LSC Susan Jerrim, DLA Distribution 
      - Junior Reserve Noncommissioned Officer of the Year: Air Force Tech. Sgt. Gregory Sprouse, DLA Aviation 

**Installation Support Excellence Awards:**
      - Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Program Management: Ann Walker	DLA Installation Operations, Susquehanna 
      - Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Facility and Program Excellence Award: Todd Smith, DLA Installation Operations, Susquehanna 
      - DLA Police Officer of the Year: Officer Christopher Kelty,	DLA Installation Operations, Columbus 
      - DLA Lead Police Officer of the Year: Sgt. Stephen Benitzhar, DLA Installation Operations, San Joaquin 
      - DLA Supervisory Police Officer of the Year: Capt. Christina Franco, DLA Installation Operations, San Joaquin 
      - DLA Police Unit of the Year: DLA Installation Operations Richmond 
      - DLA Firefighter of the Year: Firefighter Gilbert Ybarra, DLA Installation Operations, San Joaquin 
      - DLA Fire Officer of the Year: Training Chief Carl Weiss, DLA Installation Operations, Susquehanna 
      - DLA Fire Service Instructor of the Year: Captain John Fogg III, DLA Installation Operations, Susquehanna 
      - DLA Fire Prevention Program of the Year, DLA Installation Operations Richmond 
      - DLA Fire Department of the Year: DLA Installation Operations Richmond 
      - Safety Professional of the Year: Beatrice Holman, DLA Distribution 
      - Safety Champion of the Year: Kathy Braley, DLA Distribution 
      - Employee Safety/Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) Team Award: Foreign Military Sales Tactical Vehicle Mission Support Team, DLA Distribution 
      - Management System Achievement (Safety): DLA Battle Creek, DLA Installation Operations    ****

**Acquisition Excellence Awards:**
      - Excellence in Acquisition: Michael Yacobacci, DLA Acquisition 
      - Acquisition Workforce Contracting and Purchase (Individual): Christopher Smitley, DLA Land and Maritime 
      - Acquisition Support Professional of the Year (Individual): Patrick VanSant, DLA Distribution 
      - Acquisition Workforce Contracting and Purchase (Team)	Medical Surgical Prime Vendor Generation V Team, DLA Troop Support 
      - Acquisition Workforce Small Business (Team): Special Operational Equipment Tailored Logistics Support Program Team, DLA Troop Support 
      - Acquisition Support Professional of the Year (Team): Program Special Project Team, DLA Land and Maritime 

**Information Technology Awards:**
      - Information Technology Person of the Year: Nelson Alvarez, DLA Information Operations 
      - Information Technology Program Manager of the Year: Michelle York, DLA Information Operations 
      - Information Technology Team of the Year: Windows 10/Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Implementation, DLA Information Operations     

View all photos from the event. This link is requires a Common Access Card and is restricted to DLA employees only.