San Joaquin’s Lee selected as the Global Distribution Excellence Training Civilian of the Year
 
  By  Annette Silva, DLA Distribution San Joaquin Public Affairs
  Management Analyst Nina Lee of the Resource Management Group’s Workforce Development team at Defense Logistics Agency Distribution San Joaquin, California, was selected as the DLA Distribution Global Distribution Excellence Training Civilian of the Year. “Ms. Lee is a critical part of the Workforce Development Team and is heavily relied upon by managers, employees and American Federation of Government Employees’ leadership to ensure the distribution center’s nearly 1,000 employees and military personnel received the proper training to enhance their professional development and mission support capabilities,” said her branch chief Anthony Burgher. “Her performance was exceptional, and she was the epitome of what all employees should aspire to be.” Lee is a top-notch employee, always ready and prepared when needed to provide support to the installation. She consistently monitored each training area under her responsibility and ensured the right employees received the required training, directly contributing to our center’s mission readiness. During the award period, she facilitated and coordinated approximately 75 distribution operations, individual development plans and enterprise wide mandatory training courses. With over 15,000 instances of EWMT, her individual efforts directly lead to San Joaquin achieving an EWMT completion rate of nearly 96%, one of the highest completion rates within the distribution network. In addition, Ms. Lee contributed to San Joaquin achieving a 95% completion rating on the mandatory Supervisor Safety Courses. To achieve these ratings, she monitored the completion status in the Learning Management System and created an excel tool to track and report weekly course status updates to first-line supervisors, all the way to senior leadership. Further, she served as the monthly leadership forum facilitator, collecting all presentations and working with San Joaquin’s executive leadership team to ensure each forum was coordinated and executed without a hitch. She assembled and incorporated the presentations to ensure a smooth operating Leadership Forum and often asked in advance for inputs to ensure everything was in place. As a result of her persistence, each monthly Leadership Forum went exceptionally well, with leadership walking away from the forums with a better understanding of the command’s guidance and intent on key mentoring and leadership topics. Lee contributed to Global Distribution Excellence by understanding the necessity to provide the most robust and relevant training opportunities to the workforce, while also recognizing the fiscally contained environment under which DLA operated in 2019. She recommended that San Joaquin pursue bringing onsite the popular Hazardous Material Packing and Transportation (AMMO-62) class. San Joaquin had never hosted this class onsite and had previously sent an average of four employees to McAlister, Oklahloma, annually to receive the training, at a cost of approximately $3,000 per employee. Working with Distribution Workforce Development, she was able to schedule two Ammo 62 courses at San Joaquin during 2019. Because San Joaquin hosted the courses, San Joaquin was able to train 14 employees, instead of the usual four during the year. Understanding the importance of lifelong learning, Lee coordinated San Joaquin’s annual Education Fair. Through her relationships with local and distant learning institutions, she was able to bring 15 schools onsite to speak with employees about furthering their formal education. Nearly 500 employees attended the Education Fair and received this critical information needed to enhance their personal and professional development. “Ms. Lee’s contributions to the Workforce Development Team and the needs of San Joaquin were exemplary and the results achieved went well beyond what was expected in terms of quality, quantity and impact,” concluded Burgher.