FY 2022 OUTSTANDING SAFETY CULTURE AWARDS RECIPIENTS
FY 2022 DOE Individual Employee Outstanding Safety Culture Award Recipient
Doug Eddy
Senior Technical Safety Advisor
NA-LL, NNSA Livermore Field Office,
U. S. Department of Energy
In FY 2022, Douglas Eddy (Doug) demonstrated excellent leadership to see the successful implementation of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Safety, Analytics, Forecasting, Evaluation, and Reporting (SAFER) program at the Livermore Field Office (LFO). As the LFO Champion for SAFER, Doug established a plan with goals and a schedule that engaged management and the key stakeholders at LFO, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and NNSA NA-50/NA-ESH to ensure the SAFER platform included the right decision makers. Doug’s involvement did not stop at LFO and LLNL but extended to building out and expanding the LFO Field Office page to include the Technical Qualifications Program (TQP), staffing/organization, and general Field Office resource information and data. Because of Doug’s vision and achievements, the LFO SAFER platform was shared with the NNSA safety groups and committees, Headquarters (HQ), and all of the NNSA sites. Doug’s achievements at LFO were essentially mirrored at the other NNSA Field Offices.
The planning and coordination of the SAFER project was complex, involving a large team of experts, including directly working with the NNSA subcontractor Palantir Technologies Inc. Because of Doug’s leadership, NNSA successfully developed a new type of software system for the DOE/NNSA that established the first common operating platform for securely sharing information and facilitating the management of knowledge for performance monitoring from multiple databases, which included: various facility specific information such as Mission Dependency Index (MDI) and operations, issues, occurrences/events, assessments, effects of infrastructure aging and degradation, utilities management, infrastructure projects, fire protection program information, safety basis documentation, and other standard maintenance program data such as work orders and nuclear facility maintenance program compliance.
After LFO completed a pilot for the Maintenance Safety Management Program (SMP) in FY 2021, Doug continued developing SAFER further. Although the maintenance platform had achieved successful implementation, Doug was determined to expand and develop other programs such as Fire Protection, Safety Basis, and Utilities. Because of Doug’s drive for continuous improvement and having a clear understanding of NNSA’s mission and safety program requirements and goals, he was instrumental in directing and coordinating NNSA’s efforts to collect, analyze, and communicate safety performance and outcomes via SAFER to LFO management, LLNL, HQ, and across the NNSA enterprise. Doug’s vision for SAFER included the greater NNSA.
Doug’s work effort included a collaborative effort with LLNL partners to help ensure DOE’s Integrated Safety Management System (ISMS) and oversight systems were a part of the development process from day one. Doug successfully included a vision to increase efficiency and effectiveness in safety oversight by using subject matter experts more effectively through the use and application of SAFER. By doing this Doug successfully focused on risk and problem-solving in support of NNSA’s mission and goals for increased safety.
FY 2022 Contractor Individual Outstanding Safety Culture Award Recipient
Stacey Alderson
Acting Senior Director Mission Assurance,
Mission Support and Test Services (MSTS),
NNSA Nevada Field Office
Mr. Alderson's dedication and commitment to safety culture implementation at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) has undoubtedly resulted in the lowest 12- month rolling average of Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR of 0.31) in the past 13 years for an M&O contractor at NNSS and the MSTS retention of DOE Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) Star Status and expansion to outlying locations for the award period.
Mr. Alderson has demonstrated significant achievements in the following Safety Culture Focus Areas including Leadership, Organizational Learning, and Employee Engagement. Mr. Alderson, through his leadership, has directly and personally influenced the implementation and continuous improvement of the BeyondZero safety culture employed at MSTS.
Mr. Alderson led the DOE VPP recertification process readiness strategy. He led the development of a corporate communication plan that consisted of print and digital article distributions, posters, lanyard cards, and briefing materials for supervisors and managers. Additionally, he briefed Business Agent representatives from all 23 collective bargaining units, provided monthly status updates, met with employee-led safety committees, and advised senior leadership on interview protocol. Mr. Alderson also developed a specific package of information that was provided to the DOE VPP on-site review team that provided emergency, police, medical, pharmacy, restaurant, and grocery information applicable to the team's hotel location. The level of personal engagement and oversight in the implementation of the readiness strategy contributed significantly to the recertification.
FY 2022 Outstanding Safety Culture Award Team Recipients
Sandia National Laboratories Safety Culture Team
In the fall of 2022, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) launched a very successful safety culture program as one of many initiatives to improve Sandia’s overall safety and organizational culture with a focus on achieving overall operational excellence through safe execution of work. As a member of the Sandia Safety Culture Team, Cynthia (CJ) Backlund and Brian Thomson dedicated significant time and effort to create and implement the Sandia Leadership Academy, which included courses to foster a Safety Conscious Work Environment, a positive safety culture, and a strong organizational climate.
Sandia National Laboratories’ Safety Culture Program is working to radically change the overall culture of Sandia – such that effectiveness of its leadership is significantly improved, leadership and worker engagement is increased exponentially, and organizational learning is a continuous and never-ending reality. Instead of focusing solely on motivating people to speak up and creating both a physically and psychologically safe environment, Sandia’s Environmental Safety and Health (ES&H) Organization is also focusing on skill-building to help ensure people not only understand what a safety culture looks, sounds, and feels like, but also master the behaviors and skills necessary to achieve and maintain a safety culture.
Sandia’s Safety Culture Program consists of five key components, with the first being supported and reinforced by the other four. All are intentionally designed to develop and accelerate proficiency in five interdependent focus areas. The Safety Culture Academy, a 1-day leadership development workshop designed to enhance the ability of managers/leaders to influence/create a stronger safety culture across Sandia. This workshop strengthens participants’ awareness of their critical role in fostering a healthy and shared safety culture and provides them with a “safe” and structured environment to practice the principles, language, and behaviors that help them create productive and safe working environments. The workshop focuses on physically safe environments with additional emphasis on psychologically safe environments. Participants also learn how to improve engagement with direct reports, co-workers, and peers to enhance organizational learning and performance.
The Safety Culture Academy is based upon the former Safety Academy for Excellence (SAFE) course, Battelle’s Laboratory Operations Supervisor Academy (LOSA), and the DOE’s Safety Culture courses for Sr. Managers and Front-Line Supervisors (TLP-200 and TLP-150, respectively). This process was piloted in October 2022-March 2023 with an expected laboratory-wide roll out to begin in Spring 2023. This workshop is based in part on the DOE’s safety culture course for workers (TLP-100) with scenario-based application. The other elements of this safety culture academy include Leading at the Speed of Trust, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Accountability, and Human Performance Improvement.
Sandia’s Safety Culture Program is in line with focus areas and attributes outline in DOE G 450.4-1C, Integrated Safety Management Guide, Attachment 10, Safety Culture Focus Areas and Associated Attributes. Most notably, the following focus areas/attributes are highlighted in Sandia’s safety culture program and are centered around leadership, including demonstrated safety leadership, risk-informed, conservative decision-making, management engagement and time in the field, staff recruitment, selection, retention and development, and clear expectations and accountability.
FY 2022 Outstanding Safety Culture Nominees
FY 2022 Federal Employee Individual
Jerrett Wendell
Electrical Safety System Oversight
Office of River Protection
U. S. Department of Energy
FY 2022 Contractor Employee Individual
Devon Chavez
Senior Radiation Protection Specialist
Enterprise Technical Assistance Services, Inc.
Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office
Leo Carey
President
Centaur Consulting Group, LLC
Office of Petroleum Reserves
Jeff Warga
Mission Support Work Planning
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Livermore Field Office
David Paulson
ISM Program Manager
ESHQSS-INT: Integration Program Office
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Scott Goad
Senior E&IC EGS AHJ
Waste Treatment Plant
Bechtel National Inc., LLC/Hanford
FY 2022 Team Nominees
Ames Safety Team
Ames National Laboratory
Team Members:
-Clay Miller
-Sean Whalen
CNS Beryllium Enterprise Program
Consolidated Nuclear Security
Y12 National Security Complex
Team Members:
-Julie Cramer
-Wyman Nettles
-Thorban Weaver
-Kenneth Meyer
-Mary Moore
-Shian Yada
Health Safety & Environment Culture Team
Kansas City National Security Complex
Team Members:
-Kevin Allgeyer
-William Burke
-Alyson Gray
-Brad Gilbert
-Shelley Hammontree
-Matt McConville
-Tom Moibi
-Amanda Plumb
-Amanda Weck
-Matt Werle
-Scott White
-Nic Wilburn
FRNP Safety Culture Ambassador Team
Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership, LLC
Paducah
Team Members:
-Jerry Amzen
-Ken Barriger
-Brandon Barrow
-John Barnett
-Steve Beckett
-Diane Elliott
-Elizabeth Kelling
-Dhomynic Lightfoot
-Calvin Pittman
-Justin Riley
-Terry Roberson
-Cindy Schneider
-Shane Spencer
-Ruby Toliver
-Jessie Wilson
-Troy Woofy
Operations Team
Waste Treatment Plant
Hanford
Team Members:
-Jason Appleby
-Josh Arnold
-Evan Berg
-Mark Clarke
-Jessica Coughlin
-Brad Eccleston
-Joel Fox
-Ben Geppert
-Bill Grimm
-Davis Haras
-Estes Hilzman
-Merrideth Johnson
-Ken Langdon
-Victoria Laukea
-Steve Little
-Wayne Moore
-Eugene Nemeth
-Lina Pacheco
-Mark Prytherch
-Andrew Rahn
-Cameron Udy
-Josh Vitali
-Doug Vo