A system created by NNSA and two staff members received DOE's top security awards.
National Nuclear Security Administration
November 23, 2020
minute read time
An automated security clearance case management system created by NNSA’s Office of Defense Nuclear Security won the annual DOE Security Awards Program, along with two NNSA staff members who received recognition as DOE’s Federal Security Professional of the Year and Security Manager of the Year.
“I am extremely pleased to recognize our winners of the 2019 DOE Security Award competition,” said Jeff Johnson, Associate Administrator and Chief of Defense Nuclear Security. “The recipients of this year’s awards contributed significantly to DOE’s security efforts and demonstrated that the Department’s security professionals are among the best.”
The recipients of this year’s awards contributed significantly to DOE’s security efforts and demonstrated that the Department’s security professionals are among the best.
The new Clearance Action Tracking System (CATS) application, a fully automated case management system, won the DOE award for increasing the efficiency of managing security clearances. The application consistently produces more timely clearance decisions than previous methods. CATS is used by DOE’s eight Cognizant Personnel Security Offices. Members of the award-winning CATS deployment team are: Sada Abila, Erin Lemke, Erika Foster, Casey Rupley, Paul Du Fresne, Ray Holmer, Larry Fitzgerald, and Greg Demhein.
Susan Head, who recently retired from the Office of Personnel and Facility Clearances and Classification, was named Manager of the Year and Edward L. Ordonez of the Sandia Field Office received the Security Professional of the Year award .
Head provided unmatched management by guiding her team to previously uncharted levels of success, according to Johnson. In 2019, the office completed over 50,000 actions to enable the NNSA mission, including Personnel Security Program grants, continuances, terminations, and Human Reliability Program file reviews in collaboration with the Office of Personnel Management and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. She also led the transition of NNSA Headquarters clearances from the DOE Office of Environment, Health, Safety and Security Cognizant Personnel Security Office to NNSA’s Office of Personnel and Facilities Clearances and Classification.
Ordonez enabled the Sandia Field Office and NNSA to maintain awareness of day-to-day security operations throughout all Sandia locations. As the federal program manager for Protective Force operations at Sandia, Ordonez has provided risk-based oversight for performance evaluation, compliance verification assessments against contractual requirements, and monitoring the efficiency of Management and Operating contractor partner assurance systems. He successfully completed the NNSA Mid-Level Leadership Development Program and led efforts on the Governance Peer Review, which has been instrumental in NNSA’s pursuit to document and formulate a strategic vision of standardizing field office operations and oversight practices.
In addition to the DOE award winners, Deborah A. Martinez of Los Alamos National Laboratory won NNSA’s Bradley A. Peterson Contractor Security Professional of the Year commendation. As the Los Alamos Defense Security Program Personnel Security Group Leader, she was instrumental in the development and implementation of the queue management system that streamlined badge office processes and customer service. She worked with NNSA’s Lab and Plant Personnel Security Working Groups and the National Background Investigations Bureau to effectively enable the reduction of backlogged investigations.
“All of these awards recognize employees whose contributions to NNSA represent excellence and dedication to our national nuclear security,” Johnson said.