The Partnership for Public Service has announced it is presenting nine Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals (Sammies) at a Washington, D.C. gala on September 13 to public servants who are making high-impact contributions to the health, safety and well-being of Americans.
The Sammies have earned a reputation as one of the most prestigious awards dedicated to honoring America’s civil servants.
The Service to America Medal winners were nominated by colleagues familiar with their work and selected by a committee that includes nearly 20 leaders in government, academia, the private sector, media and philanthropy. More than 400 nominations were submitted for medal consideration this year.
The top medal, Federal Employee of the Year, will be presented to Lynne Mofenson of the National Institutes of Health for her pivotal role in preventing the AIDS epidemic among children by developing ways to prevent mother-to-child transmission.
The additional recipients of the 11th annual Sammies awards are:
Charles Scoville, National Security & International Affairs Medal
Chief, Amputee Patient Care Service, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center
Scoville enables combat amputees to lead active lives and potentially return to duty through an internationally recognized rehabilitation program that uses a novel sports medicine approach. Some 1,450 injured service members who have been through the program have gone on to complete triathlons, climb Mt. Everest and compete in gymnastics, skiing, rowing and other sports.James Cash, Career Achievement Medal
Chief Technical Advisor, Office of Research and Engineering, National Transportation Safety Board
Cash has spent nearly three decades deciphering information from electronic recording devices to help determine the causes of major aviation and other transportation accidents, leading to reforms and greater safety for the traveling public. He is the government’s top expert on cockpit voice recorders, which help determine the system failures and human errors that cause airplane crashes.Susan Angell, Mark Johnston and the Homeless Veterans Initiative Team, Citizen Services Medal
Executive Director, Homeless Veterans Initiative, Department of Veterans Affairs (Angell); Acting Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development, Department of Housing and Urban Development (Johnston)
Angell and Johnston worked together on an interdepartmental program that reduced veterans homelessness by 12 percent in one year as part of an ambitious national goal of finding shelter for all veterans by 2015.Louis Milione and the Operation Relentless Team, Justice and Law Enforcement Medal
Special Agent and Group Supervisor, Drug Enforcement Administration
Milione led a high-stakes federal undercover investigation spanning three continents that resulted in the arrest and conviction of the “Merchant of Death,” the world’s most notorious arms trafficker.Neal Young, Science and Environment Medal
Chief of the Hematology Branch, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health
Young saves lives through cutting-edge research and treatments for patients with bone marrow failure diseases, including the rare and once deadly blood disorder known as aplastic anemia.Nael Samha and Thomas Roland, Jr., Homeland Security Medal
Program Officer, Office of Technology (Samha) and Program Manager, Office of Field Operations (Roland), U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Samha and Roland created a smartphone application that allows customs and border agents in the field to access law enforcement databases in real time, which has led to enforcement actions against more than 450 drug traffickers, weapons smugglers, illegal aliens and potential terror suspects since March 2010.Lynne Mofenson, Federal Employee of the Year
Branch Chief, Adolescent and Maternal AIDS Branch, National Institutes of Health
Mofenson, a physician at NIH, played a pivotal role in preventing the AIDS epidemic among children by devising ways to put an end to mother-to-child transmission. She helped design and conduct a seminal pediatric AIDS clinical trial that led to an effective prevention strategy, and has since dedicated her career to conducting additional research and influencing national policy in the field.
Elliott B. Branch, Management Excellence Medal
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Acquisition and Procurement, Department of the Navy
Branch scrutinizes and helps shape every major acquisition for the Navy and Marines, ensuring our warfighters have the right equipment when they need it, at the best possible value for the American taxpayer.Jacob Taylor, Call to Service Medal
Physicist, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Taylor, a 34-year-old physicist at NIST, has made pioneering scientific discoveries that in time could lead to significant advances in health care, communications, computing and technology.
For profiles of the medalists or to submit nominations for 2013 go to servicetoamericamedals.org.
The Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals is named in memory of business leader and visionary philanthropist Samuel J. Heyman who founded the Partnership for Public Service to revitalize our federal government and to inspire a new generation to serve. Visit ourpublicservice.org for more information.
