Operational Excellence: Awarding Outstanding NIST Employees

Today, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker issued the following statement on the confirmation of Steve Haro as Assistant Secretary for Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs. In that role, Mr. Haro will serve as principal advisor on all matters before Congress, including managing the Department’s relationships with its 19 congressional committees of jurisdiction across the Department’s 12 bureaus. In addition, he will be responsible for overseeing the Department’s outreach to the nation’s governors and mayors, which is critical to our efforts to help support business growth and innovation nationwide.

As a city leader, Tommy Gonzalez started using the Baldrige Excellence Framework to achieve operational excellence within a municipal government in 2008. In his role as manager of the City of Irving, Texas, at that time, Gonzalez introduced the framework in order to improve the city’s performance in all areas. The ultimate goal, of course, was to improve the quality of life for residents.

As we close out the year 2015, we also mark two years since the launch of the Commerce Department’s Open for Business Agenda, a bold policy priorities framework for the Department of Commerce, centered on the tools needed for U.S. economic growth. These tools include U.S. trade and investment, innovation, data, environmental intelligence, and operational excellence, and this agenda reflects the Department’s role as the voice of business, as well as the Obama Administration’s keen focus on economic growth and job creation.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recognized current and former employees for their research, administrative and support activities that support NIST’s mission in a ceremony Dec. 9, 2015. Their efforts help NIST promote innovation with collaborations and research that bring advances to fields such as nanotechnology, cybersecurity and health care.

Two landmarks merged on Dec. 10, 2015, when the most advanced laboratory building at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) campus in Boulder, Colo., was renamed after legendary NIST laboratory director Katharine Blodgett Gebbie. This is the first time a NIST Boulder building has been named for a person.

Since 2012, Manufacturing Day has celebrated modern manufacturing to inspire the future U.S. workforce. In the Baldrige community, in alignment with the Baldrige mission to improve the competitiveness and performance of U.S. organizations for the benefit of all U.S. residents, this means celebrating the connection of schools and industry to provide a forum for manufacturers to address their collective challenges, including connecting with future generations and addressing skilled labor shortages. In Garland, Texas, Baldrige Award recipient KARLEE recently partnered with its local and regional communities to do just that.

FedScoop, a Washington DC-based government IT media company, recently honored three Department of Commerce innovators under its annual "FedScoop 50" awards. Commerce's CIO, Steve Cooper, won the "GoldenGov Federal Executive of the Year". The Department's new prioritization on Data was also a winner in two ways. First, the newly hired Deputy Chief Data Officer, Tyrone Grandison, won "Most Inspiring Up & Comer". Second, one of the data products the Department invented – a civic information integrator called "CitySDK" – won "Innovation of the Year".