Navy recognizes standout employees in the Pacific

Naval Facilities Engineering Command Pacific recently announced the 2020 Employee, Supervisor, and Team of the Year winners in the Pacific Area of Responsibility.

The award recipients include Edwin Leonin, employee of the year from NAVFAC Far East; Kathie Beverly, supervisor of the year from NAVFAC Southwest; and the Design and Construction 4 Team, team of the year from NAVFAC Southwest.

“I am so proud of our 2020 ESTOY winners!” said NAVFAC Pacific commander Rear Adm. John Adametz. “Their contributions to the NAVFAC mission across the Pacific have been nothing short of impressive. From Edwin Leonin’s waterfront engineering expertise at Public Works Department Yokosuka, to the incredible earthquake recovery efforts at Naval Air Weapons Stations China Lake where Kathie Beverly selflessly volunteered her environmental leadership abilities, and the NAVFAC Southwest DC4 team rapidly developing emergent military construction programming documents, I am honored and humbled to serve alongside these superstars.”

The NAVFAC Pacific AO Awards Program seeks to recognize employees who exemplify the NAVFAC culture, with its focus on work performance, achievement, productivity, leadership, teamwork, service excellence, innovation, and initiative.

“Thank you for setting the example for all of us to emulate, and congratulations on a job well done,” said Adametz. “Hard earned and well deserved!”

EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR

Leonin, electrical engineer, PWD Yokosuka of NAVFAC Far East, is recognized as the absolute waterfront engineering expert for Kanto Plains Naval facilities. His flawless coordination and execution of five contracts at Dry Dock 6, along with his persistent engagement with leadership led to all work being completed a full two months ahead of schedule. Under a compressed timeline with high Pacific Fleet visibility, he developed a modification package for open secret certification of command spaces. Leonin’s exemplary leadership and innovative thinking to partner with the Facilities Engineering and Acquisitions Department contractor team made Tank 108 the first Kanto Plains tank to be returned to operations. Leonin displays consummate poise and professionalism, is held in the highest esteem, and has earned complete trust of his customers, PWD leadership and peers.

SUPERVISOR OF THE YEAR

Beverly, manager, Environmental Compliance and Services at NAVFAC Southwest, demonstrated exceptional leadership during and after the July 2019 earthquakes by selflessly volunteering to spend months away from her home and family to support the NAWS China Lake team as their Installation Environmental Program director at the PWD. She was continually on-site for over four months, from June to October 2019 and volunteered to serve in this remote and hard to fill location because she knew the team was suffering from an extremely high vacancy rate and low morale. She immediately tackled long-standing personnel issues and utilized her acute interpersonal skills, built up over years of cultivating trust with members of the team, to turn the office around into a high-performing team that could respond effectively to the major disasters they faced when the earthquakes struck. Upon her return to San Diego, Kathie continued her exemplary leadership in managing the core compliance and services team to provide outstanding services to the Navy, Nation, and our warfighters.

TEAM OF THE YEAR

The Design and Construction 4 Team of NAVFAC Southwest consists of 64 employees. Following the two earthquakes at NAWS China Lake, NAVFAC Southwest deployed in-house engineers and architects and contracted with a structural engineering architectural-engineering firm to inspect, assess, label and document the damages of over 1,300 facilities. A requirements operational planning team composed of DC4 engineers, architects, and cost engineers determined the estimated cost for repairs based on the documented damages to the facilities and developed overall programmatic costs for the earthquake recovery effort. NAVFAC Southwest contracted with AE firms to assist with the development of budget ready MILCON DD1391s and to develop DD1391s and Design-Build Request for Proposals RFPs for repair/replacement projects. For fiscal year 2020 and 2021, projects valued over $2 billion were submitted, the final design authority was issued, contracts were awarded and the first project was solicited in January 2020.

NAVFAC is the technical expert and acquisition authority for naval shore facilities, base operating support, and expeditionary engineering systems. NAVFAC Pacific’s mission is to plan, build and maintain sustainable facilities while expertly delivering utilities, engineering, environmental and acquisition services to our supported commanders. We are the engineering link between the shore and Fleet within the Indo-Asia-Pacific Region.. (USN)