Career Achievement Medal Recipients
This medal recognizes a federal employee for significant accomplishments throughout a lifetime of achievement in public service and is accompanied by a $10,000 award.
James Cash—2012 Recipient
Position: Chief Technical Advisor, Office of Research and Engineering
Agency: National Transportation Safety Board
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement:For nearly three decades, has used his engineering expertise to extract information from airplane cockpit recorders and other devices to determine the causes of major transportation accidents, and once analyzed a quarter second of noise to help determine why a 747 exploded 12 minutes after takeoff.
Alfonso Batres—2011 Recipient
Position: Chief Officer, Readjustment Counseling Service
Agency: Veterans Health Administration
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Devoted his career to building a national network of small, community-based centers where veterans traumatized by combat obtain counseling, job assistance, medical referrals and other services.
Susan Solomon—2010 Recipient
Position: Senior Scientist, Chemical Science Division
Agency: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth System Research Laboratory
Location: Boulder, Colorado
Achievement: Led internationally acclaimed atmospheric research that set us on a path to restoring the ozone layer and demonstrated the long-term harm to the environment caused by global warming.
Thomas Alexander Waldmann—2009 Recipient
Position: Chief, Metabolism Branch
Agency: National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute
Location: Bethesda, Maryland
Achievement: Over the course of a 52-year career, made cutting-edge discoveries that have led to effective treatments for previously fatal forms of T-cell leukemia, Hodgkin’s lymphoma and multiple sclerosis.
Dr. Stephen O. Andersen—2008 Recipient
Position: Director, Strategic Climate Projects
Agency: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Played a key role in implementing the landmark Montreal Protocol which has put us on a path to restoring the ozone layer by phasing out 95 percent of the world’s ozone-depleting substances and is leading current federal efforts to combat climate change.
Dr. David Vesely—2007 Recipient
Position: Chief of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
Agency: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, James A. Haley VA Medical Center
Location: Tampa, Florida
Achievement: Discovered three hormones made by the heart that benefit the treatment of congestive heart failure, kidney failure and cancer.
Dr. William D. Phillips—2006 Recipient
Position: Group Leader, Laser Cooling and Trapping Group
Agency: National Institute of Standards and Technology
Location: Gaithersburg, Maryland
Achievement: Launched an entirely new subfield of atomic, molecular and optical physics and became the first federal employee to win the Nobel Prize for Physics for work done as part of his official duties.
Barbara Turner—2005 Recipient
Position: Deputy Assistant Administrator
Agency: U.S. Agency for International Development
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Worked her way up to the highest levels at USAID where she has played a critical role in the Agency’s work in Egypt, the former Soviet Union, Bosnia and multiple other countries.
Ambassador Prudence Bushnell—2004 Recipient
Position: Dean, Leadership and Management School
Agency: U.S. Department of State, Foreign Service Institute
Location: Washington, D.C.
Achievement: Guided U.S. Embassy in Kenya through the 1998 bombing and was a leading voice in the U.S. government urging a response to the ethnic genocide in Rwanda.
Dr. James Bagian—2003 Recipient
Position: Director, National Center for Patient Safety
Agency: Veterans Health Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Achievement: NASA physician and astronaut; a U.S. Air Force flight surgeon; and an engineer with HUD, the Navy and EPA—Dr. James Bagian has contributed enormously in his 24 years of experience as a federal public servant. Among his many accomplishments is the development of an innovative patient safety program that is now in place in all 173 VA hospitals and internationally.
Dr. Katharine Gebbie—2002 Recipient
Position: Director, Physics Laboratory
Agency: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Location: Gaithersburg, Maryland
Achievement: The founding director of the award-winning NIST Physics Laboratory, a pioneer in the practical application of emerging technologies, has helped enhance scientific career opportunities for women and minorities through a lifetime of service.
The Service to America Medals are presented annually by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service to celebrate excellence in our federal civil service.
