NEWS FOR AND ABOUT EPA EMPLOYEES INSIDE: * Info Open House * Day Care Underway VOLUME 4 NUMBER 4 April 1987 OOON87001 Career Development in the Sciences How can we make EPA a place that attracts talented technical and scientific people and helps them stay productive and feel good about their careers? In September 1985, senior scientists and managers representing the Regional Offices, Laboratories and the major program offices at Headquarters were brought together by Administrator Lee Thomas, and charged with improving the work environment of scientific and technical staff so they can efficiently support the evolving mission of the Agency. The group was told to find ways to keep the Agency on the cutting edge of emerging scientific and technical knowledge, assist in the design of a separate non-managerial career ladder at the higher grade levels, study the need for changes in policies and programs that may work against career growth in scientific fields, advise the Administrator, the Deputy Administrator, and the Office of Human Resources Management on scientific and technical resource allocation, recommend ways the existing workforce can be "retooled" as Agency resource needs shift, and develop useful rotational assignment programs. Some of the group's accomplishments to date include: • developing, with the Office of Human Resources Management, a policy statement, signed by Lee Thomas October 14, 1986, on participation in professional societies and associations whose missions are compatible with the Agency's, particularly where membership can promote professional competence and growth. • reviewing dual career paths being used by other government and non-government agencies and helping direct the development of that concept at EPA, recognizing that the Agency must not force scientific and technical personnel into management positions in order to gain promotion. • providing oversight and support for the development of OHRM's job analysis study covering physical scientists and chemists. When similar data are developed for all EPA job series, they will form the foundation of the Career Management System. • recommending allocation of $30,000 from the OHRM professional training budget to the development of scientific and technical training for the EPA professional community, including an EPA-based training institute staffed principally by Agency experts who would serve as "professors" in a classroom setting, with criteria for judging the quality of course content and presentation, and a peer process for curriculum review. • delineating a proposal for senior professional sabbaticals, a vital means to encourage continued intellectual development. • initiating a major effort to examine ways to license and certify EPA professionals in work-related disciplines. • gaining Thomas's approval for establishment of self-nominated subcommittees to develop options for issues confronting Agency professionals. Some of the other areas the group is addressing include an award system for EPA professionals to be administered by prestigious scientific and technical societies, acting on a preliminary list of disincentives to professional accomplishment, and continuing to work with the Office of Administration in its efforts to recruit scientific and technical staff. (Continued on back.J Puvak Named One of Top 40 (See Story on Page 2). Ken Puvak ------- People Deaths: Jerry Stara, Director of Environment Criteria and Assessment Office in Cincinnati, Ohio, February 26. Special Act Awards presented to: Barry Goldfarb, Research and Development. . . June Lobit and Robert Hardaker, Water . . James Lewis, Margherita Pryor, Eloise Davis, John Heritage, Miles Allen, James Ballantine, Susan Tejada, External Affairs. . . Craig Wolff, Policy, Planning, and Evaluation. . . John Adams, Brent Bohn, Avis Robinson, and David Osterman, Administration and Resources Management . . Toni Smith, John Rasnic, and Glennette Holsey, Air and Radiation. . . Charles Auer and Elaine Francis, Pesticides and Toxic Substances. . . Special Act Awards presented to: Park Haney, Robert Schneider, Edmund Struzeski, Sally Arnold, Karen DeWald, John Ellison, Eugene Lubieniecki, Joel Mattern, Michael Mutnan, Alan Peckham, Steven Sisk, Donald Patton, Cheryl Stevenson, Barbara Hughes, Joe Lowry, Richard Ross, and William Hare National Enforcement Investigations Center, Denver. . . Sylvia Hall, Deborah McSwain, James Davis, Kara Kitagawa, and Zachary Fraser, Air and Radiation . . Martine Carillo, Stanley Fredericks, Robert Allwein, Gerald Johnson, Carl Dolinka, Sandra Martin, Lisa Fiely, Wanda Kyler, Susan Pai, James Mich, Nellie Tippenhauer, Eugene Pontillo, Susan Hahn, Joseph Safa, Martine Carrillo, Stanley Fredericks, Robert Allwein, Gerald Johnson, Carl Dolinka, Jackie Shipley, Alvin Pesachowitz, and John Edwardson, Administration and Resources Management. . . Robert Wolcott, Thomas Super, Mary Allen, and Albert Shillino, Policy, Planning, and Evaluation . . Kenneth Wright, External Affairs. . . Teresa Malone, Virginia Pruden, and Towanna Dorsey, Water. . . Kathryn Hodgkiss, Office of the Administrator. . . Michael Binder, Office of the Inspector General. Sustained Superior Performance Awards presented to: Mahesh Podar, Julie Kiser, Christopher Prins, Janet Geuder, and Richard Kashmanian, Policy, Planning, and Evaluation. . . Dorothy Birt, Kimberly Whetstone, Kais Kitagawa, Jerome Franklin, Stuart Romanow, Richard Babst, Louis Johnson, Claude Magnuson, Mark David, Aaron Martin, Savitri Simms, Charles Case, Laura Phillip, Zachary Fraser, Laurie Weinstein, Veronica Reilly, Belinda Holmes, and Anthony Tesoriero, Air and Radiation. . . Elizabeth Jackson, Mary Fehrenbacher, and William Pepelko, Administration and Resources Management. . . Debra Taylor, Karen Farmer, Mary Radzikowski, Nathan Ives, Cathleen Mclnerney, Ruth Douglas, Lori Tripoli, Herbert Lacayo, Linda Vlier, Mark Petts, Martha Delaney, John Whalen, Janet Burrell, Patricia Critchlow, and Yuen-Shang Ng, Pesticides and Toxic Substances. . . Romona Haebler, Chao Chen, Steven Bayard, Vincent Cogliano, Harold Zenick, Jean Parker, Beatrice Drakeford, David Jacobson-Kram, Eric Chegg, and Brenda Gloster, Research and Development. . . Mary Harpending, Linda Hock, Clif Miller, Jack Mohl, Ella Pike, William Allan, Douglass Kendall, Glena Mackey, Randolph Morris, Eric Nottingham, Clayton Clark, Alice Donahue, Jeanne Jongleux, William Smith, John West, and Martin Wright, National Enforcement Investigations Center, Denver. . . Carole Johnson, Thomas Armitage, Therese Dougherty, and Glenda Farmer, Pesticides and Toxic Substances . . Antoinette Wren, Robert Greco, Sylvia Hall, and Sean Conley, Air and Radiation. . . Jacqueline Hawkins and Jacqueline Cross, Office of the General Counsel . . Jean Maguire, Casslee Weatherly, Michael Reggi and Selma Attido, Administration and Resources Management. . . Shirley Green and Elizabeth Ojala. Enforcement and Compliance Monitoring. The Bronze Medal for Commendable Service was awarded to Diane Bradway, National Enforcement Investigations Center, Denver. The NEIC Director's Award was presented to Thomas Dahl and Gary Young, of that office . . . John W. Melone, Director, Hazard Evaluation Division of OPTS, announced recently that Matt Lorber of HED has won a 1986 EPA Scientific and Technical Achievement Award from the Office of Research and Development for a research paper entitled "The Pesticide Root Zone Model (PRZM): a Procedure for Evaluating Pesticide Leaching Threats to Groundwater", which he co-authored with Bob Carsel and Lee Mulkey of ORD. The award includes a prize of $2,500, to be shared with the co-authors. Q Puvak Named One of Top 40 Ken Puvak, a Presidential Management Intern in the Office of Administration and Resources Management, recently has been named one of "America's top 40 public servants, 40 years of age and younger" by Management Magazine, an OPM publication. Working in the Management and Organization Division over the past two and a half years, Ken has handled its regional support and conducted staff work for the President's Council on Management Improvement, an interagency group involved in government-wide management improvement activities. A former Peace Corps volunteer in Zaire, Ken has a strong interest in international development work but plans to stay with the Agency at the end of his two-year internship, o Morekas Goes for The Gold Sam Morekas, retiring after 31 years of Federal service, has been given a gold medal for distinguished career service in the management and administration of solid and hazardous waste programs. He will be remembered by his peers as the "father" of Agency RCRA procedures that implemented the permit program and state authorization requirements. His labors were so well planned and executed that state authorization regulations have remained in effect, virtually without emendation, since 1978. He was then selected to direct the Agency's State and Regional Coordination Branch in the Superfund office. His tenure was marked by a flexible, common-sense approach to management of the Agency's partnership with the states. Morekas's career has throughout exhibited a "can do" enthusiasm in the face of seemingly insuperable obstacles. Congratulations, Sam! n ------- Three of Us Drofile: The Choralers—Region 2 You've heard that venerable gag: a tourist asks how to get o Carnegie Hall and is told, "Practice!" Well, three Region 2 staff members have practiced and have got there as members of two New York City choruses. Tenors Damian Duda and Margaret Thompson (yes, here are lady tenors) sing with the 113-year-old Oratorio Society, the city's most venerable chorus, for which Andrew Carnegie built the Hall. Herman Phillips lends his voice to the New York Choral Society, one of the City's newer and most active musical groups. The ninety-five-year-old Hall has just been put through a $50 million, seven-month renovation, so both choruses were able to perform on the main stage during the gala reopening week in December — Oratorio with its annual "Messiah" and NY Choral in a Christmas celebration. Said Phillips, "I recommend that everyone seek out a local chorus, choir, or even barbershop quartet. It's great herapy. Besides, a high "C" fortissimo really clears the sinuses, if it doesn't shatter the crystal or kill you first." Damian Duda is an environmental engineer working in ^roundwater protection, focusing on oil, gas and solution-mining industries. He has also been an environmental consultant, and his experience extends to surface water protection as well. Duda exults in the brio and panache of New York City. "Between work and leisure, the educational potential here is enormous. The tey, though, is not to delay in taking advantage of it. You've got to make culture a priority." Duda finds Derforming with the Oratorio Society helps to complete he circle of hard labor, intellectual stimulus, limbic •enewal and self-transcendance. Margaret Thompson, an attorney, handles the enforcement of three statutes regulating hazardous waste and toxic substances. In addition to professional experience in publishing, she spent some years as a jrofessor of Greek and Latin classics. "A classical education is surprisingly germane in legal negotiations — long-established philosophical principles and an listorical, planetary perspective support EPA programs by rebutting'bottom-line' arguments for short-term cost savings," she observes. "It also stiffens the spine, as in the old Latin phrase per aspera ad astra (through rigor to the stars)." Thompson finds vocalization refreshing, invigorating and an "adventure." Information Specialist Herman Phillips is a 15-year EPA veteran and a former chemist. "Music has always been a vital part of my life. I've been in a chorus, choir or band (tooting on a clarinet) since my elementary school years. Herman Philips with New York Chora) Society conductor/ arranger Robert DeCormier. The NY Choral Society always has some project I can immerse myself in when I need a little R&R from the routine of work." Phillips toured with a small group from the Chorus in Greece during the summer of '83 and '84 — it was such a ball he may follow up this year with a sojourn in Yugoslavia. The 200-voice Oratorio Society chorus is directed by Lyndon Woodside and has shared the stage with a long list of geniuses and superstars. The New York Choral Society was founded in 1958 and is now under the direction of Robert DeCormier, a noted conductor, composer and arranger for such artists as Harry Belafonte and Pete Seeger. "The Choral Society has done several platters lately, one of which was nominated for a Grammy; we made one of the cuts on Peter, Paul and Mary's latest release and we back up Jessye Norman on her next Christmas album," Phillips told the Times. "Recording can be tedious due to endless retakes and waiting around while the technicians make adjustments, but the finished product makes it all worthwhile. It's a kind of immortality." Vita brevis, ars longa. Q Margaret Thompson and Damian Duda of Region 2. ------- Career (Continued from front.J \ Recently, many of the members '\ participated in the Baltimore Senior Management Forum, which confirmed that the group is headed in the right direction. The Office of Human Resources Management will be consulted on follow-up. Those who wish to provide input to any of these efforts should contact one of the following: Mavis Bravo 382-3007 Mike Callahan 475-8909 William Coniglio 382-2273 Penny Fenner-Crisp 382-4241 Carol Finch (Vice-Chair) 382-4719 Charles Freed 382-2479 Ed Johnson (Chair) 382-4878 Elizabeth Leovey 557-2162 Steve Lingle 475-8600 Barbara Metzger 8-340-6754 William Rice 8-757-2800 Rosemarie Russo 8-250-3134 D Women's History—Now It Can Be Told During March, EPA celebrated the "history of women in the U.S. This is a saga largely untold in standard accounts of this country's origins and social development and is only beginning to be appreciated. The Administrator asked us all to take a moment to recognize and celebrate the lives of our foremothers—women of all races, ages, cultures, classes, ways of life and staies of servitude who built this nation. Research in recent years has "brought to light a wealth of information on the many contributions of women in every sphere of life, especially as workers in , and outside the home, but also as | artists, scientists, scholars and social , activists throughput the last two i centuries^We at EPA have only to looklfs far as Rachel Carson and the tremendous impetus she gave our own mission. The Agency might never have been created without her insights, courage and painstaking labor. "This is also a time," Thomas declared, "to acknowledge and commend the talents and accomplishments of the women at EPA, who by their competent work, dedication and leadership contribute significantly to the mission of this , Agency and thus to our nation's well ; being." The Federal Women's Program set up a panoply of activities for the occasion throughout the Agency. Thomas encouraged all members of the EPA community to participate in them and join him in carrying out the , theme of this year's observance: "Honoring Generations of Courage, Compassion and Conviction!" o Around EPA EPA Day-Care Pre-Enrollment A highly successful one- day pre-enrollment was held Saturday, March 14, 1987 to reserve slots in the Early Environments Child Development (Day Care) Center when it op- ens for business this Sep- tember. Priority is given first to EPA employees, then to other federal gov- ernment workers, EPA on-site contractors and the general public in this program for kids 18- months to five years. Those interested must pay a $25 non-refundable fee to cover processing. They will be notified within 45 days as to the outcome of their applica- tion. Most slots are already filled, but you can get on the waiting list. Early Environments, Inc., which will run the center, is a private non- profit corporation of eleven EPA employees. The Agency is contribut- ing lease payments for the assigned space and the cost of renovation. The Center will be lo- cated on the ground floor of the West Tower Build- ing at EPA headquarters. It will take an initial en- Events EPA's Washington Information Center (WIG) hosted its fourth annual Open House on April 7 and 8. Over 900 EPA managers pnd staffers attended and viewed 35 exhibits and demonstrations of Agency information systems and services. Co-sponsored by WIG and the Office of Information Resources Management, the theme this year was "EPA Technology at Work: Today and Tomorrow." a rollment of 78 children at a charge of $68 a week per capita. A limited re- serve is being set aside to help needy parents offset some of the cost. Operat- ing hours will be 7:00 AM until 6:00 PM Mon- day through Friday, but the Center will close on federal holidays. Early Environments is designed to develop youngsters' intellectual, emotional, physical and social capacities. The corporation will hire a Director, Assistant Direc- tor and nurturant teachers who understand this philosophy and are certified and experienced in early childhood educa- tion. Officers and staff will be cleared with the Police Department. For more information write Early Environ- ments, P.O. Box 44298, Washington D.C. 20026, or contact Daiva Balkus, 382-4083, or other mem- bers of the enrollment committee (Bob Hahn, Beverly Gregory, Shirley Smith) or any other corporation member (Syl- via Correa, Bill Hirzy, Sherry Kaschak, Mary MacCaffery, Loree Mur- ray, Jennifer Williams), n The EPA Times is published monthly to provide news and informa- tion for and about EPA employees. Readers are encouraged to submit news of themselves and of fellow employees, letters of opinion, ques- tions, comments, and suggestions to the Editor, The EPA Times, Office of Public Affairs (A-107). Telephone: 382-4359. Information selected for publication will be edited as necessary in keeping with space available. Features Editor: Don Bronkema Departments Editor: Marilyn Rogers ------- |