Outstanding Performance Awards, established by TBE President Rex Geveden, are presented to employees who demonstrate outstanding or exceptional contributions on a project, contract, or business effort.  The awards are also presented in recognition of the excellent work recipients have displayed and the impact their work has had on the Company.

Aerospace Systems employees Asa Coggin, Mendy Danford, Walker Gabriel, Mike Penton, and Doretta Terrell were presented awards for their outstanding work in their respective areas.

Coggin and Gabriel, members of the Vehicle Systems Analysis Branch, and Danford, member of the Product Management Office, received letters of commendation for their work from NASA’s Branch Chief, Dr. Daniel Dorney.  All were commended for their effective interpersonal skills in working across all levels of the various teams and government and customer organizations. The following paragraphs describe their contributions in detail.

Coggin, an engineer and highly respected member of the System Integration Failure Analysis (SIFA) Team, received the award for his overall work on the team as well as key contributions and the successful development of MATLAB models and coding for the probabilistic design analysis of Ares I ascent debris. 

Gabriel, an engineer and valued member of the SIFA Team, was recognized for his key contributions to the development of the SIFA Technical Issues database and the successful development of the SIFA engineering integration and analysis process.

Danford, Systems Engineering Change Package Manager, received a multitude of praises from the customer for her support of the team.  Due to her leadership, initiative, and expertise when performing her duties as Change Package Manager for several products, change package engineers were able to accomplish their work in a minimal amount of time. 

Penton was recognized for performing critical roles on NASA’s Upper Stage Systems Design Integration Team.  The recipient of numerous written and verbal commendations from NASA MSFC customers, his nomination noted that he was responsible for “bringing the implementation plan together” and perfecting the “opportunities to practice skills of negotiation and persuasion” while overseeing the working groups.  As avionics discipline integrator and chair for two very important working groups, Penton identifies issues and takes a proactive approach to finding the right solutions.

Terrell, Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) specialist who supports NASA’s Ares I Upper Stage element, received the award for her support to the NASA/Boeing Ares I Upper Stage joint DAC-2B-Re-Plan Effort.  Her tireless dedication and collaborative team efforts to align the Upper Stage Production Contract and Instrument Unit Avionics Contract baselines to current NASA activities were noted as commendable.  She also provided invaluable service to the Ares Upper Stage Team and did an outstanding job of incorporating, updating, and managing the task changes and schedule.

Dan Pappas, Rick Segrest, and Tracy Wright, employees working with the Site Development and Operations Group, Defense Systems, were recognized by Geveden for their outstanding work on the Joint Helmet Mounting Cueing System (JHMCS) program. 

These individuals were tasked to develop and write two manuals and have 35% of the content completed by first submittal to the U.S. Air Force at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center.  The team completed the assignment in a 5-week period, working long hours and weekends to ensure that the customer’s needs were met.  The manuals, which would normally take 2 to 3 months to complete, were reviewed and accepted upon delivery.  Pappas provided technical leadership, while Segrest and Wright provided writing and editing support on the manuals. 

Dan Pappas

Rick Segrest

Tracy Wright