Barrios Recognizes Employees with Quarterly Performance Awards
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER (Houston, TX): Barrios Technology recently presented employees with Silver BEAR (Barrios Employee Award and Recognition) awards. Each recipient was commended for their high level of expertise and outstanding performance supporting Barrios’ contracts with NASA’s International Space Station (ISS) Program. Employees recognized included Curtis Gilmore, Linda Milam, Leah Munoz, Millie Slavik, and the five members of the ICU R4 RQT Team: Rolando Garza, Zane Goff, Les Gordon, Arden Lerbs, and Rey Rodriguez.
Curtis Gilmore was recently presented with a Silver BEAR for his leadership within the ISS Stowage and Waste Teams. Gilmore’s performance since assuming the leadership position has been above and beyond and he is a true benefit to the ISS Program. Seeing a need for integration of trash accumulation and disposal on the OA-9 mission between the Program, Flight Operations Directorate (FOD), and Northrop Grumman, Gilmore took it upon himself to perform this integration role, which was vital to ensuring as much trash could be disposed of on OA-9 as possible while preventing impacts to on-orbit crew operations.
The NASA customer stated, “Mr. Gilmore has recently stepped into a significant leadership role for ISS Stowage and Disposal. … In this role he has performed in an exceptional manner in managing the On-Orbit Stowage Integration aspects of the Flight Planning Integration and Operations, which includes defining, planning, directing and coordinating the efforts within NASA and the International Partners/Participants”.
Linda Milam was recently presented with a Silver BEAR for her superior performance in creating an Orion Integrated Schedule (OIS). Milam designed the architecture of the new schedule along with guidelines and a business rhythm for collecting team inputs. She has also been instrumental in the MS Project 2016 conversion for NASA and Lockheed Martin. Milam identified a number of issues, such as metadata transfer and access issues, and worked to correct them before they impacted Orion operations. Her accomplishments are due in part to her expertise in Microsoft Project, knowledge of DCMA best practices, and adherence to guidelines in the NASA Schedule Management Handbook. This is evident when she presents the IMS schedule analysis and metrics assessment at the monthly MOPPR. Due to Milam’s efforts and her continuous communication key metrics monitored by the Orion Program have remained green due to her commitment.
Leah Munoz was recently presented with a Silver BEAR award for her dedication as a logistics coordinator. The impact of Hurricane Harvey provided the momentum to clean the Development and Integration Laboratory (SDIL) Hardware Storage area known as the CAGE area up as the spare parts management and housekeeping in this area had been badly neglected over many years. Munoz was vital to the cleanup and worked tirelessly in identifying the hardware, locating the hardware owners and working with them to determine what could be retained or excessed. NASA Software Development and Integration Labs Manager, Kevin Rigsby stated “Munoz’s efforts have provided two key benefits to the NASA customer. The customer’s hardware storage location has a limited area to maintain spares for the SDIL. The activity identified numerous obsolete spare components that were accessed. This allowed the customer to gain a more realistic view of available spares. Secondly, the CAGE can provide additional space to accommodate new shipments. The items are now more organized for quicker access.”
Millie Slavik was recently presented with a Silver BEAR for her outstanding administrative support role on the Mission and Program Integration (MAPI) contract. Supporting multiple managers and supervisors, she has continually worked to meet all of the support requirements including an exceptional high level of travel requests. Slavik’s above and beyond efforts to guide employees through the travel process ensures a smooth interaction with the NASA customer. Slavik is responsible for administrative support for approximately 60 percent of the MAPI contract. Over a 2-month period, Millie managed and facilitated 56 travel requests including 8 for international travel. While working enough travel requests to be a full time job, Slavik manages to maintain her high level of support, contacting candidates and setting up interviews, submitting paperwork for employee access to resources, scheduling conference rooms, and managing many other daily tasks including managing manager schedules.
The five member ICU R4 RQT team was recently presented a Silver BEAR award for their outstanding technical innovation, dedication and hard work in support of ICU R4 600 Mbps project upgrade. The team’s contributions to the 600 Mbps upgrade included meeting ISS Program Schedule milestones ahead of schedule and below cost, increasing quality of the software, and the reliability of downlinked science data. With new science payload additions to the space station the flawless downlink of science data at a faster rate is critical. Finding problems on the ground rather than on-orbit saves cost to the Program, allows operators and crewmembers to focus on critical task and ensures the timely downlink of critical science data. The team developed unique approaches to allow for successful completion of the verification of the flight software in a highly dynamic environment. This process improvement was noted as a strength in Boeing’s International Space Station Vehicle Sustaining Engineering Contract evaluation: “The methodology was used for R4 verification and will save an expected 600 hours for subsequent ICU software updates.” Team members included: Rolando Garza, Zane Goff, Les Gordon, Arden Lerbs, and Rey Rodriguez.
The Barrios Employee Awards and Recognition or BEAR Award recognizes quality performance and outstanding support of customer and company goals. Up to one percent of the current number of employees can receive the Silver Award each quarter. Silver award winners automatically qualify for the annual Gold award which is presented at an annual awards and recognition reception.
Curtis Gilmore was presented with a Silver BEAR Award. Pictured from left: Chelsey Chapman-Bussey, MAPI Mission Resources, Planning, & Requirements Supervisor; Maria Baugh-Horstman, MAPI Manifest and Cargo Integration Supervisor; Gilmore; Mark Polansky, MAPI Program Manager; Robert McAfoos, President Barrios Technology; and Kelly Page, MAPI Mission Analysis & Integration Senior Manager.
Linda Milam was presented with a Silver BEAR Award. Pictured from left: Mike Stelly, Orion Schedule Operations Lead; Robert McAfoos, President Barrios Technology; Milam; Joe Aldape, Orion Manager; and Mark Polansky, MAPI Program Manager.
Leah Munoz was presented with a Silver BEAR Award. Pictured from left: Brenda Burtzlaff, Barrios Technology; Sandy Johnson, CEO Barrios Technology; Munoz; Kevin Rigsby, SDIL NASA OD Manager; Johnathan Perez, BETS Program Manager; and John Rudnicki, Boeing SDIL Equipment Manager.
Millie Slavik was presented with a Silver BEAR Award. Pictured from left: Mark Polansky, MAPI Program Manager; Robert McAfoos, President Barrios Technology; Slavik; Kelly Page, MAPI Mission Analysis & Integration Senior Manager; and Keith Carley, MAPI ISS Program Services Manager.
The five member ICU R4 RQT team was presented with a Silver BEAR Award. Pictured from left: Reynaldo Rodriguez; Rolando Garza; Arden Lerbs; Zane Goff; Les Gordon; Monique Smith, BETS Supervisor; Jonathan Perez, BETS Program Manager; Robbie McAfoos, President Barrios Technology.
About Us:
Headquartered in Houston, Barrios Technology is a woman-owned AS9100 certified engineering services company specializing in aerospace engineering & science, program planning & control, mission integration & operations, and software engineering & integration. Since 1980, Barrios has demonstrated their corporate mission to be the foremost small aerospace engineering services company providing extraordinary value to our customers, employees and communities. For more information on Barrios Technology, please call 281-280-1900 or visit www.barrios.com.