Fellow NOAA Corps officers,
It's great to have the CPC website live again as well as the return of the Cyberflash. It was incredible to see how NOAA Corps officers contributed during the recent five week partial government shutdown! The NOAA Corps Leadership Development Framework (LDF) states that "personal and organizational values are two critical factors that greatly influence leadership. To align these two sets of values, the NOAA Corps developed an official set of Core Values that forms the basis for Corps officers to build trust and confidence in both the organization and each other." One of those Core Values is Commitment and our performance during the shutdown demonstrated what that looks like. As defined in the LDF, commitment includes "serving our nation effectively and efficiently with knowledge, skill, loyalty, and perseverance." It also includes committing and dedicating ourselves "to the nation and NOAA". We had officers performing tasks necessary to keep OMAO excepted missions operating, helping out in other programs within their line office to keep excepted missions on track, as well as officers embedded in NOAA staff offices supporting administrative work to keep NOAA operating as efficiently as possible during the funding lapse. Thanks to all for your loyalty to NOAA and the Nation as well as your perseverance. It did not go unnoticed by the line offices or NOAA senior leadership and definitely built trust and confidence in the NOAA Corps.
An exciting event happened here at CPC during the shutdown. CDR Jeffrey Taylor, your new Chief, Officer Career Management Division, joined the CPC team. CDR Taylor has 18 years of service in the NOAA Corps and four years of previous Air Force enlisted service. He has over nine years of sea duty with Command tours aboard NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter and most recently NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow. CDR Taylor embraces the idea of servant leadership and is looking forward to assisting officers with career issues. He will make a great addition to CPC with his philosophy of "how can we make this possible". Welcome aboard CDR Taylor!
CAPT Devin Brakob, NOAA
Director, Commissioned Personnel Center
| 04-22 Mar 2019 | REFTRA 86 |
| LT Sara Sheehan | 01 Mar 2019 |
| LT Andrew Clos | 26 Mar 2019 |
| LT Felicia Drummond | 29 Mar 2019 |
| CDR George Miller | 01 Apr 2019 |
| CAPT Scott Sirois | 01 Apr 2019 |
| LCDR Kyle Byers | 01 Apr 2019 |
| CDR Thomas Peltzer | 01 Apr 2019 |
| LT Jason Baillio | 01 May 2019 |
| ENS Emma Ethier | 21 May 2019 |
| LT Billy Bonner | 31 May 2019 |
On Monday, January 7, 2019, the NOAA Corps Oath of office was administered to the twelve new officers of Basic Officer Training Class 133. Congratulations to the following men and women on their Commission:
| Kennieth L. Brewer | Lakeland, FL |
| Kaitlyn O. Brogan | Virginia Beach, VA |
| Iris Z. Ekmanis | Kailua Kona, HI |
| Patrick T. Faha | Morganville, NJ |
| Kyler W. Johnson | Sonora, CA |
| Danielle M. Koushel | Port Saint Lucie, FL |
| Collin O. McMillan | Wilmington, NC |
| Timothy V. Montera | Bellmore, WA |
| Adam W. Rand | East Falmouth, MA |
| Jane D. Saunders | Greenville, SC |
| Brandon Z. Schleiger | Bremerton, WA |
| Kevin A. Tarazona | Miami, FL |
BOTC 133/OCS 2-19 recently finished up the "Indoctrination" phase of training and is now fully into "Junior Status." Indoctrination week is the first phase and employs stress, physical motivation, and remedial motivation techniques to jump start the "forming" stage of group development. Life during Junior Status means starting the academic curriculum in earnest and puts increasing demands on the officer candidates' time management, teamwork, attention to detail, and task prioritization. The company goes through the "storming" and "norming" stages and they begin to earn privileges commensurate with their progress.
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RDML Nancy Hann is the class's flag officer co-sponsor along with RADM Keith Smith, Fifth District Commander, USCG. Flag sponsors meet with the class at key moments in their training to offer mentorship and guidance to the future leaders of the NOAA Corps and Coast Guard. RDML Hann spoke about officership, gave career advice, and answered questions from the BOTC class, presided over drill competition, and addressed the entire company in the barracks and at lunch. Co-sponsoring BOTC/OCS builds upon the strong NOAA/USCG partnership. She and RADM Smith plan on being back to New London several more times before graduation.
Dates to look forward to include Billet Night on March 28, 2019, and Graduation on May 7, 2019.
Congratulations to the following officers who have been selected for promotion to Lieutenant (junior grade):
Officers can expect to be promoted once the recommendation has been accepted by the President and then as space within the authorized complement of O-2 becomes available. If you have questions or concerns you can contact LCDR Laura Gibson at laura.gibson@noaa.gov or 301-713-7712.
End of Year Package (EOYP) is drawing to a close. All officers are required to complete the EOYP by February 13, 2019. Thank you to the many officers who took their time to provide feedback via anonymous survey at package conclusion which will facilitate improvements to the effort for 2019.
For any questions, please contact LCDR Laura Gibson at laura.gibson@noaa.gov or 301-713-7712.
The NMFS Panama City Lab is looking for a self motivated individual with an interest in participating in fisheries research. Officers will be given some flexibility to design projects and craft responsibilities to meet the interests and experience of the individual. The Panama City Lab is interested in fulfilling the specific needs of the officer while expanding and supporting the mission of the facility. The Panama City Lab engages in research related to various topics including but not limited to age, growth, reproduction, stock assessment, population and habitat composition, fisheries management, MPAs, and endangered species. An officer assigned to this billet would be expected to fulfill the following duties: small boat operations, field work using camera arrays, ROV, fish traps and various other sampling gear, participate in data collection and analysis, outreach and education, participate in diving operations (if qualified), assist in managing ongoing research programs, and execute independent juvenile reef fish survey. Qualifications that would be useful in this position include the following: NOAA Small Boat Operator, NOAA Diver, familiarity with statistical analysis software, working knowledge of GIS, ability to work long hours in the field, good written and oral communication skills, and an interest in fisheries science. This billet will be available in March 2019. For more information please contact the position's supervisor, Andrew David at andy.david@noaa.gov or the incumbent, LT Felicia Drummond at felicia.m.drummond@noaa.gov.