NOVEMBER 10, 2016, NEWPORT, R.I. (NNS) – Surface Warfare Officers School (SWOS) recognized top civilian staff members for fiscal year 2016 at an awards ceremony Oct. 24.
SWOS Commanding Officer Capt. Scott Robertson expressed his appreciation for the outstanding efforts put forth during the year by all of the high-performing candidates.
“When I took command of SWOS in September of this year, I couldn’t fully appreciate the quality of our civilian cadre we have on the team,” said Robertson. “Now that I’ve seen this team in action, especially the candidates recognized through this program, I am amazed by the incredible talent and total commitment to the SWOS mission.”
Denise Smith was honored as the 2016 Senior Civilian of the Year for her performance in ensuring internal accounting and administrative controls are managed.
A member of the SWOS team since 2012, Smith is a member of Department of Defense’s (DoD) Inspector General Hotline working group and meets regularly with agencies across the DoD to discuss process improvements, trend analysis, and agency-wide complainant concerns.
Smith conducted 25 formal internal reviews of command processes and facilitated the Naval and Education Training Command (NETC) IG area visit review of 42 SWOS processes, and 80 processes across the Newport region.
“I am proud to be a part of SWOS,” said Smith. “I have a great sense of pride in what we do. I just feel truly blessed that I get to play a small role in SWOS’ mission of providing the Navy with professionally qualified officers, enlisted engineers, and quartermasters.”
Sally Bennett was honored as the 2016 Junior Civilian of the Year (JCOY) for her work as the command’s budget financial management analyst.
Bennett was recognized for her execution in reconciling travel, payroll, and budget accounts while maintaining the budget execution spreadsheet which links all budget and funding document requests for the entire domain. Bennett performed accounting lead duties including creating funding documents and posting acceptances, while simultaneously ensuring the duties of Standard Labor Data Collection and Distribution Application Site Administrator, Work Year Personnel Cost System, and all other financial technician duties were covered across these three vacancies in her department.
“I appreciate the opportunities that SWOS has given me, because it made me realize how great of a team I am a part of,” said Bennett. “This award means so much to me because I’m always trying to set an example for not only my three sons, but my nieces and nephews.”