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VA senior official, nine other employees win federal government awards

the Department of Veterans Affairs - 5/13/2019

WASHINGTON — Lauding their transformative efforts, the White House recently selected a senior official from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for its Gears of Government President’s Award and nine VA individuals and teams for Gears of Government Agency Awards. 

The White House’s Executive Office of the President (EOP) and its Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which created the award program, will recognize Barbara Morton, deputy chief of the Veterans Experience Office, during a ceremony from 2-4 p.m. May 22 in Washington, D.C. 

EOP chose a total of six Gears of Government President’s Award winners from more than 250 individual and team GGA award winners. In all, nine VA individuals and teams were awarded Gears of Government Agency awards, championing mission-critical elements, including communications, customer service, business processes, health care, appeals and more. The awards include two categories: Agency and President. Those selected for Agency Awards are eligible for President’s Awards. 

“Barbara’s dedication supports exceptional delivery of key outcomes for the American people, including mission results, customer service and accountable stewardship,” said VA Secretary Robert Wilkie. “The Office of Management and Budget created the Gears of Government Awards program in summer 2018 to recognize individuals and teams across the federal workforce. We are all proud of Barbara and the other winners.” 

Morton’s accomplishments include: standing up a real-time customer experience data platform with transactional surveys and predictive analytics; creating tangible tools to support and empower employees to deliver exceptional customer experiences; and developing user-friendly, integrated and industry-designed technology.

Morton led efforts that fostered local engagement and strategic partnerships linking local communities, Veterans, families, caregivers, survivors and VA. She also championed the implementation of governmentwide customer experience metrics with OMB, which were instituted as performance requirements for all high-impact federal agencies in June. 

VA officials applauded all the department’s GGA award winners, including: the Office of Community Care congressional response team; the Light Electronic Action Framework team; the FLOW3 Prosthetic Limb Care Management Program team; the National Work Queue leadership team; the Salt Lake City incident team; Lara Eilhardt with the Office of General Counsel’s Medical Legal Partnerships program; Joe Salvatore with the Office of Enterprise Integration’s Modernization Office; Cheryl Mason, David Spickler and Kimberly Osborne with the Board of Veterans’ Appeals; and Morton.

To learn more about the Gears of Government Awards program, visit www.performance.gov/gearawards or @PerformanceGov on Twitter.