Peers recognizing peers.
That is one of the many things that makes Sandia’s Employee Recognition Awards so special.
Since 1993, ERAs have served as opportunities for Sandians to recognize other Sandians for outstanding contributions that have led to exceptional impact within the Labs.
The program kicks off at the start of the new year and features six award categories: innovation, technical excellence, leadership, operational excellence, collaboration, and inclusion and diversity.
Every single Sandian plays a pivotal role in upholding the Labs’ commitment to national security, and the ERAs highlight individuals and teams working behind the scenes and going the extra mile — sometimes further — to make a lasting impact.
Fabian Aragon
“When I drive to work each morning, I remind myself of what we do at Sandia, what our purpose is and how we all play a part,” Fabian said.
Fabian is a senior manager within the Integrated Business Management Center. He also led a security team that won a 2023 ERA for collaboration. Fabian’s work at the Labs is driven by his commitment to that purpose, but he’s also been a force in bringing staff together to better understand their role in Sandia’s larger mission from a security perspective.
“We all play a part in protecting information, regardless of our jobs. Little pieces of information can add up to big threats,” Fabian said.
In 2021, Fabian attended a security briefing focused on supply chain risks. As Fabian absorbed the information, he started to think about how a briefing like this could benefit his group.
“We had experienced some security mishaps at that time and then with remote work, people had lost a sense of connection,” Fabian said. “I worried some people started to see their work as just a job and had lost sight of our purpose."
Fabian recognized the risk this lost connection posed to national security and wanted to bridge that gap, so he turned to the presenter of the supply chain risk briefing and colleagues from across multiple centers in mission services to help develop what would become the Mission Services Security Briefing.
“This is now a required in-person class for my two centers,” Fabian said. “Since its implementation, one of my centers went over a year without a security incident.”
The briefing his team helped develop was one of the first events to bring people back together since March 2020 and as Fabian explains, it set off a domino effect, “We set an example for other teams and centers to get people together again for trainings, events, activities.
“Being together as a team helps remind people of why we do what we do at Sandia. It’s so much more than a job, it’s a commitment to national security,” Fabian said.
Matt Kiesling
Matt jokingly refers to himself as a bit of a dying breed.
“When I started at Sandia in 2005 and walked into my department, you couldn’t throw a ball down the hallway without hitting someone who didn’t have at least 10 to 15 years of experience,” Matt said. “Today it’s about three of us, as opposed to 30 or 40, with that kind of experience.”
Matt has worked at Sandia with critical asset security for 18 years. And for Matt, that tenure comes with a responsibility to develop and foster a knowledge transfer base.
“You can go to school and earn a degree for electrical or mechanical engineering, but applying that degree to the work we do at Sandia can be hard to figure out,” Matt said. “I know it was hard for me when I started. I had talents but no idea how or where to apply them. I relied heavily on those more experienced Sandians to show me the ropes.”
Matt said that his goal has always been to help new colleagues “not put their foot in their mouth too many times” but also be able to learn from their mistakes and continuously improve along the way. He sees knowledge transfer as something essential to Sandia’s ultimate success.
“If we don’t do something to try and pass on our experiences and expertise to the younger people coming here, we’re going to lose valuable institutional knowledge. Losing that resource would be difficult to recover from,” Matt said.
Matt’s commitment to knowledge transfer and mentorship has not gone unnoticed. In 2023, he was nominated and won an individual ERA for leadership as well as the Lab Director’s Award.
The nomination highlighted Matt as a “key contributor through leveraging his vast experience, historical knowledge and connections to tackle technical challenges” and “trusted adviser to leads, sponsors, subcontractors and managers.”
And while this recognition is a big deal, for Matt the highest honor was his team’s nomination.
“The fact that they felt that I deserved this award, took the time to put in the submission — that meant a lot,” Matt said. “This is the third or fourth cycle of new folks I’ve worked with and shared experiences with, so their nomination really validated my time and effort. Maybe I’m doing something right after all.”