Huntsville Center Contracting professionals earn top USACE awards

U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville
Published Jan. 16, 2015
From left, Tonju Butler and Lillian Fox of Huntsville Center's Contracting Directorate recently earned recognition in the 2014 Headquarters, USACE Excellence in Contracting awards.

From left, Tonju Butler and Lillian Fox of Huntsville Center's Contracting Directorate recently earned recognition in the 2014 Headquarters, USACE Excellence in Contracting awards.

Two Huntsville Center contracting professionals received Excellence in Contracting awards Jan. 12. Deputy Commander Lt. Col. Kendall Bergmann presented the awards during a staff meeting at the Center.

Tonju Butler and Lillian Fox, both contracting professionals in the Center’s Contracting Directorate received the awards for their work in fiscal year 2014.

Butler, chief, Preaward Branch and contracting officer in the Huntsville Center Contracting Directorate, competed with other Corps contracting officers to win the Procuring Contractor of the Year award. She distinguished herself as a skillful leader and advocate for process improvement, providing oversight to 26 multimillion and multibillion dollar acquisitions and serving as the procuring contracting officer for six of those procurements ranging in value from $100 million up to $7 billion.

Butler also was recognized for her contributions to the USACE acquisition workforce, consistently garnered high praise for her ability to execute the strategic mission of the Army and the Huntsville Center while helping to develop the skills of new contracting officers through teaching the USACE Contracting Officer's Workshop. She also was identified by Headquarters, USACE as "'one of the best and brightest contracting officers."

Fox, chief, Information Technology Services Branch, also emerged as a winner in the Manager of the Year award category. She was recognized for her exceptional leadership, selfless service and resilient professionalism while leading the ITS Branch through a successful fiscal year. Her consistent delivery, superior professionalism and commitment to excellence have positively impacted the war fighter and their families worldwide.

Fox also was distinguished for her exceptional leadership, ability to maintain a vigorous workload throughout the fiscal year, produce quality work and sustain positive working relationships with the Product Delivery Teams, stakeholders and customers. Her efforts were critical to avoiding adverse impacts to life and safety for military and civilian personnel and critical patient care for wounded warriors.

Huntsville Center's Contracting Directorate chief Coleen O'Keefe agrees. She said their example helps the Directorate contract and keep great talent when they see what the Center does.

"Receiving this recognition from USACE reflects great credit on Huntsville Center and their ability to execute high dollar value, high profile workload while creating new teams and leading and mentoring others at the organization," O'Keefe said. "The basis for the write-up on these awards came right out of their performance appraisals. It's great their exemplary performance can be recognized on multiple levels. I'm very excited and extremely proud."

The USACE Excellence in Contracting Awards are presented annually to distinguish contracting professionals who have singularly and collectively fulfilled the USACE Campaign Plan Objective 4c3: "Improve Acquisition Execution with Policy, Processes, and Certified Professionals" and have achieved exceptional success to support the contracting mission worldwide. All military and civilian USACE contracting professionals are eligible for these awards.