The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently announced an Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville professional as the 2015 Interior Designer of the Year. Patricia Mooneyham, a chief in the Interior Design Section, will be presented the award in August here at the Center.
Mooneyham receives the award for her initiatives within the Corps while serving as Interior Design Section chief since 2014 and Senior Project Manager for the Centralized Furnishing Program since 2011. This annual award is given to a Corps employee who demonstrates professional excellence, as well as exceptional achievements and performance.
Receiving the award is an honor, as well as being able to represent Huntsville Center and the interior design profession, Mooneyham said.
“Initially … it was very difficult because I know there are a lot of worthy candidates out there,” she said. “For me to even be nominated for the award was a huge honor. I’m very appreciative to Todd (DuVernay) for all the kind words he had in the nomination and even taking the effort to nominate me.”
DuVernay, chief of the Architectural Branch, said while there are many great designers to choose from, Mooneyham’s proactive efforts to make things better for those she works with and for Huntsville Center customers made his selection much easier.
“(Mooneyham) is absolutely stellar,” DuVernay said. “Not only is she an excellent Interior Designer, but she has led efforts in project management, Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) and others as a supervisor in the Engineering Directorate and special projects for the Center and community.”
Mooneyham will be recognized for her excellent leadership on some of the most difficult furniture acquisitions and installations, her team building successes within the command, and providing continuing education and other professional opportunities to interior designers and other building professionals within the local community.
“It is very rewarding to be given the opportunity to be a proponent of the development and growth of this workforce and their professional careers, whether they work as an interior designer or otherwise,” Mooneyham said. “I am so grateful to others who took the time to do this for me and now I get to pay it forward.”
Mooneyham leads a design team at Huntsville Center through an aggressive and atypical procurement schedule, which resulted in the successful execution of one of the largest furniture contracts in Huntsville Center history. The contract, valued at $7 million, provided more than 8,100 items of replacement furniture for 82 U.S. Army facilities across the South Korean peninsula.
As the senior project manager for the Centralized Furnishings Program, Mooneyham was responsible for overseeing the procurement of furniture for 60 plus projects valued at more than $14 million for Army installations worldwide. She successfully managed the project’s design team in the development of customer requirements into final furniture plans, and specifications for the purchase of $3 million of casegoods, seating and systems furniture for Redstone Arsenal, Ala., which generated 71 more workstations than Redstone officials thought possible.
Mooneyham provided oversight for more than $500,000 of furniture for Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, as well as purchasing $3.8 million of casegoods, seating and systems furniture and relocation of Army Test Evaluation Command headquarters in Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, to a Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design Gold facility. She was instrumental in putting in place Huntsville Center’s first ever Architectural-Engineering Contract that opened the door to become the Army’s primary design agent.
With the consolidated effort of Mooneyham and her team, more than $50 million in acquisitions were completed in 2014.