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MDE recently recognized Barbara Brown of the Environmental Restoration and Redevelopment Program as the Employee of the Year. Ms. Brown gave unselfishly of her time to the Oil Control Program in providing expert geological support.
“The employee of the year is recognized for going above and beyond the call of duty to serve Maryland and ensure that our environment and the safety of our citizens is protected,” said MDE Secretary Shari T. Wilson. “Ms. Brown's expertise, professionalism and ability to understand all sides of remediation -- technical, public health and the practical field considerations -- make her an absolutely outstanding project manager and tremendous asset to the Oil Control Program, the Land Restoration Program and MDE.”
Ms. Brown has a degree in Geology from the University of Maryland and 16 years of experience in both petroleum and hazardous waste remediations. She is often called upon to work on the Department’s most complex groundwater remediations in and outside of her program assignment. Ms. Brown continues to work on the high profile gasoline release cases of Upper Crossroads, Harford County and Jacksonville, Baltimore County. Both of these releases are in areas with very complex geological formations. The groundwater contamination at both sites threatened hundreds of residential water supply wells.
"I am honored to be part of a team that developed a plan to protect public health and the environment," said Ms. Brown. "It is truly rewarding to work with such a great group of people."
MDE also honored three other outstanding employees who were nominated for Employee of the Year Nominees. They are:
Cindy Dailey of the Water Management Administration (WMA) for her dedication and effort associated with the recruitment and filling of new positions to implement the Bay Restoration Fund (BRF) Program to upgrade wastewater treatment plants and septic systems with state of the art nutrient removal technology. Hiring highly skilled, technical and financial professionals was an agency priority and as WMA’s Human Resources (HR) consultant, she took the necessary steps from beginning to end to ensure that these positions were filled as quickly as possible with the most qualified candidates. Through her work, MDE now has engineering and technical staff on board to implement these programs, which are essential to meet Maryland’s commitments under the Chesapeake Bay 2000 Agreement. Cindy Dailey began her State service in the Attorney General’s office where she served as an assistant to the Principal Counsel. She made a significant career change 9 years ago when she transferred to WMA to provide personnel support to over 300 employees. WMA’s employees find her very qualified, confidential and most helpful with the myriad of personnel issues that arise. She is an exemplary employee and has worked for the State of Maryland for 34 years. She came to MDE when it was created from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Ms. Dailey lives in Parkville, MD.
Denise Hartzell of the Air and Radiation Management Administration for her contributions in providing guidance to the Waste Management Administration in simplifying their Financial Management Information System (FMIS) organization structure to enable them to obtain financial information at the Program level. This simplification enhances the current usefulness of FMIS and provides the Program Managers in the Waste Management Administration with a valuable tool to now monitor individual program spending on a monthly basis. In addition, she shared with the Waste Management Administration financial reconciliation reports developed by Ms. Hartzell and her staff which enables them to consistently meet reconciliation requirements imposed by State legislative auditors and MDE’s internal auditors. The FMIS reconciliation reports are a product of Ms. Hartzell’s long-term efforts in establishing fiscal tracking systems within FMIS to address tracking deficiencies in the Water Management, Air and Radiation Management and Technical and Regulatory Services Administrations.
Ms. Hartzell is currently the Program Manager for ARMA's Operational Services Program. In this capacity, she manages ARMA’s nearly $15M operating budget and does so by tracking incoming funds and ensuring that all received funds are expended in accordance with applicable statutory or regulatory requirements. She also ensures that ARMA’s largest single fund - the Clean Air Fund - is tightly managed through timely procurements and early development of spending plans so that a carryover cap on the fund is not exceeded in any given year. She oversees the processing of over $9M of accounts receivables involving over 6,000 accounts, the largest totals in the Department. She manages several Memoranda of Understanding regarding large amounts of reimbursable funds from other State agencies and is responsible for managing $3.6M in federal funds. She has developed practical spreadsheets that allow ARMA’s managers to keep abreast of funds under their control throughout the fiscal year. Ms. Hartzell joined MDE in 1993 starting in the Water Management Administration. Before that she worked for Alarmtron Security in Reisterstown as Information Manager. Ms. Hartzell resides in Abington, Maryland.
Matthew Rowe of the Technical and Regulatory Services Administration, for his outstanding leadership and technical skills as he completed tasks relating to the production of the 2006 biennial Clean Water Act Section 303 (d) List of Impaired Water bodies. This responsibility required compiling a list of over 600 waterbodies, documenting decision processes for attainment of water quality standards for numerous pollutants, conducting a public review and responding specifically to numerous public and EPA comments. These tasks required comprehension of a variety of complex policy and technical issues, superb writing, data management, and data analysis skills. Furthermore, extensive coordination with various MDE, federal, state, county and citizen organizations was accomplished with utmost efficiency and diplomacy. These functions were accomplished in conjunction with other section responsibilities relating to the coordination and management of a complex dredging assessment program involving interaction with many local, state and federal agencies, and the public.
Mr. Rowe continues to be an outstanding asset to MDE and the State of Maryland. Currently he is conducting a public review for the 2008 Integrated Report/303d List. Some new efforts this biennium include: major modification to the state's biological listing methodology for non-tidal waters, improved consistency with the EPA's assessment database, full report integration that complies with sections 303(d) and 305(b) of the Clean Water Act, full adoption of the new Chesapeake Bay standards/assessments, and new listings for portions of Baltimore Harbor as impaired by trash/debris. Mr. Rowe has worked at MDE for 10 years. He has degrees in Philosophy and Environmental Science. Mr. Rowe lives in Parkville, Maryland.
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