ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Amanda Tapia-Pittman was honored as the District’s Employee of the Year during the 2017 Annual Award Presentations, Dec. 8, 2017.
“Amanda is the project manager for the District's high-visibility NNSA Albuquerque Complex Project,” said Mike Goodrich, chief of the District’s Military and IIS Project Management Branch.
This project is high-visibility and high-risk due to a compressed schedule required to meet the National Nuclear Security Administration’s mission. Additionally, there is the uncertainty in available funding.
Tapia-Pittman manages a team of 23 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Project Delivery Team (PDT) members on an $8 million design contract. She is also preparing for the advertisement and award of a multi-million dollar contract to construct a 300,000 square foot facility that will house 1,200 NNSA staff. When the prime design contractor and their four sub-contractors are added in, the total team overseen by Amanda approaches 40 people.
“Amanda handles all this with skill, patience and professionalism. She is highly organized and good with people; one PDT member said ‘people WANT to work for her.’ She is known as someone who never loses her cool, even when others around her do. She never ‘fights fire with fire’ when dealing with unreasonable people, no matter who they are. She has an outstanding memory and is skilled at briefing senior leaders, mentoring junior staff, and being inclusive to alternative solutions and ideas,” said Goodrich in her nomination for the recognition.
Tapia-Pittman is also a registered architect and brings her education and experience to the team every single day.
Finally, to top it all off, she is a wife and mother and is active in her son's school and her church community.
The District employees nominated include Robin Henry, project technician; Denise Lucero, program analyst; Richard Negri, civil engineer; and Patricia Lewis, administrative technician.