Bulldog earns 2015 Federal Civil Servant of the Year Award

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Scott G. Herrington
  • 148th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
DULUTH, Minn. --  "Well, they did it at commander's call," said Master Sgt. Alice Nephew, 148th Fighter Wing Force Management Technician. "I didn't even know it was coming."

Nephew, a Duluth native and Servicemember of 16 years, was nominated by her supervisor, and recognized by the State of Minnesota Federal Executive Board (FEB) as one of the state's civil servants of the year for performing outstanding customer service to wing members, retirees and dependents. The award is an FEB program honoring outstanding Minnesotan federal employees who have demonstrated exceptional performance and dedication both in the workplace and in the community.

Through a transformation of the wing Officer Performance Report (OPR)/ Enlisted Performance Report (EPR) program by creating, editing and implementing a real-time tracker, giving leadership a better scope of their evaluations, Nephew saved more than 575 hours of work.

Despite the vast benefit to the 148th as a result of her work, Nephew insists she wasn't going above and beyond her normal duties.

"The stuff that I did in there was just normal day-to-day stuff for me--I took a program that I knew was going to go from 241 people to tracking 1,008 people, and I needed to find a way to make my job easier, and make it easier for leadership on the wing to track EPR," said Nephew.  "I was just doing my job."

Of the 96 recipients named for their accomplishments in 2015, Nephew was 1 of 5 to make it to the next level of award, a FEB Golden Globe, in the innovation category.
Not only did Nephew's improvements drastically improve the 148th's processes, her standard-setting changes were adopted by the 133rd ALW as well as Joint Force Headquarters.

In addition, Nephew improved the retirement/separation process at the 148th by creating a retirement book that offers members all the necessary information that would benefit them during the retirement process.

The award was presented to all 96 recipients at a luncheon at the Bloomington Doubletree May 5, 2016.