Awards Newsletter Q1 - Recognizing Q4 2019

Volume No. 2 | Issue No. 1
February 2020
Awards Newsletter
Highlighting Employee Success!
• • •
Our Rewards and Recognition Program celebrates employee accomplishments, mapped to our Core Values:
People Are Our Strength
Customers Matter
Corporate Growth Powered by Innovation
Community Connection is Vital
Our employees are the reason we succeed.
Cheers to those who embody and demonstrate these principles!

Star Awards
Rob Testerman (CMS – Program Manager) continues to set the bar as a leader, collaborator, innovator, and
trusted partner as Program Manager for our longstanding PMST contract. He guides by example; always ready
to lead, while providing his team the opportunity to gain new skills – making sure they have the tools and
support to shine. Their team successes result in greater customer and team member satisfaction, new
innovative tools, and an increased staff to support CMS’ Information Security Program Group. His people
skills and practical solutions are PMST’s greatest competitive advantage. Rob also actively supports contract
growth and company assets through strong technical writing to lay the groundwork for future responses. And, in
2019, he shouldered the bulk of the work in preparation for PMST’s CMMI appraisal and ISO audit. His talents
extend beyond employees and customers as he supports Morgan State University’s Graves School of Business
Project Management Capstone Course, the Perry Hall Improvement Association, Natural History Society of
Maryland, Brownie Troop 1500, National Ataxia Foundation, and the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.
Miraie Ishak (HQ – HR Training Coordinator) is a well-respected, go-to resource. In working with others, she
demonstrates an openness to other perspectives, while confidently suggesting appropriate recommendations.
She proactively seeks opportunities to develop new skills, across multiple departments and internal
committees, leveraging that knowledge to foster employee engagement and impactful learning
opportunities for our employees. In addition to standard employee trainings, Miraie spearheaded the
research and development of Edwards’ internal Boss to Leader training – a new course to coach leadership,
which is now offered in our instructor led course catalog – and is instrumental in helping complete our rigorous
eLearning initiative. When it comes to her work, “good” is ok, but she always looks for process improvement,
especially in employee communication and EMS training. In addition to assisting with Edwards’ community
outreach; she volunteers with her church’s high school ministry and Hope Multiplied – a non-profit serving the
homeless and underprivileged, as well as local children’s hospitals.
Tyler Gormus (HQ – Jr. Cybersecurity Consultant) is a highly sought after resource and key member of the
Cybersecurity Team. Supporting nearly every major commercial engagement this year, he exemplifies hard
work, collaboration, flexibility, and out of the box thinking – a needed skill when balancing non-technical
and highly technical customers. Tyler took the lead role on one of our largest healthcare assessment
engagements, coordinating interviews, document analysis, and production of customer palatable findings,
with more than a dozen physical locations. His quality reports and customer rapport make him a true asset.
Tyler is excellent at creating effective repeatable processes and developed a mapping procedure that allows for
huge time savings in producing detailed reports, streamlining future work. Tyler also serves as a mentor for our
High School Work Study intern and efforts with Building STEPs – a non-profit helping Baltimore City students
excel in STEM programs.

Peer to Peer Awards Service Awards Customer Awards
Jim Rogers
Sara Fontaine
3 Years
Shawn Harris
Kelson Yearwood
Walter Stinnett
Jonathan Rivera
Shawn Chevalier
JD Urbach
Eric Blum
Brian Hubbard
Rebecca Duve
Carol Steeley
Endigo Jones
David Lechert
Mary Holland
Rosa Linnear
Preanna Thomas
Michelle LaRosa
Michelle Chambers
Jeff Chamberlain
Louis Ramos
Joshua Annan
Team Awards
CMS Team
Jonathan Porter
Tom Chebib
Jim Rogers
Kristen Boswell
Ashley McGregor
Matthew Szybalski
The ISPG PMO team worked together to provide excellent service and support in a high
visibility environment. They presented work to the CISO at CMS and other
leadership, and developed essential charters as well as reporting tools.
George Hoffman (Acting CISO) recognized the ISPG PMO team from Edwards as one
of ISPG’s preferred vendors with excellent performance, unlike many other vendors.
The ISPG management staff gave a public round of applause to the PMO
team for adding significant value to ISPG.

Spotlight Awards
Brooke Edwards
exemplifies People Are Our Strength, Customers Matter,
Corporate Growth Powered by Innovation & Community
Connection is Vital!
HQ, Marketing Manager
_ _ _
Brooke goes above and beyond to ensure deadlines are exceeded
and a quality product is delivered.
Her support to internal and external customers is always
customer centric and service oriented. Her attention to
detail makes her highly sought after by business units and
the leadership team. She works closely with HR to establish
quarterly employee engagement activities and oversaw four
new company communications.
Brooke is the heart and soul behind the creation of top notch
company marketing materials, reflecting our innovative
solutions. She developed marketing materials, directly
contributing to Edwards' professional image, supporting
significant corporate growth. In the past year she revamped our
marketing materials and the refreshment of our website home
page. In addition, we published 12 blogs and two case stories.
She is passionate about giving back to her community as she
spearheads company-wide community service initiatives from
start to finish. She actively seeks out ways for Edwards to
participate in events supporting our local community. In 2018
we won the BBJ/MD Chamber Philanthropy award and in 2019
the Governor's award for Philanthropy -- awards focused on
areas that Brooke leads for the company.
James Barrett
exemplifies People Are Our Strength, Customers Matter,
Corporate Growth Powered by Innovation & Community
Connection is Vital!
DOJ, Law Enforcement Specialist Trainer
_ _ _
Jim has been with the DOJ/TAP program for two years and
has successfully trained Tribes to meet TAP’s mission areas,
including entry of orders of protection, entry of dispositions for
arrest bookings, and entry of sex offenders.
Jim is currently the POC for 12 Tribes located in Arizona and
New Mexico, including Navajo Nation, which is the largest
Federally Recognized Tribe and spans across three states,
consisting of over 33,000 members. He is currently responsible
for ensuring each of the seven districts at Navajo Nation
receive and install an additional TAP workstation that will assist
the Tribe’s Sex Offender Registration officers in entering 700+
offenders into the national registry.
Jim led a training charge, ensuring over 100 users were
entered into the national registry using a new technology -
TTSORS to NSOR interconnection, allowing Tribes to enter sex
offenders into one database (vs two). He received kudos from
our customers, Office of Tribal Justice (Marcia Good), SMART
(Yahya Fouz) and the Director of Navajo Nation Public Safety.
Jim is active in his local community. He volunteers at city events
that are hosted by the Phoenix City Council such as the annual
Star Spangled Blue Memorial Day event.

Spotlight Awards
Lisa Palma
exemplifies People Are Our Strength!
HQ, Sr. Corporate Recruiter
_ _ _
PMST was recently awarded an expansion of its current work
adding 9.5 FTEs with specific KSAs necessary to support each
of the required tasks. Lisa Palma worked diligently with the
PMST PMs and Healthcare SBU Director to determine specific
demands to support each effort.
Lisa’s attention to detail not only affords Edwards posting
appropriate job requisitions; the candidates which applied were
so on point, the evaluation process and timeline were met
with complete client appreciation. To be able to manage such
a high lift in such a short period of time; further quantifies that
Lisa Palma as Edwards Senior Recruiter, truly represents
our core value that People are our Strength.
Nekisha Williams
exemplifies People Are Our Strength &
Customers Matter,
LTASC, Administrative Assistant
_ _ _
Nekisha Williams continues to delight her primary customer,
the Associate Director for International Research Affairs at the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at
the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Nekisha continually exemplifies our core values that Customers
Matter and People Are Our Strength through her personal
commitment and the sustained excellent administrative
support she delivers to a high energy office supporting a
global public health agenda.
As recognition for the integral role she plays in the Office of
Global Research (OGR), Nekisha received the 2019 NIAID
Merit Award from Dr. Fauci in recognition of Outstanding
Contributions & Efforts in Support of the NIAID Mission,
supporting the U.S. - Japan Cooperative Medical Sciences
Program International Conference.

Spotlight Awards
Sara Fontaine
exemplifies People Are Our Strength, Customers Matter
& Community Connection is Vital!
HQ, Marketing Manager
_ _ _
Sara’s leadership has matured over her tenure with Edwards,
becoming a key participant in the TCSS leadership team. Sara
drafted a RACI chart to help the team organize and structure
the Team Coordinator role. She has taken a proactive approach,
turning criticism and complaints into actionable solutions. She
reworked a client-facing presentation that received a high level
of resistance into an informative and consumable version.
With the transition of a federal PM, the Alternate Payment
Model Repository team refused to have a replacement
PM. However, Sara volunteered to step in and immediately
added value. She streamlined communications, eliminating
unnecessary meetings and taking advantage of deep history
with APMs. Sara took the initiative to develop a Release
Planning Template in Microsoft Project, ensuring well planned
development and hardening. This allows for productive
engagement the supporting development team, resulting in
clearer communications and more timely and useable product.
Sara started a Girl Scout troop with her kids, helping them earn
badges and serves as Troop Leader and Cookie Mom. She also
staffs the book fair at Willow’s school, supports swim meets,
cheers at pep rallies, and runs the annual field day.
Sara remains highly respected across multiple levels of leadership
at CMMI, and is a visible and influential force in her community.
Lily Neaton
exemplifies People Are Our Strength, Customers Matter
& Corporate Growth Powered by Innovation!
HQ, HR Generalist
_ _ _
Lily provides exceptional customer service to employees. Her role
focuses on people, but her prompt response and follow up in
addressing employee needs goes above and beyond to exceed
their expectations. Her approach to improvement is always
thoughtful, finding ways to enhance internal processes.
In an effort to better assimilate new employees, Lily created a 30, 60,
and 90 day check-in process, working directly with hiring managers
to establish effective tools and open lines of communication.
Lily is a “go to” for special projects by the Director of HR and CFO.
Her attention to detail and ability to analyze complex data allows
us to address corporate and government compliance needs. With
a teamwork mentality, she manages efforts supporting enterprise
level goals, allowing Leadership to focus on strategic actions.
Lily took ownership of expanding our HRIS system capabilities,
transitioning HR to a paperless environment. This project affords
employees the ability to make payroll and personal data changes at
their convenience as well as reduces our environmental footprint.
Instrumental in the 2019 Rewards and Recognition revamp,
Lily provided precise findings with actionable suggestions for
improvement to leadership. Her recommendations fostered better
collaboration between directors and their managers, significantly
increased the number and diversity of employee recognitions in
2019, and streamlined the overall review and approval process.

Spotlight Awards
Maury Richardson
exemplifies People Are Our Strength
& Customers Matter!
CMS, Master Scheduler
_ _ _
One of the CMS clients approached the team in dire need of a
solution, she was placed in charge of establishing a means to
collaborate on documentation with an outside agency and
didn’t know what tools were available to do so. Maury stepped
up and provided an application recommendation that met the
clients need perfectly. He then compiled training materials,
volunteered to establish a site, and then trained both the client
and her support contractors on the application.
As the New Medicare Card Project trends toward O&M and
the Edwards team starts to roll on to newer initiatives, Maury
has been the recipient of much of the remaining work to
be performed. He has been helping his colleague gather
information for his new IV&V task, conducting 1-on-1 training
for the contractors responsible for the follow-on work, and
continuously demonstrating a high level of collaboration and
teamwork that allows us to remain invaluable to the client.
Patty Bullington
exemplifies People Are Our Strength &
Customers Matter!
CMS, Project Manager
_ _ _
Patty is an extremely productive member the TCSS team. As the
lead for the New Medicare Card Project, she drives personal
and team accountability, running routine check-ins, ensuring
the team is on the same page regarding assignments, and
finding ways to provide value outside of assigned deliverables.
As the team grows, Patty offered her expertise to new hires,
conducting a training focused on knowledge management and
508 compliance, ensuring a consistent approach.
At the start of the Continuous Improvement and Strategic
Planning Staff Engagement, a project Patty was not assigned
to, she quickly designed and released a SharePoint site that
presented at a kickoff meeting, thrilling the client.
Patty exemplifies a customer centric approach. She doesn’t just
complete deliverables or assignments, she takes time to read
and interpret the regulations, giving her a deeper understanding
of the what and why. She listens to our client’s pain points and
regularly volunteers for additional work, finding ways to lighten
their load, ensuring needs are met before they request it.
Patty is also developing a step by step Implementation Guide
and with an increase of new members and initiatives, this guide
allows for organization and efficiency. In addition, Patty created
a library of client-tailored templates and artifact examples on
SharePoint, making them more accessible to the team.

Spotlight Awards
Yvette Clark
exemplifies People Are Our Strength & Customers Matter!
HQ, T&D Coordinator
_ _ _
Yvette is a tremendous help on the T&D Team, providing quality
customer service! She learned our process, implemented it, and
found ways to improve it. During crunch time for completing
our first eLearning courses, Yvette became an asset to our
development team. Through the research and development
phase, Yvette researched different types of eLearning to help
inspire our material look, feel, and function.
Yvette completed Adobe training and put her skills to use quickly,
seeking high level training from experts in the organization to
create graphics. She is receptive to constructive criticism and
actively works to “get it right”.
To guarantee T&D eLearning assets are 508 Compliant, Yvette
ensured our formatting and audio scripts were up to par. She
also organized the T&D image assets, outlining specifications to
the team, which helped developers locate images easier.
Yvette was crucial in aligning our course catalog to the ILT
material and making updates to the T&D Catalog. Her assistance
with course maintenance became critical for printing materials.
In addition, she performed a comparative analysis of printing
vendors and was able to reduce our printing costs by 22.5%.
Yvette is also creating a process to track and share PMP success
stories. In addition, Yvette spearheaded our Burn to Earn weight
loss challenge which has been a tremendous success, creating
incredible team camaraderie and promoting healthy living.

For more information about Edwards’ Rewards and
Recognition Program as well as nomination criteria,
visit the HR SharePoint Site.
Questions or Comments?
Contact HR
HR@EdwPS.com