Susan Fulmer, manager of the Federal Remediation Section, and Heather Cathcart, Federal Remediation Technical Coordinator, with the Bureau of Land and Waste Management, were recently awarded the Excellence in OLEM Partnerships Award from United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for their participation in the Federal Facility Academy.

This award recognizes Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM) and non-OLEM employee(s) who pursued and achieved extraordinary cooperation, collaboration and support during a project which helped OLEM achieve its strategic goals and objectives.

The Federal Facility Academy is a voluntary training program developed for EPA Regional Project Managers, project managers from other federal agencies, State government, and Tribal groups who work on federal facility Superfund cleanups. Its main objective is to improve the skill set necessary for project managers to effectively manage federal facilities and strengthen relationships across agencies. The Federal Facilities Academy includes 11 webinars and one in-person training for 12 total courses. Susan and Heather provided a presentation in March 2020 for the webinar, “Resolving Issues before Formal Dispute,” based on their interactions with USDOE and USEPA.

For multiple years, both Susan and Heather have worked closely with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and EPA at the Savannah River Site. This unique group, also known as the Core Team, is a nationally recognized group among federal regulators. In fact, Susan and Heather, along with DOE and EPA, spoke at an in-person workshop on the foundation of a successful Core Team at the Waste Management Symposia in March 2020. The workshop, “Principles of Environmental Restoration Approach through Collaborative Decision Making (Core Team Process),” reviewed the lessons learned from 25 years of experience from representatives of the three organizations (DOE, EPA, and State of South Carolina). This workshop was so well-received that another offering was provided virtually to other DOE managers in June 2020.

Congratulations, Susan and Heather!