My Professional Journey

I began as a laborer at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in November of 1981. I was 19 years old. I liked writing and got my highest scores for writing related projects throughout school. As I advanced in my career, I needed to read and interpret complex written procedures and perform work to official NAVSEA process instructions. I began to find flaws and problems and to believe I could do better if given the opportunity. When I became supervisor, I translated the complex technical instructions into simple, step-based job guides for my crews to follow. The guides drew widespread approval. When I was approached and recruited by Code 106 Environmental and Safety Division, I transformed the disjointed, complex assortment of regulations, inspections, forms and requirements into a comprehensive program with independently developed training, computer applications and simplified forms to produce regulatory compliance for a workforce of more than 15000 people.