JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas -- Joe Sciabica, Air Force Civil Engineer Center director, was presented the 2012 Presidential Distinguished Rank Award during an official ceremony here June 5.
The Presidential Distinguished Rank Awards program recognizes career senior executive service members and senior career employees for their leadership, sustained program results and accomplishments. Executives are nominated by their agency heads, evaluated by citizen panels, and designated by the president, according to the Office of Personnel Management.
"The Presidential Distinguished Rank Award is the ultimate achievement in the career of a senior leader," said Patricia Young, assistant deputy chief of staff for logistics, installations, and mission support. "Out of all senior executive service members, only 1 percent will achieve it in their career."
Sciabica was awarded for the work he accomplished in his previous position as the executive director of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
As a senior leader in the Air Force Material Command, he led technological advances in areas of intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance; secured key international partnerships in critical research areas; and pioneered educational outreach programs supporting national scientific, technology, engineering, and mathematics goals.
He also initiated and led the Air Force Minority Leaders Program over the last six years, turning it into the largest Department of Defense historically black colleges' research program. The program's work with 26 universities resulted in recognition for AFRL as a Top Supporter for 2009 and 2010, and Best Diversity Company in 2011.
"I am most proud of my work with historically black colleges throughout America," Sciabica said. "There is a lot of talent out there we need to enable and open doors for. It will sustain our nation down the road."
Sciabica added that he wouldn't have achieved this career milestone without the support of his family and the great team of professionals he works alongside every day in support of the warfighter.
"This award is not about me. It is all about the warfighter - the men and women who put their lives on the line," Sciabica said. "It is about enabling members of the team to support the fight."
Some of his other accomplishments that led to the award include:
- Developing an Enterprise Business System-Integrated Planning and Programming Management tool, which removed the organizational and geographical boundaries of AFRL's 41 sites, allowing project managers and management staff across the organization to administer and review the entire research portfolio. This enabled AFRL to eliminate 22 stand-alone business applications, standardize operations, and save $3.5 million per year in support costs.
- Leading the Project Angel Fire team, comprised of members from the Air Force Institute of Technology, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Marine Corps, in the development and successful flight testing of a prototype six-camera wide-area staring sensor capability. The initial system provided the Marines with their first-ever forensic capability. The Marine Corps partnered with AFRL to build five of these systems to provide scalable city-size coverage.
- Creating the Tec^Edge Innovation and Collaboration Center, a rapidly reconfigurable environment where government, industry and academia teams explore challenging technical problems related to national defense and public safety. He also created Tec^Edge Works, which is a flexible "Monster Garage" environment for hands-on rapid prototyping and experimentation by collaborators. More than 21,000 innovators have collaborated in these environments since January 2007, obtaining significant research advances in air vehicles, opto-electronics, and social networking technology.
- Developing a strategy, securing funding and creating Institute for Development and Commercialization of Advanced Sensor Technology, a federal, state and academic partnership with the University of Dayton Research Institute. The technology provides access to world-class electro-optics, laser radar, infrared, radio frequency, remote sensing, and environmental test-beds supporting the development of chemical and biological sensors. In the last four years, the program created 287 jobs and 13 small businesses with an economic impact of $140 million.