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News | Nov. 4, 2021

Annual Awards Earned by Four Individuals

By DCAA Staff Writer

DCAA presented annual awards to four members of the Agency for their efforts in the areas of Workforce Planning, Budgeting, and Administrative Support.

Ms. Sandra Comerford, Administrative/Technical Supervisor of the Year, Human Capital and Resource Management Directorate. Ms. Comerford is the Chief of the Workforce Planning and Analysis Branch, Financial Management Division. She leads an eight-person team responsible for the civilian pay budget formulation and the manpower management system. Her expert analysis was instrumental to determining the impact of the Defense Wide Review budget reductions on the Agency’s manpower levels and then developing a strategy to absorb the reductions over the next few years.  In preparation for an Agency wide realignment, her team developed a method to reconcile over 700 entries in the manpower tracking system to validate changes. She effectively led her division to be customer focused and proactive in their actions making them very successful.

Ms. LaToshia Jackson, Professional Support Staff Supervisor of the Year, Field Detachment. Ms. Jackson supervises the support staff in the four offices in the L3Harris network. Her unwavering commitment and dedication is responsible for the uninterrupted operations at the four network offices. Her focus on improving the training of her staff led to an invitation to be a member of the team developing an onboarding training program for all new professional support staff employees. She also led efforts across her offices to archive files in preparation for moving to a new server, a large undertaking given the sheer volume of files. Ms. Jackson also participated in the team that developed a guidebook for all new Field Detachment employees. Her reputation as one of the most reliable and effective supervisors makes her a valuable asset to her team and the Agency.

Ms. Rita Contreras, Professional Support Staff of the Year, Central Region. Ms. Contreras supports the Houston Branch Office and the DynCorp Sub-office in Fort Worth. She executes her administrative responsibilities independently and is always professional. Ms. Contreras was instrumental in keeping the offices connected during the COVID pandemic, even organizing a virtual retirement ceremony and luncheon. She was also successful in managing the DynCorp office remodel ensuring the remodeling plan was adhered to and equipment was returned to the proper location. Demonstrating initiative is something Ms. Contreras is known for, so much so that when another administrative staff member was on extended leave, she volunteered to fill in and perform those tasks. She was able to do so and was so successful that the Region moved to a team based approach for the professional support staff. In short, her performance was above expectations and exceptional.  

Ms. Cindy Wladyka, Outstanding Administrative/Technical Employee of the Year, Human Capital and Resource Management. Ms Wladyka works in the budget division where she developed a new robust Resource and Requirements process to build the Agency’s $663 million annual budget submission. She developed a new way to collect, consolidate, validate, and balance the Agency’s requirements, which was then used as the model by many other agencies in DoD. She then led the Agency’s compressed budget submission cycle completing the task in two weeks versus four months. A proven leader, she builds cohesive teams both internal to the budget division and also among stakeholders in the budget process. Ms. Wladyka volunteered to take on a budget account and expertly managed that account through three continuing resolutions and postured the account for a successful fiscal year close out with all requirements met. She is an outstanding performer in everything she does.