I bypassed a rather important event in my career today to head to CA for my 50th Reunion....

Since I have been planning for MONTHS to attend my 50th High School Reunion, I wound up in an airplane at 37,000 feet, and all the way across the continent from DC, instead of on the HHS Grand Hall stage today.....I wasn't able to attend a rather important event in my career today. This was a very pleasant and unexpected honor: The HHS Secretary's Distinguished Service Award. 

Three HHS/ASPR (Asst Secretary for Preparedness and Response)/ BARDA (Biomedical and Advanced Research and Development Authority) teams were awarded the prize that is the top honor across all of Health and Human Services. 

Two Teams in the Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear (CBRN) medical countermeasures (MCMs) effort at BARDA (one of the several radiation injury Teams and our chemical injury Team) and a Team from our Pandemic Flu Group were honored. Our RADNUC and CHEM Teams had completed acquisitions of three drugs to the Strategic National Stockpile (the CDCs SNS) - two to mitigate radiation-induced neutropenia (bone marrow injury) and one to quell effects of nerve agents, and a new more effective flu vaccine. The acquisitions were all major multi-year efforts involving the subject science, legal, contracting, financial analysts, scenario modeling, regulatory analysts, the FDA, the CDC, Policy, PAHPA legislation, more....so many dominos and they all had to fall at the right time and in the right sequence. Kudos to my teammates, to our former CHEM-RAD boss Ron Manning, and all the support from all of our other colleagues and the management at BARDA. The radiation-injury countermeasure project was why I went to BARDA in Jan 2007...it took awhile and it took a great team to get the project done. 

Pictured is Secretary Sebelius and our BARDA Director Robin Robinson and the team honorees and a second picture of the teams at our office in the Tip O'Niell Bldg with Dr Robinson and the glass obelisk. Congratulations to my colleagues......Wish I could have been up there with you. 
A Nation Prepared.