PennDOT Honors 31 Employees with Star of Excellence Awards

HARRISBURG, Pa., May 23, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- PennDOT Secretary Barry J. Schoch today recognized 31 agency employees for outstanding performance with the Star of Excellence Award, PennDOT's highest recognition, during an event at the Governor's Residence. Eight employees from the central office and Riverfront Office Center in Harrisburg were among the honorees.

"The people we're recognizing show an intense dedication to their jobs and serve as examples for their co-workers," Schoch said. "They continually rise to the challenge of making our large organization more efficient, all while maintaining our transportation system and often putting their jobs before personal needs. I'm humbled to be part of an organization with such stellar team members."

Star of Excellence Awards are presented annually to employees who represent PennDOT's values of service, performance and integrity. The recipients represent a variety of organizational positions, ranging from highway maintenance and driver and vehicle services workers, programming specialists, communications staff and design and engineering specialists.

The eight Harrisburg-area award recipients are Kathryn Barone, Kimberly A. Bullivant, Patrick J. Kielty, Matthew Kormushoff, Todd Ryan, Daryl St. Clair, P.E., John Taylor and David M. Tynio.

While leading the highway safety and traffic engineering staff for four years, Daryl St. Clair accomplished many significant achievements. Examples include implementing the state's 511 traveler information system and developing the highway occupancy permits ePermitting System. His leadership and projects have helped PennDOT to be recognized at a national level and the department has received requests for information on implementing these systems.

When the Bureau of Public Transportation implemented an electronic grants management system, John Taylor stepped up to be the system expert. While reviewing hundreds of invoices and dozens of applications and requests, he helps oversight of transit programs and ensures compliance with regulations. Taylor maintains a positive rapport with transit providers and ensures transit funding requests are accurate.

Kathryn Barone is an agency leader and champion of developing and implementing sound financial processes and optimizing technology for those processes. She has worked diligently on developing processes for business partners and developing organizations within the department. Barone has also worked with other department and state government partners in implementing new policies and applying her knowledge on asset-management issues.

Patrick J. Kielty is self-taught in using tools like the Google Maps online mapping package and Web-development techniques, and can quickly and reliably develop mapping websites. His sites include the Transportation Improvement Program Visualization Tool, which helped the department meet federal requirements by mapping projects and providing detailed information about transportation projects. Kielty has worked with various applications at all levels of the agency on Geographic Information System solutions and consulting.

Since starting his position, Matthew Kormushoff has produced outstanding business results in the areas of automation, process re-engineering, and operational efficiency and effectiveness. One example of his performance is in managing the development of PennDOT's ePermitting System, which transformed the manual, labor-intensive Highway Occupancy Permit Process into a transparent, online system, dramatically shortening the review process. While the project was a major department priority, Kormushoff's expertise in multitasking enabled his small division to complete several other studies and initiate others in the project timeline.

David M. Tynio uses his skill in application design to help several internal and external processes, including registration for a workshop PennDOT hosted with other state transportation departments. By creating easy-to-use applications, he has speeded the process to manually track a number of metrics and initiatives and saved money by keeping work in-house. This and other process work is above and beyond his normal work duties, and Tynio has received many compliments from users and other organizations.  

As internal communications manager, Kimberly A. Bullivant treats everyone she comes into contact with at Safety Administration as her customer. She strives to provide the highest level of satisfaction on every task and routinely seeks out opportunities to provide recognition to others to boost morale and strengthen co-worker ties. She has overseen Web survey results and helps implement many online improvements, all while maintaining communications efforts.

As a railroad project manager, Todd Ryan does field site reviews and conducts meetings with railroad managers, consultants and sub-contractors at locations throughout the state. His past experience and positive approach with various stakeholders ensures he can come up with "out of the box" solutions to issues, and helps railroad partners pursue those solutions. He is also a certified Operation Lifesaver facilitator as part of the national railroad safety program, volunteering his personal time to further the cause of public safety by bringing attention to the dangers associated with grade crossings and railroad trespassing. 

Media contact: Erin Waters, 717-783-8800

Editor's Note: The following is a list of all award recipients not mentioned above. Please note that PennDOT does not have a District 7:

District 1 (Crawford, Erie, Forest, Mercer, Venango and Warren counties):

• Becky Kelley, Clerical Supervisor 2
• Troy D. Burge, Highway Equipment Manager

District 2 (Cameron, Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Elk, Juniata, Mifflin, McKean and Potter counties):

• Jeffrey A. Collins, Assistant Highway Maintenance Manager
• Nicholas J. Minarchick, Transportation Construction Inspector Supervisor

District 3 (Bradford, Columbia, Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga and Union counties):

• Jared McMicken, Assistant County Maintenance Manager
• Gina M. Daya, Accounting Assistant
• Rick Mason, Community Relations Coordinator

District 4 (Lackawanna, Luzerne, Pike, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties):

• Mark W. Lewis, Highway Foreman 3
• Edward L. Armusik, P.E., Senior Civil Engineer Manager

District 5 (Berks, Carbon, Lehigh, Monroe, Northampton and Schuylkill counties):

• Gary L. Lockard, Sr., Welder
• Tiny Stallings-Clark, Senior Civil Engineer Supervisor

District 6 (Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties):

• Edward Holland, Highway Foreman 3
• Harold Windisch, P.E., Senior Civil Engineer Manager

District 8 (Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry and York counties):

• Joshua P. Jones, EIT, Senior Civil Engineer Supervisor
• Fritzi Schreffler, Safety Press Officer

District 9 (Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fulton, Huntingdon and Somerset counties):

• James T. Pruss, P.E., Senior Civil Engineer Manager
• Gregory M. Illig, P.E., Senior Civil Engineer Supervisor

District 10 (Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Indiana and Jefferson counties):

• Dan L. Reader, Transportation Construction Manager 1
• George A. Spiering, Maintenance Repairman 2

District 11 (Allegheny, Beaver and Lawrence counties):

• Robert J. Miskanic, Transportation Planning Specialist Supervisor
• Richard J. Staub, Transportation Equipment Operator B

District 12 (Fayette, Green, Washington and Westmoreland counties):

• Angela R. Saunders, Transportation Planning Specialist 1
• Kenneth A. Shimko, P.E., Senior Civil Engineer Supervisor Transportation

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Transportation