Y-12 Blog
Learn more about CNS President and Chief Executive Officer Michelle Reichert. Please note the photo was taken in 2019, prior to the pandemic.
Take 5 minutes and learn more about Michelle Reichert, CNS's president and chief executive officer.
Michelle Reichert, CNS's president and chief executive officer, is a familiar face, even when it is behind a mask. She was part of the original CNS executive leadership team, but her experience at Pantex and Y-12 precedes the current contractor. Reichert came to Y-12 straight from graduate school, and she gained valuable experience during her 22 years at Y-12. She has been in senior leadership roles at Pantex since 2013.
“My background is varied — Production, ES&H, program management — and I view that as a strength,” she said. Others must too, because in 2020, Reichert became the first woman chief executive officer at Pantex or Y-12, and one of the first in the position within the Nuclear Security Enterprise.
An early adopter and fervent champion of change management (the people side of change), Reichert has demonstrated her commitment to employees as well as continuous improvement throughout her CNS tenure. Read on to learn more about Reichert’s early career aspirations, what she’s cooking up next, and her advice to new employees.
Are you doing what you envisioned as a young adult? If so, describe how you got here.
Ha! Not even close. I thought I would be a performance musician. I played the flute and really enjoyed it. But, I continued in the sciences while in college, and I was good in that area, too. When a fellow student received a summer internship at the University of California at Berkeley, I was really motivated to learn more about internships — and that initially fueled a continued pursuit of sciences. In fact, my first internship was at the Hanford Site in Richland, Washington.
What CNS principle drives you to be successful?
Continuous improvement — because it is vital to meeting the national security priorities of our country. We’re improving our infrastructure to improve working conditions for our employees and enable us to meet our deliverables for the long term; we’re improving ourselves as leaders and employees; and we have teams looking at our processes.
What one thing would your coworkers be surprised to know about you?
In college, I enjoyed — and excelled at — biology, particularly the study of human anatomy and physiology. The courses all involved dissection (yes, including humans), and I found learning about how the body works to be fascinating. Once I put aside my dreams to be a concert flautist, I thought about becoming a forensic pathologist. The Kay Scarpetta detective novels and perhaps the television show Quincy, M.E. (I’m sure many reading this won’t know who Quincy was — just think about the TV show Bones) may have influenced this possible career choice.
What’s your favorite outside of work activity and why?
Family is very important to me, so I’m often catching up with everyone outside of work. I also really enjoy cooking, and we’re all big fans of America’s Test Kitchen and the British Baking Show. Both cooking and family help me unwind. I cook almost every night. Dan, my husband, says he can tell how my day was by how aggressively I chop the vegetables!
What advice would you offer to someone who is starting their career?
Really get engaged — not just with your job, but also in your community or perhaps an affinity group. These other connections will give you a broader perspective beyond your daily responsibilities. Find your passion — both on and off site — then have a plan. Don’t sit on the sidelines. Your perspective is important, so engage, offer your ideas, and stay involved.
With technology essential to our daily lives, cybersecurity education is increasingly growing
From cracking textbooks open to cracking codes, cybersecurity is entering the halls of secondary education in East Tennessee. In expanding cybersecurity knowledge beyond the sites, CNS Chief Information Security Officer Paul Beckman virtually met with 25 students from Bearden High School’s Cybersecurity 1 class, led by Timothy Cathcart, Ph.D., to present his professional insight in the digital world.
With more than 20 years in the industry, Beckman shared his background, life lessons, and experience with the class. Beginning his civil service career with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2005, Beckman joined CNS in March and emphasized the gravity of ensuring cybersecurity for the CNS mission and the importance of cybersecurity in industries nationwide.
“What was traditionally considered just internet security has now become everything security,” Beckman said. “Whether it’s our phones, refrigerators, or vehicles, everything is becoming a computer, which increases our exposure to cyber risk; thus, the need to implement effective cybersecurity protections is no longer reserved to just our desktops.”
Beckman shared how his background and degree in psychology have translated to the cybersecurity industry - especially when it comes to assessing risk probability.
“Whether we realize it or not, it’s in our nature as human beings to continuously assess risk hundreds of times a day, and often times we get it wrong due to shortcuts our brains take called heuristics,” Beckman said. “From a psychology standpoint for example, we typically assess risks as being lower when they are within our direct control. These are the everyday risks like driving a car. Conversely, we tend to assess risks as being higher for things that we feel are out of our control, such as flying or riding as a passenger in a car. With cyber risks, we have to be cognizant of these inaccurate shortcuts our brains take and ensure we accurately and objectively assess the risks posed against our assets,” he said.
Meanwhile, as we continue to exponentially evolve in the digital era, Beckman recognized what it means for future growth and challenges in the cyber industry. In reference to Moore’s Law, which suggests that the speed and capability of our computers will double every two years with decreased costs, underscores the growing threat and signifies the importance of having cybersecurity professionals and skills to serve the demand.
“There is still by far a negative unemployment ratio in the cybersecurity industry. There are more cybersecurity jobs out there than there are people to fill them,” Beckman said.
Setting the stage to meet that need, Cathcart’s students are learning the basic concepts of cybersecurity with an emphasis on integration, application, practices, devices, and ethics. In addition to concepts, students are able to demonstrate how to implement cybersecurity features within a networking system and how to protect network information.
To those potential future minds of the cybersecurity industry, Beckman noted the importance of being fluent in cyber and overall information technology principles. However, when asked what he looks for in a future cyber professional or candidate, it’s having a learning mindset that thinks of ways to find solutions.
“We have the responsibility to encourage and inspire our youth to pursue the industry and become the next generation of information security professionals,” Beckman said. “No two days are the same in cybersecurity, and our adversaries are always adapting their tactics to our defenses, requiring that we have the strongest and brightest workforce to help defend against those adversaries.”
Beckman’s time with the Bearden students is just one example of how CNS is working to connect with young people who could eventually be part of the workforce. “The ability to make an impact and support the development of future professionals by pairing our experts with opportunities to share their knowledge is critical to our education community,” said CNS Education Outreach Specialist Kristin Waldschlager.
Executive director of Compassion Counseling Lakshmie Napagoda interacts with a client.
In days when we could all use a little compassion, Compassion Counseling in Maryville has been working diligently to help those with mental illness break the cycles of abuse and incarceration and retain employment.
With closures, quarantines, and economic uncertainty, the COVID-19 pandemic has made most of us feel a little frayed around the edges. For individuals with mental illness, that level of stress can easily reach the breaking point.
According to Lakshmie Napagoda, RGS, LCSW, executive director of Compassion Counseling, many families are caught in a vicious cycle of abuse, incarceration, and unemployment. She said, “Those who are able to find employment after incarceration often work in stressful settings. As a result, life stressors continue to add up.”
Grant vital during shutdown
Compassion Counseling received a grant from Consolidated Nuclear Security’s Community Investment Fund to provide clinical and educational services to those stuck in the cycle of abuse and incarceration. Unfortunately, those plans had to be modified because of the pandemic.
“Having the grant was especially helpful during the pandemic when our fundraising options were limited,” noted Napagoda. The challenge became delivering the counseling from a distance.
The program switched to telehealth, which was not without problems. Many of the Blount and Sevier County clients were not keen on the virtual sessions, and confidentiality concerns and slow internet speeds further exacerbated the problem.
Delivering counseling post-shutdown
Compassion Counseling’s program is driven by referrals from various sources, including the Blount Justice Center and the Blount County Probation Office. “As soon as the shutdown lifted, we received multiple calls from people arrested for domestic assault and those needing stress and anger management classes” said Napagoda.
With the influx of referrals, they still had to work with the social distancing restrictions, and their space wasn’t large enough. Fortunately, they were able to use a larger space in the building where they are located. By providing two sessions, they were able to accommodate 25 clients. Through the Community Investment Fund grant, they have been able to counsel 53 clients through group therapy and anger management sessions.
From resentment to acceptance
Court-ordered therapy often comes with resistance. According to Napagoda, acknowledging that resistance is the first step. The goal is for them to acknowledge that they played a role in their situation, realize that they need to make better choices, and hopefully develop some resilience to break the cycle.
“Anger seems give some people a sense of power,” noted Napagoda. “We try to explore causes of that anger to help people develop new behaviors.”
It’s hard work - for the therapists and the clients - but there are rewards. Suicidal clients finding a silver lining, a client finding a job after being fired for accosting a customer, and another developing an emotional connection that he’d never had before are just some of the examples of the real differences counseling can make on lives. Those are the outcomes in which Compassion Counseling is investing.
Visit Compassion Counseling’s website for more information about their services.
Demolition of Building 9720 22 at Y 12
More than ever before, the landscape of Pantex and Y-12 is changing. In FY 2020 alone, 46 infrastructure projects were completed, and an impressive 21 facilities (11 at Pantex and 10 at Y-12) were demolished.
Diane McDaniel, senior director for Excess Facilities Disposition, has challenged the disposition team with a stretch goal to achieve 100 total demolitions within the years of FY 2015 and FY 2021.
“The disposition team is made up of approximately 50 individual contributors representing all organizations at Y-12 and Pantex. These team members, along with an outstanding subcontractor community and the NNSA Production Office, are the key to the program’s success. Because of their dedication and focus, the CNS disposition program is held up as the example for the other NNSA sites across the country,” McDaniel said.
CNS teams worked diligently to meet their FY 2020 goals during the COVID-019 mission critical operations so that they would be ready to hit the ground running to accomplish as much as possible within the safety envelope when they returned to the site.
“We have never attempted, much less achieved, that many dispositions and square footage of almost 30,000 square feet this year at Pantex,” said Pantex Excess Facility Disposition Program Manager Jennifer Simms. “We continue to achieve more facilities and square feet every single year. We are really ramping up and changing the landscape of the site one demo at a time.”
“Demolitions are important to reduce the site footprint and eliminate facilities that present significant hazards. We have to remove the old to make way for new mission essential facilities,” said Y-12 Excess Facility Disposition Program Manager Kevin Bradford.
“Because we are reducing the footprint with demos, it gives us the opportunity to work with NNSA to obtain the funding needed for new facilities,” said Laura Fox, Pantex Projects Management. “These new facilities will provide greatly improved working conditions for our personnel, as well as provide greater reliability of facility systems.”
Planning for demolition starts no less than two years before the building is actually torn down. Many times, characterization of hazards within and around the facility, location and condition of utilities, and other factors must be known ahead of even starting the drawings that must be produced and provided to contractors for bid.
“Taking down old facilities is always challenging,” Fox said. “Many times, the drawings from when these facilities were constructed are either not available or are unreliable.”
She said it is truly a team effort between organizations including Projects, Procurement, Engineering, Construction Management, and the contractor who work hand in hand to overcome issues and get these buildings down.
New behind the scenes challenges for FY 2021 demolitions are already being reviewed for another 21 planned demolitions next year and more than 25 in FY 2023.
Call it a pre-holiday gift or just good people helping a good cause. However you describe it, the recent volunteer effort by Y-12’s Serve Our Service Members certainly made a difference to the exterior areas of the Holiday Bureau.
Since 1945, the Holiday Bureau, a nonprofit organization, has provided toys, books, games, food, and other items to low income families in Anderson County. The items are donated by the community then prepared and recycled for distribution by volunteers.
While their work is concentrated to the holidays, the bureau provides assistance year round to eligible families.
“The Holiday Bureau staff (all nonpaid volunteers) lead the charge in their daily tasks to ensure that families, especially children, are not forgotten at Christmas,” said Mike Fierley, chair of SOS. “We saw an opportunity to improve their facilities and did it.”
The work included sanding and painting trailers used to store gifts; replacing gutter work that was in disrepair or missing; building, designing, and painting new wooden doors and installing them; and clearing leaves and other debris from the site.
All this work was done by Y-12 volunteers and members of SOS, an affinity group at Y-12. While Fierley led the effort and continues to be a leading force in the organization, he credits two strong leaders, Vice Chair Jamie Upgraft and Secretary Sundi Wright, for the group’s success.
“We created SOS 3 years ago to recognize the needs of military members in the Y-12 workforce,” Fierley said. “We’ve been able to do that and more. We are incredibly blessed. SOS gives us an outlet to pass it forward and help those in our community who need a helping hand.”