Y-12 Blog
Through Tom Smith’s vision, strategic planning, and perseverance, the Pantex and Y‑12 skylines are forever changed.
Lauded as the most influential person guiding physical transformation at Y‑12 and Pantex, Tom Smith recently retired. The mastermind behind the John C. Drummond Center, Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, Purification Facility, Uranium Processing Facility, New Hope and Jack Case centers, Emergency Operations Center, and the planned Lithium Processing Facility, among other buildings, Smith’s legacy will be felt by generations of Y‑12ers and Pantexans.
Smith served as the senior director of Enterprise Strategic Planning. He led strategic planning, site master planning, project development and integration at both sites. During his 52‑year Y‑12 career, he’s held senior leadership roles in engineering, project management, and strategic planning. His work has spanned multiple U.S. Department of Energy missions, encompassing weapons programs, uranium enrichment, fusion energy, and work with other federal agencies.
Best wishes to Tom Smith for a wonderful retirement.
Smith orchestrated the novel, third‑party financing approach to build the Jack Case, New Hope, and John C. Drummond centers. He also lent his expertise to the Oak Ridge community, where he lives. He assisted a special task force in developing a 10‑year community strategy for housing and residential development. He also led the Oak Ridge Chamber’s Executive Committee, Finance Committee, and Board of Directors and served on the Board of Directors of the Oak Ridge Economic Partnership and the Board of Leadership Oak Ridge.
For all of his accomplishments, it is not what he did that coworkers admire most; it is how he did it. Tenacious, integrity, smart, kind, humble, hard worker are just a few of the accolades they use to describe him. Read on as friends share impressions of his leadership style, memorable moments, and retirement wishes.
Tom really thinks through things before taking action. I don’t think there were many times I was in the office when Tom wasn’t working away (no matter how early I came in!). Of course, Tom had a wealth of knowledge with Y‑12, but he was able to come up to speed very quickly on Pantex facilities, line‑item projects, and other information. His expertise and experience with the Jack Case and New Hope centers are the main reason that Pantex has JCDC.
— Larry Backus, Enterprise Strategic Planning
Tom has a knack for setting a vision but also seeing a path to get there in achievable chunks. This means, at times, having the courage to explain that an elephant can’t be eaten all at once … but one bite at a time. I think of Tom’s approach to work in the same vein as another influential, legendary Y‑12 figure, Dave Bryant … work the detail, don’t be distracted by all that’s going on around you, keep moving to the finish line, be a gentleman at the end of the day. Tom brings experience and knowledge to the table, not just with technical issues but with strategies for driving change within organizations large and small.
— Steve Laggis, Infrastructure Integration and Y‑12 Infrastructure Programs
Tom exemplifies exactly the kind of mentor a person needs in their career. I have learned so much from him. He is a professional in every aspect. He cares for his employees, is very respectful to everyone, and has so much knowledge! He is an encyclopedia of how the line‑item and third‑party financing aspects work, the requirements for when and how to submit proposals, and how to interact with management, customers, and coworkers. Tom has a way of saying something that makes you stop in your tracks — sort of an uh‑oh moment. Then gives you a big smile and a laugh and “I got you!”
— Jane Nations, Enterprise Strategic Planning
I’ve known Tom for about 25 years. He’s been my boss and I have been his. He’s creative in developing a vision and strategy to achieve that vision, never gives up, and works well with broad groups of people to make it happen. He has really been the founding father of our modernization effort. When I first started working for Tom, he was the epitome of the engineer’s engineer — dress pants, crisp shirt, boring tie. It was difficult to get him to smile. I picked on him mercilessly. The more I got to know him, the more I saw he has a wonderful sense of humor, but you almost had to drag it out of him. Now we pick on each other and his smile and sense of humor are ever present.
— Michelle Reichert, president and chief executive officer
Tom is ingenious, persistent, and a true man of character and a pleasure to know and work with. He is always in the office Monday through Friday working diligently to modernize our sites. One Friday when I came to speak to Morgan on a subject, he told me the “Smith Brothers” would get right on it. I loved that, and it has stuck with me because I do not know of two men who are more dedicated to excellence and willing to give their all to make things better.
— Teresa Robbins, NPO Deputy Manager
Tom is truly an icon, a recognized leader. I have worked with him since my arrival to Y‑12 in the early 2000s and return in 2016. He has been the Y‑12 visionary, architect, and strategist behind our efforts to transform and modernize Y‑12. Many of us have benefited from his vision, touting and selling this compelling vision of a Y‑12 transformation in gatherings, conferences, to congressman and senior government decision‑makers. The story, so compelling, it received universal support, and we are observing the transformation at Y‑12 firsthand today.
— Ted Sherry, Performance Excellence
Tom has shown the importance of maintaining priorities in the workplace. He has been extremely supportive of his personnel. He is an old‑school gentleman of impeccable character and integrity. He is patient, willing to answer questions, and can be counted upon for rational counsel when work issues complicate a project. Tom always keeps an even keel. He is focused on long‑term results and evaluates circumstances on the basis of impact and potential to the long view. He is never given to knee‑jerk reactions. Tom can always be counted upon for a measured, well‑reasoned response regardless of the situation.
— David Will, Enterprise Strategic Planning
Karissa Sampson
Karissa Sampson is the 2020 Y-12 recipient of the Jackie Kelly Award for Administrative Excellence.
Karissa was nominated by her supervisor Kevin Corbett, who is director of the CNS Quality organization.
“Karissa has demonstrated her dedication to learn since she arrived several years ago. She came to CNS without any Y-12 experience and immediately immersed herself into understanding our mission, supporting the organization, and her follow employees,” said Corbett. “Additionally, Jackie Kelly, the person this award was named after, worked for me just before her passing. It took me a long time to hire someone who I felt could carry on as professionally as Jackie did, but with Karissa, we hit the jackpot. She embodies all of the same beautiful attributes that Jackie did, as well as her work ethic.”
CNS established this award three years ago in honor of Jackie Kelly, who met every challenge head on, including the cancer that ultimately took her life. Nominees are evaluated by five Pantex and Y-12 leaders on these criteria:
- Dedication: to the mission, their organization, and their fellow employees;
- Conscientiousness: to the quality of their work;
- Caring: building relationships and a concern for other’s success;
- Can-do attitude: “never say no” approach and helping to make a difference; and
- Capability: aptitude in roles, responsibilities, authorities, and accountabilities.
An Alarm Response Training instructor helps facilitate distance Alarm Response Training, or dART, to Northwestern Medicine Cancer Center during a class.
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Office of Radiological Security (ORS) Alarm Response Training provides participants comprehensive training to understand and protect radioactive and nuclear materials in civilian facilities, like hospitals and research institutions. The specialized training is conducted at Y-12 and prepares participants to return to their work locations better equipped to handle the potential threat of radioactive and nuclear theft by applying training objectives.
As successful programs continuously improve, the ART team wanted to go the next step and develop innovative strategies to maintain relationships with sites that had previously attended classes. Distance learning was one of those suggested tools, so dART — distance Alarm Response Training — was born.
Program Manager Dan Romano said, “We were already researching distance learning when COVID-19 hit and caused a travel ban. But with the pandemic and lack of travel, it became more important for us [NNSA’s Office of Radiological Security and Y-12] to remain engaged with ART alumni sites and present awareness concepts to sites that yet had attended ART.
“The pandemic brought an unexpected shift in our nation’s situation, and the ART staff looked at this challenge and developed, demonstrated, and ultimately executed dART in about two months,” Romano said.
Thanks to the group’s dedication and teamwork, dART classes offer previous ART trainees, and those wanting to learn how to protect radioactive and nuclear materials, continued engagement and awareness.
“We have held three dART classes so far. Attendees were the University of Arkansas Medical Center, North Carolina State University, and most recently Northwestern Medicine Cancer Center,” Romano said. “Our week long ART sessions will return once our nation returns to pre-covid status, but dART will remain as an integral component. We plan to hold at least two dART courses each month.”
With the creation of dART a new partnership was developed with Roane State Community College. “We store our asynchronous materials on Roane State’s Learning Management System, and we conduct our instruction at the Oak Ridge facility,” he said.
dART offers a condensed version of ART and covers all ART learning objectives (minus the drills), but instructs at a lower order (less intense) of learning — this works as both a refresher for previous ART attendees and radiological security awareness for those yet to attend. dART also offers partner sites the option to “customize” according to their needs.
Since 2009, Y-12’s ART has conducted more than 200 classes for almost 7,000 participants from 48 states and 19 countries. Last April, Y-12 celebrated its 10th anniversary and is a program developed and maintained through NNSA’s Office of Radiological Security.
Due to support from the CNS Community Investment Fund, Keystone can still provide for their participants at home.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 5 million adults in the United States, at least 65 years old, suffer from dementia. In spite of its life-altering affects, the Keystone Adult Day Program is active against the disease. For 32 years, the program has dedicated itself to provide support for caregivers and individuals living with dementia. While there isn’t a cure for dementia, maintaining social connection and activity has been found to reduce the symptoms and isolation felt by the disease.
One of the core missions of the program is to provide purposeful and meaningful activities and engagement for those living with dementia. Based on the Y-12 Community Investment Fund’s contribution of $3,000, the program was able to deliver their mission, help fund activities, and impact its individuals before and during COVID-19.
“Pre-pandemic, we utilized grant funds for a variety of activities which routinely encompass a participant’s day at Keystone,” said Phyllis Spangler, executive director of Keystone Adult Day Program. “Engaging participants in a full range of activities drives our daily schedule. From the moment the first participant arrives until the last participant has departed, activities are generated and sustained. This engagement helps decrease anxiety and agitation and helps promote a sense of wellbeing and security. Additionally, when participants return home after a full, active day, they are tired and routinely sleep better, which is significantly helpful for their caregivers.”
Before the pandemic, in-person activities for the participants ranged from cooking projects, arts and crafts, weekly music therapy, visits with dogs through the University of Tennessee’s Human-Animal Bond in Tennessee program, seated exercise, games, music, singing, and hosting special programs for individuals in the Oak Ridge community. As a part of the special programs, Y-12’s Day of Volunteering event partnered with Keystone in October 2018 and gave employees the chance to meet participants and experience the program in a Hawaiian-themed event.
“We played games, painted, and enjoyed the party,” said Ashley Harris, Y-12 Communications. “The smiles on the participants’ faces were priceless. I know the Y-12 volunteers enjoyed the day just as much as the participants did, it felt very much like a family.”
However, as events postponed and facilities closed around the nation in precaution of COVID-19, Keystone was also forced to restructure their community and concerns.
“Once we closed our door in mid-March, our primary concern was the wellbeing of those we serve, given their pursuant isolation,” said Anne Leitnaker, administrative assistant at Keystone. “The task of caring for someone living with dementia is a 24/7 proposition. Our caregivers were suddenly without the relief our program provided and our participants found themselves without the social connection, engagement, meaning, and purpose that being a part of the Keystone community offered.”
With a need and drive to sustain the Keystone community’s activities and keep safety measures in place, Keystone’s staff used their creativity to package at-home activity totes. Keystone activity director, Alex Sands, worked with staff to generate ideas for the totes and carefully customized items in the kit for each participant’s level of functioning and interests. Each activity is individually bagged and includes supplies and instructions to make it easy for both the participant and caregiver.
“We are dedicated to preserving the lifeline we extend to those we serve and to remain in relationship with them. We are also developing ways to connect virtually with our population and will be using activities in that venue as well,” Spangler said.
As a resource, the Keystone Adult Day Program is also able to offer subject matter expertise on dementia and reach beyond their walls. In support of the local community, Keystone will begin offering generic totes to provide for the local population living with dementia.
“We want our participants and caregivers to know how much we care for them and long for the day when we can reopen our doors and welcome them back. Maintaining this connection is vital to the future of our program,” Leitnaker said.
By working with the East Tennessee Foundation, the Y-12 Community Investment Fund has provided opportunities for employees to award grants benefiting nonprofit organizations like the Keystone Adult Day Program in its 20-county service area.
Y-12 employee, Ashley Harris, volunteers at the Keystone Adult Day Program on the 2018 Day of Volunteering. (Photo taken before the COVID‑19 pandemic.)
Keystone Adult Day program participants enjoying the Hawaiian-themed event on the 2018 Y-12 Day of Volunteering. (Photo taken before the COVID‑19 pandemic.)
Care companion, Sharon McFadden, and activity director Alex Sands work on the contents of the bags for the at-home packages.
Keystone executive director, Phyllis Spangler, gives a Keystone Activity tote to participant, Rob, while his wife Lynne looks on.
Y-12 continued vital projects throughout the COVID-19 response thanks to planning and teamwork. To ensure projects remained on track and on time, team members took that strong plan and coupled it with adherence to essential health and safety protocols.
One important project that continued was construction and refurbishing of two firing ranges at the Central Training Facility (CTF). The project experienced many delays because of existing site conditions during excavation of a hillside in the affected area. As the COVID-19 response was implemented, the project was allowed to continue because the outside work allowed for social distancing. The team put other safety measures in place to protect CTF and the contractor.
Angela Oberding, project manager, said, “The ability to continue the work allowed the project to complete two major components – the creek diversion and excavation of the hillside.”
The pandemic also affected the Calciner project, where equipment is being installed for the purpose of converting salvaged and impure solutions, like rinse water, mop water, decontamination water, and lab and production by-products that contain uranium, into a powder that is more manageable, stable, and easier to store and transport. Completion of this project will reduce the amount of legacy solutions that are stored.
“Working with our NNSA customer, deliverables were identified early, giving the team time to react if changes were necessary,” Matthew Manrod, project manager, said. “Through the hard work of the CNS and federal project team, we were able to obtain CD-2/3 approval on May 29, authorizing full execution of the project.”
The project team quickly and smoothly adopted teleworking and implemented a daily meeting with core team members over Skype to discuss each day’s priorities and issues.
These projects are only two examples of what the Y-12 team was accomplishing — some via telework and many on-site — as the site’s operational status changed.
As the COVID-19 response was implemented, construction and refurbishing of two firing ranges at the Central Training Facility project continued.