LATEST PROJECTS
Projects
New Employee Handbook
Working for over 20 years I had collected a lot of basic information that was asked for time and again when someone new started to work at my office. I had started moving things like these to notebooks in Microsoft One Note then decided we needed more. I did some research and started with a revised all employee phone list. Then I found examples of something that looked to be a good basis for collecting all the other bits and bobs and decided to gather mine in one place. I found out that our human resources office was starting a new employee on-boarding manual and showed them what I had come up with and together finalized what I had started as the new official office new employee handbook.
Databases
In the course of my work I have found Powerpoint, Access and Excel to be of use in creating presentations, graphs, databases and pivot tables that I use frequently to update tracking information on travel dollars, office space management, Congressional districts for current projects, Organization charts, Telephone directories, and tracking correspondence.
In Powerpoint, using boxes and graphs the organization charts are update to be shared with staff for information awareness. Mapping with diagrams of office locations has become invaluable in planning office space square footage allocations within the department.
In Excel I used a pivot tables to track data on categories and other characteristics for a groups diversity. I also use it to track travel dollars spent per program office and gather in powerpoint presentation to show totals used of allocations for that travel year.
In Access I have three major databases I use now. The first had a list of all the Congressional Senators and Congressman with information on their district and the Committees and Sub-committees they serve. This also has a list of all active projects so we can print out projects by state when there are meetings with the Congressional staff from those areas. The second database was a travel file that held traveler preferences and information, Hotels and Car Rental agencies and ability to put together all the itinerary information in one location that makes easy to read itinerary for the traveler as well as ability to look up past travel by traveler or location. The most recent database I created is useful to track correspondence that flows through our office for the leaderships approvals/signatures. I track who has each package, when it’s due and any comments regarding it. I had previously used excel but finding a particular package in the list was cumbersome and printing a list of only those still outstanding was impossible. Using a form in Access makes it easy to see everything about the package at once, it’s easy to search for a certain package within one of the fields and using query’s and reports makes printing an outstanding item list easier.
RECOMMENDATIONS
DOE
I have the great pleasure of recommending Carol Loman. As you know, Carol served as my admin for two and a half years during my tenure as Dep. Asst. Secretary and then Principal Dep. Asst. Sect. In my 25 years of professional work, Carol was unquestionably the best admin I've met, and the best administrative support I could imagine.
It is my understanding that recently she received special commendation for her work on approving foreign visitors to our office. I cannot state strongly enough how important this work was. During my tenure, we were hosting large numbers of Chinese visitors as part of the climate and energy work under the US-China bilateral. This culminated in announcements on our office's work at both the Beijing and Washington Presidential summits between Xi and Obama.
Importantly, the Chinese often visited with limited notice, changed their schedules, and occasionally provided incomplete information. Since China is a sensitive (nuclear) country, gaining access to DOE headquarters posed additional challenges. This happened when the Office's security staff lost key members. Ms. Loman met all of these challenges swiftly and well, and in the highest tradition of professionalism. Her administrative assistance greatly aided the function of our Office, and substantively contributed to the Administration's goals.
This kind of work is typical of Carol's overarching excellence. She is sunny in disposition, calm and poised, and above all else proactive and capable. I hope you will strongly consider giving her your highest ranking this year as befits her exceptional service to the DOE and the Office of Fossil Energy.
Yours,
Dr. S. Julio Friedmann
Lawrence Livermore National Lab
(Previously Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary - Office of Fossil Energy, U.S. Department of Energy)
9/18/2016
Thank you for being the BEST customer in ALL of DOE, if all were like you my job would be a breeze.
HQ FV&A Team
9/16/2016
I arrived at the Department of Energy with no prior government experience and as you might imagine, it was quite a transition from the private sector to DOE.
Carol helped me get situated in FE – from logistics to travel documentation to setting up my office and everything in between.
Carol is responsible for coordinating all of my domestic and international travel. This entails booking all airline tickets, working with embassy staff to obtain travel visas, and booking ground transportation and accommodations around the world. She makes sure that each trip is seamless from the moment I leave DOE to the moment I arrive home.
This past fall, she coordinated a trip spanning 5 countries over three weeks. Like usual, there was not one hiccup on the trip. In addition to travel logistics, she organizes and compiles all the documents I need for the trip – ensuring that I have soft and hard copies of each document. Much of my international travel entails obtaining special cell phones and laptops. For each trip, Carol ensures that I have the proper equipment to comply with DOE’s strict cybersecurity requirements.
Carol is a leader on the scheduling team. When we had a new administrative assistant start a few months ago, Carol briefed her on office policies and protocols and worked with the new hire to ensure a seamless transition. Further, Carol developed a handbook for the Office of Fossil Energy. This handbook is critical for new hires, including myself, to learn office polices and the research and development priorities of FE.
To help FE’s congressional engagement, Carol created a database that cross references FE research and development projects with Congressional districts across the country. For example, if I am meeting with a member of Congress, we can now look up all the FE equities in that member’s district. Carol’s work on this database has proven invaluable when engaging with members of Congress and their staffs.
In addition to the great work Carol accomplishes each day, she does it with a positive, can-do attitude and it is a joy to work with her.
The Office of Fossil Energy is lucky to have Carol Loman as a dedicated, hardworking member of our team.
Sincerely,
Steven Winberg, Assistant Secretary
Office of Fossil Energy, U.S. Department of Energy
1/10/2020