Page 65 - FCW, November/December 2019
P. 65

His managers say he has a
shrewd ability to navigate the federal acquisition process and a personality that’s both friendly and industrious, adding that his passion for acquisition, collaboration and modernization has helped encourage more traditional employees to try new approaches.
As a prime example of his
success, they point to the agency’s award of the $100 million Centers
of Excellence Discovery blanket purchase agreement earlier this
year. The BPA incorporates 22 vendors in the categories of change management, cloud adoption, contact center, customer experience, data analytics, information security and IT infrastructure optimization.
Thanks to Ghaffari-Tabrizi’s efforts, the Discovery BPA moves the centers away from traditional waterfall development by requiring agencies
to take an agile approach to creating solicitations and demanding agile solutions from vendors as well.
developers as they continue to improve and expand the system designed to centralize and streamline the annual performance review process for senior agency executives.
Hendricks’ team implements policies that ensure the Office of Personnel Management program complies with federal privacy and information security guidelines, while also following various guidelines for each of the agencies that use USA Performance. That means frequent meetings with individual agencies to address technical issues and ensure that new functions are deployed smoothly and on schedule. Those updates now happen more frequently because Hendricks has shifted the tempo from quarterly to monthly.
Thanks in part to his work, over 200,000 electronic documents have taken the place of paper copies, saving employees hours of filing and scanning.
In addition, more than 10 agencies and almost one-third of all Senior Executive Service members use
the program for their performance appraisals. One grateful agency official said Hendricks was a blessing during the transition to USA Performance.
DR. LEONIE HEYWORTH
Director of Synchronous Telehealth, Office of Connected Care/Telehealth Services, Veterans Health Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs
The Department of Veterans Affairs
is testing a cutting-edge initiative called Advancing Telehealth through Local Access Stations. ATLAS seeks to put pods inside places like Walmart stores or VFW posts in rural areas
so that eligible veterans can consult via videoconference with VA team members who can assess their medical needs on the spot.
The person spearheading the initiative is Dr. Leonie Heyworth. Nearly 5.2 million veterans live
in rural areas, and driving long distances to a VA facility represents
a significant challenge for many. That’s why initiatives like ATLAS and the program to distribute electronic tablets to veterans for telehealth purposes are so important, she said.
“We are really on the cutting edge of being able to increasingly offer a wide variety of clinical services — not just those that don’t require a physical exam, but even those that do now from the home space,” she said.
Heyworth sees her mission in straightforward terms. “The main goal or main focus of anything I’ve
RYAN V. HENDRICKS
USA Performance Product Development Supervisor, Office of Personnel Management
As the lead for the USA Performance program, Ryan Hendricks oversees four business analysts and 10
November/December 2019 FCW.COM 63


































































































   63   64   65   66   67