The Charles O. Blalock Award was presented to Sue Heflin from Mississippi. Sue is one of NADE’s foremost leaders. She has served as chapter president twice, as her chapter’s regional board member, and as the Southeast Regional President. She has also served on the NADE Board as Southeast Regional Director, President-elect and NADE President. She has also chaired or served on nearly every chapter, regional and national committee. Sue is very active in personally recruiting new members at every opportunity that comes along, speaking out about NADE at DDS meetings or SSA training sessions. She even recruited members when she trained at McGeorge of Law and one of her recruits went on to be NADE President. Her dedication and professionalism in serving NADE has been a positive influence for others. Sue was responsible for bringing the issue of eliminating the five month waiting period for Title II recipients to the Board of Directors two years ago. As a result, a position paper was prepared and this important issue for some of our deserving claimants has now received widespread notice, even in Washington, D.C., where she has lobbied to correct this inequity. She has provided outstanding leadership in the development and substantial expansion of her chapter, her region and of the national organization.

Stephen Drake, Ph.D. from Texas was the recipient of the NADE Award. Dr. Drake currently serves in the role of Chief Mental Medical Consultant for the Texas DDS. He began his work for the Social Security Administration as a Claims Representative and then moved on to become on Operations Supervisor, Area Administrative Assistant, Regional Office Staff Assistant and an Operations Officer. During his tenure with SSA, he became interested in mental health and attended graduate school eventually earning his Ph.D. in Psychology. He immediately began his clinical practice mainly with persons who had chronic mental illness or a combination of mental illness and mental retardation. Eventually, he decided to diversify his contributions to the Social Security Administration and, in 1992, he began a new job with the State Disability Determination Services as a Medical Consultant. He has been proactive in researching SSA disability issues and trends that impact its programs as well as an avid reader of professional journals. He studied the employability of people with schizophrenia and wrote a lengthy lecture on the topic. He presented this lecture to a large and very receptive audience. The presentation was so well received that a representative from the Regional Office suggested to SSA that it held potential for national training as an IVT. He traveled to the Regional Office studios last October where he completed the training, which was the first disability-related IVT to originate from a regional SSA studio.

Bill Dunn from Texas received the John Gordon Award. Bill is known for his superior performance as a supervisor and as a leader in the truest sense of the word. He manages a Program Operations Unit and has demonstrated the ability to work side by side with each of his employees. His understanding of basic program policies is well known, and he has proven to be an invaluable resource to both his unit and the agency as a whole. His results are reflected in the success his unit has experienced. During FY ’00 and ’01, his unit has had the #1 allowance rate and the best processing time in the agency. This supervisor is a genuine advocate for his employees, the Texas DDS, and the claimants. He is a natural and articulate leader who willingly accepts extra assignments and consistently offers valuable feedback. He brings boldness and sincerity to his job. His efforts to provide quality management reflect positively on SSA and NADE.

The Lewis Buckingham Award was presented to Susan LaMorte from New Jersey. Susan has been employed with the DDS since 1981 and has worked all levels of claims adjudication and has served as Alternate Supervisor. In 1989, she was assigned the responsibility to assist in the development and implementation of a Total Quality Management Plan for her agency. Beginning in 1990 she became Trainer for the 90 newly appointed adjudicators and was promoted in 1993 to the position of Claims Supervisor. In 4/94 she became her agency’s Training Coordinator, which she performed in her unique personal style laced with her never ending enthusiasm for six years until her recent appointment in January 2000 as a Regional Manager supervising approximately 125 employees. As Regional Manager she is constantly recruiting her staff to become NADE members. Her skill as an organizer, leader and her enthusiastic support of NADE’s commitment to the Social Security Disability Process has helped mold her Chapter, her Region and the entire association into an innovative and progressive organization, which she has demonstrated while she served as NADE President, Membership Director, NADE/SSA Systems Liaison and currently DDS/SSA Administrator’s Liaison. She was referred to being “cordially persistent” by the then Associate Commissioner Susan Daniels in her pursuit of achieving NADE’s goals-while she was National President. She is a warm, caring and positive person, who always goes “above and beyond the call of duty”. She is always ready to pitch in and get the job done or just be your friend. She takes genuine interest in NADE. She believes in the purpose and philosophy of NADE as a professional organization that can improve the job and service we deliver.

The Director’s Award was presented to Rose Watson-Williams from Texas. This nominee has been a member of NADE for the past four years. She became a member shortly after being promoted to Supervisor of the clerical support staff for a Programs Operations unit. Her most recent achievements occurred during this year’s National Disability Professionals Week awards presentation during which she was presented the Texas Most Supportive Clerical Award and the Community Service Award, one of only two members who received double awards. However, her greatest achievement has been the outstanding job she has done as the head of her own unit’s clerical staff. Her exemplary leadership and performance has resulted in her unit having some of the best statistics in the agency. While in this position, she assisted her staff on numerous workdays as well as assisting them daily by mailing follow-up letters to medical sources for the entire unit (over 9000 letters in a single year). She assumed this duty, which was over and above her regular job assignments after determining that this would be the most efficient practice for the good of the unit and the disability claimant. She has been attending college via the University of Phoenix Online Campus on a full-time basis and is working towards the attainment of a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration in order to achieve her lifetime goal of becoming a Disability Examiner. Kim Jones from Alabama garnered the Rookie of the Year Award. Kim has been an employee at DDS for four years. During this time she has not only been responsible for adjudicating Prototype disability claims, but also served on various agency committees designed to implement ways to improve the disability adjudication process. Kim has also been involved with the individual unit training on improving organizational skills among disability examiners. Because of her dedication to the DDS process, she was invited to attend the Field Office/DDS Management Conference to serve as a member on the panel for the “Back to the Basics” workgroup sessions. She is a valued member of DDS and has been recognized by her peers for dedicated service to DDS and team oriented concept and has received the “Examiner of the Quarter” Award. Kim joined NADE in July 2000 and since becoming a member of NADE has continued her dedication to service and willingness to assist and serve. She is enthusiastic and looking forward to escalating her activities and contributions to the NADE organization.

The Earl B. Thomas Award was presented to Tommy Warren from Alabama. Tommy has worked his way from a Disability Examiner to the Director of the Disability Determination Service. He has been this Director of the Alabama DDS for eight years. Prior to attaining this position, he was an Administrative Services Officer for twelve years. In this position, he supervised the computer services fiscal section, the clerical support sections, facilities management and purchasing. His employment history includes over four years as a Quality Assurance Supervisor, two years as a Quality Assurance Examiner and four years as a Disability Examiner. This colorful background of DDS experiences led Tommy to a term as President of the National Council of Disability Determination Directors (NCDDD). As an activist among the nation’s DDS Administrators, he contributes time, effort and ideas for the good of the disability program. Clearly, he takes his role as a leader “beyond the normal administrative duties of his position.” Along with the professional responsibilities of being a DDS employee, he served as Chairman of the State Deferred compensation Program from 1984 to 1994. He was active in the State Employee Association including four years as the President. He was the original President of the VERSA Computer Users groups, which is one of the three computer user groups within the disability process. He keeps his hands in all aspects of the Agency’s metamorphosis as a Prototype Pioneer. Tommy’s membership in NADE has always been an integral part of his life at the DDS. He uses the message of professional growth and development fostered by NADE to encourage his employees to strive to be the best.

The Frank Barclay Award went to Mary Lanigan from Tennessee. Mary’s agency career began 1987-1989 as a Disability Claims Examiner. Her husband’s relocation gave her the experience of a European teaching career and a return to DDS in 1996. Since then she has served in a variety of positions of ever increasing responsibility and complexity. Mary’s major responsibilities are now in the area of agency training, coordinating and teaching DDS agency program fundamentals to incoming disability examiners any continuing education training mandated for the entire agency. She always is positive, flexible, creative, and is highly motivated. She shows a high degree of professional initiative and commitment to do the very best job possible, no matter what her assignment, such as interviewing potential medical staff for the agency and serving on the bid proposal team reviewing teledictation service contractors. By incorporating videos, audio exercises, self-designed exercise, multimedia CD ROMs, computer “scavenger hunts”, and live casework, the nominee has strengthened the impact of training while enhancing understanding and memory. Consistently patient, yet exacting, Mary motivates her trainees, molding them into competent disability claims examiners. Perhaps more than any other trainer, in any other state, she implements training plan of her own creation. She trains the disability claims examiners of tomorrow.