Guardians,
I had the pleasure of joining senior officers from all of the services at this year's Black Engineer of the Year Awards (BEYA) at their annual Stars and Stripes Dinner in Baltimore. The host for this dinner rotates among the services and this year the Air Force was the hosting service. At this dinner superior engineers from each service are recognized.
The Coast Guard engineer recognized was Mr. Otis Harvey a civilian employee at the Surface Forces Logistics Center. Mr. Harvey is Chief of the Electrical Systems Branch of the Equipment Management Division. Mr. Harvey was a key technical advisor in the procurement of our Great Lakes Ice Breaker. Mr. Harvey is also active as a leader, mentor and volunteer in his community. He devotes a good deal of time working in a diversion program for youthful offenders in Charles County. We salute Otis Harvey for his professionalism, leadership, and service to his community.
The keynote speaker was my good friend General Norton (Norty) Schwartz, Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force. He delivered a powerful speech on change and diversity. I asked him if I could post it here and it can be found at this link:
BEYAKeynote.pdf
Congratulations to BEYA for another terrific event and we look forward to participating next year when the event will be held in Washington. My personal thanks to Tyrone Taborn, CEO of Career Communications Group, for his personal leadership in marketing and expanding this event of the past several years. He is also the publisher of several professional magazines and journals that focus on the development of engineering professionals from under represented minority groups.
ADM A
