August 08 Issue - Employee Monthly Magazine

Spotlight

Getting the job done

Patricia Nelson, left, discusses plans for purchasing ergonomic adjustable dual-surface desks with Debra Lowe of Space Management and Facilities Planning, standing, and Rachel Morse of the Weapons Systems Division Office. Photo by Richard Robinson

Patricia Nelson of Site Management and Facility Planning usually has a host of things she wants and needs to get done on the job. Foremost among her most demanding recent tasks was reducing the Laboratory's annual expenditures on furniture and related services by $4 million since 2006, furnishing the National Security Sciences Building, benchmarking the Lab Furniture Reuse Program, and saving upwards of $700,000 in 2006 and $1.2 million in 2007 by reusing furniture.

Achieving these goals is a major reason why Nelson was named a 2008 LANL Star by the Women's Diversity Working Group.

Nelson started at the Laboratory in 1982, setting up the first computer-aided design (CAD) system for Space Management. She left the Lab in 1985 to work for Control Data Systems on a team that provided training and support to the Lab's mechanical engineers and drafters, helping them convert to CAD.

Nelson returned to the Lab in 2001 as a team leader for the Facilities Integrated Information Management team and stayed in this position until late 2004, when she transferred to lead the Laboratory's Interior Furnishings team.

Nelson's interest in interior furnishings began in 1982, when the CAD system she set up for Space Management also had an interior design application, which allowed her to create catalogs of chairs, tables, flipper doors, and filing cabinets, for the drawing application. "Furniture was very familiar to me, and I enjoyed the work in the past. I was in need of a change," she recalled.

Nelson credits colleagues and coworkers in helping her achieve success on the job. "I have had many wonderful opportunities over the past 25 years, but it is all the people I have had the opportunity to work with who have helped me succeed," Nelson said, thanking them for their support. "They know who they are."

Nelson said she hopes that being named a "LANL Star" will allow her to mentor and show others that the Lab has many opportunities to offer. "I feel very proud," she said. "My division leader appreciates the work that I do and the causes I support."

—Erika Martinez