Courtesy Photo | James Smerchansky (center), executive director for Naval Sea Systems Command, visits...... read more read more
River Clemens, a radiated noise analyst at Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division’s Acoustic Research Detachment (ARD), got to see how she contributes to Naval Sea System Command’s goals by participating in Executive Director James Smerchansky’s visit to Bayview, Idaho, Feb. 28.
Clemens’ participation in Smerchansky’s visit was part of NAVSEA’s Leadership and Enterprise Exposure Program (LEEP). This program offers employees the opportunity to meet and interact with NAVSEA leadership during site visits in order to gain a better understanding of the enterprise and how their organizations contribute to the mission.
Prior to his visit, Smerchansky’s office requested that an employee from the Carderock Division detachment be offered the opportunity to participate in the visit as part of LEEP.
Clemens saw an opportunity to better understand the organization and decided to submit her application. “I love meeting new people and knew I would enjoy helping to make Mr. Smerchansky feel welcome at ARD,” she said.
“I thought this was a good opportunity to get some context, not just in terms of technical knowledge, but to understand how the organization works, to understand the language that is spoken and how that translates into what we are trying to do,” Clemens said.
“River (Clemens) contributed significantly to the overall visit,” said ARD’s Site Director Alan Griffitts. “She represented ARD extremely well and provided great context from a relatively new employee perspective.”
“I didn’t really know what to expect so I was trying to play it by ear, but I think overall it was really good,” Clemens said. “My job was to listen and absorb as much as possible and I thought, ‘Well, that doesn’t sound too hard,’ but I actually ended up with a lot to process.”
Clemens said that while participating in this visit she not only learned more about NAVSEA, but she also learned a lot about ARD. “I have been here nine months and have heard a lot about the different things that we do, but seeing the top-level presentations gave me a much better understanding of what it is we do here. I was pretty impressed,” she said.
During his visit, Smerchansky held an all-hands meeting with the ARD employees highlighting the NAVSEA campaign plan, strategic framework, knowledge transfer and high-velocity learning.
Griffitts said the ARD team enjoyed the inspiring nature of Smerchansky’s all-hands call. “Mr. Smerchansky encouraged and answered several questions from the staff. We all left this meeting with increased motivation, and even felt entertained,” Griffitts said.
“In the all-hands meeting you could tell he cares about people at ARD’s experience with NAVSEA,” Clemens said. “He put a lot of effort into answering questions and explaining things.”
Afterwards Smerchansky was briefed by ARD subject-matter experts and toured the major facilities and ranges located on Lake Pend Oreille, an 1,150 foot deep lake where the Navy tests ship and submarine acoustics. Smerchansky also saw several of the large-scale models that are housed at this detachment.
“He was asking good questions that showed he had an in-depth knowledge of this stuff,” Clemens said. “You could tell he was engaged, and I admired that.”
Griffitts said he was pleased with how Smerchansky’s visit went. “Mr. Smerchansky expressed a genuine interest in the testing being conducted and, most importantly, in the personnel who support the ARD mission,” he said.
Clemens is fairly new to ARD, having started in May 2017. Prior to this position, she was an equipment programmer for an industrial measurement company.
She is a native of Portland, Oregon, and has a bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California, and a master’s degree in physics from Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana.
Clemens is currently assisting with the validation of the newly installed acoustic arrays on the Large Scale Vehicle range.
“There is just so much to learn, so many opportunities to learn, both technical and administrative.” Clemens said. “The more I learn, the more there is to learn.”
| Date Taken: | 02.28.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 03.08.2018 15:26 |
| Story ID: | 268670 |
| Location: | BAYVIEW, IDAHO, US |
| Web Views: | 383 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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