As February comes to a close we were excited to celebrate Black History Month and the theme "Black Health and Wellness" with numerous Spotlights recognizing African Americans who have been trailblazers in the fields of medicine and medical research. This week also brings to a close National Engineers Week and we enjoyed Spotlighting some of our very own engineers at the MMAC.

While the Delta, Omicron variants and other SARS-CoV-2 variant cases in our state are still elevated, they have trended down significantly in recent days. The risks remain real and so must our vigilance. Thanks for your patience as the virus has put quite a strain on all of our work and personal activities, driving us to reshape what we know as normal. Each of us has been impacted by the global health crisis in deeply personal ways.

Thanks to many of you for participating in the recent 2022 AMC Gallup Q12 Survey. These results are important to us, as it helps us to improve the work environment based upon your input. This year we had a 79% participation rate, and have been seeing steady improvement at the aggregate level for the past three years. Thank you for taking time to participate in these surveys. We use your feedback to make continual improvements and we are grateful for you being a part of such an engaged workforce.

We also want to thank all of the MMAC organizations for participating in their quarterly Safety Stand Downs. These events are critical to maintaining the ’Safety First’ culture at the MMAC. Discussions are held about safety awareness with the goal of strengthening the safety culture at the Center. The Office of Facility Management does a great job of preparing materials for all organizations to use in their Safety Stand Down events.

We are excited to share that the Center is standing up a Council on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA). This effort has been under development for some time, working closely to ensure alignment with similar HQ DEIA efforts, and was activated this past month! The goal of this Council is to aid in attracting, developing, and retaining a workforce that is rich in diversity, providing talent and ideas that are essential to our success. We are very excited about this initiative and the potential that it brings to our workforce.

I also want to announce that we are planning a Center-wide Town Hall Meeting on the morning of March 22nd. We’ll be talking about sustainability goals, strategic plans, and other topics of interest at the Center.

Thanks again for all you do and for your resiliency,

Michelle Coppedge
Director, Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center