Women integral to the Nuclear Security Enterprise
As Women’s History Month concludes, NNSA pauses to highlight some of the women who work in nuclear security. Learn more about these extraordinary leaders and how they contribute to NNSA’s vital missions.
Rilla Hamilton is the senior policy analyst and deputy executive staff director in the Office of the Administrator. She also serves as chair of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s group on medical radioisotopes. This international working group evaluates risks to the reliable supply of the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99). The daughter product of Mo-99, technetium-99m, is used in approximately 80% of nuclear medicine procedures, or in about 100,000 patients around the world every day.
LaReina Parker serves as the deputy program director for NNSA’s International Nonproliferation Export Control Program. Her office aims to detect and prevent the illicit or inadvertent transfer of nuclear and dual-use materials, equipment, and technology. Her organization works with foreign partners to strengthen national export controls and provides training for U.S. export enforcement agencies. Parker’s program collaborates with more than 40 countries and completes on average 90 training events and technical exchanges annually.
Leslie Casey is a senior program manager in NNSA’s Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development, where she directs research to advance U.S. ground-based nuclear explosion monitoring capabilities. Her team’s goal is to detect, locate, identify, and determine details of events associated with foreign nuclear weapons development. Casey’s sponsored research has earned numerous R&D 100 awards, as well as DOE’s coveted E.O. Lawrence Award.
Shirley Mondy is the director of the Sandia Field Office’s Complex Management Team. She is responsible for managing the security, safety, emergency management, and facilities/project management for the NNSA’s Albuquerque Complex. Additionally, Mondy helps lead the engineering and design of the complex’s new building.
As field counsel for the Sandia Field Office, Cyndi Wimberly is responsible for providing legal advice in a wide variety of legal areas including contract administration, strategic partnership programs, environmental compliance, safeguards and security, and worker safety and health. She was recently recognized by NNSA for her legal acumen with the General Counsel Legal Excellence Award.
Lindsey VanNess is a contracting officer with the Sandia Field Office and is responsible for the prime contract for Sandia National Laboratories. She is also heavily involved in the transition of the $2.6 billion management and operating contract to a new contractor. VanNess was recognized by NNSA for her outstanding contract administration and leadership excellence as well as effective and efficient execution of business operations.
Janine Ford’s thoroughness and knowledge of security requirements as a security specialist for the Sandia Field Office has earned her numerous recognitions during her many years of Federal service. Ford routinely goes above and beyond to support security at NNSA’s Albuquerque Complex by anticipating problems and developing plans to overcome obstacles.
As the Sandia Field Office’s public affairs director, Tami Moore is responsible for ensuring successful communications in community and media relations, congressional and intergovernmental affairs, internal and external communications, emergency public information, protocol, and event planning. She provides extraordinary customer service and combines tact and diplomacy with attention to detail in representing NNSA accurately to its stakeholders and the public.
Linda Cordero leads budgeting in the decision support division of NNSA’s Defense Programs office. She oversees a complex $6 billon budget portfolio for maintaining and enhancing the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.
Nina Lanza of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Space and Remote Sensing group was selected as one of eight members for the 2015-2016 field campaign of the Antarctica Search for Meteorites program, which was supported by NASA. Lanza is broadly interested in understanding the history of water on the surface of Mars. Using data from Los Alamos’ ChemCam spectrometer on NASA’s Mars Scientific Laboratory, she and her team discovered manganese-rich minerals that could only be formed with copious amounts of both water and oxygen, two key ingredients necessary for life.
Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Dana Dattelbaum conducts experiments in shock sensitivity and dynamics of explosives to support simulations of nuclear weapons performance and enhance the safety of the nation’s nuclear stockpile. Dattelbaum develops diagnostics to measure the chemical species as they evolve at very fast reaction rates behind the shock front. This information is used to develop models of the performance of nuclear weapons and to enhance the safety of the stockpile.
As a Los Alamos mathematical epidemiologist, Sara Del Valle works with her team to develop mathematical and computer models to study diseases such as smallpox, malaria, AIDS, and influenza. Her end goal is to use social media to track outbreaks so that fewer people die from infectious diseases.
Rilla Hamilton is the senior policy analyst and deputy executive staff director in the Office of the Administrator. She also serves as chair of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s group on medical radioisotopes. This international working group evaluates risks to the reliable supply of the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99). The daughter product of Mo-99, technetium-99m, is used in approximately 80% of nuclear medicine procedures, or in about 100,000 patients around the world every day.
LaReina Parker serves as the deputy program director for NNSA’s International Nonproliferation Export Control Program. Her office aims to detect and prevent the illicit or inadvertent transfer of nuclear and dual-use materials, equipment, and technology. Her organization works with foreign partners to strengthen national export controls and provides training for U.S. export enforcement agencies. Parker’s program collaborates with more than 40 countries and completes on average 90 training events and technical exchanges annually.
Leslie Casey is a senior program manager in NNSA’s Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development, where she directs research to advance U.S. ground-based nuclear explosion monitoring capabilities. Her team’s goal is to detect, locate, identify, and determine details of events associated with foreign nuclear weapons development. Casey’s sponsored research has earned numerous R&D 100 awards, as well as DOE’s coveted E.O. Lawrence Award.
Shirley Mondy is the director of the Sandia Field Office’s Complex Management Team. She is responsible for managing the security, safety, emergency management, and facilities/project management for the NNSA’s Albuquerque Complex. Additionally, Mondy helps lead the engineering and design of the complex’s new building.
As field counsel for the Sandia Field Office, Cyndi Wimberly is responsible for providing legal advice in a wide variety of legal areas including contract administration, strategic partnership programs, environmental compliance, safeguards and security, and worker safety and health. She was recently recognized by NNSA for her legal acumen with the General Counsel Legal Excellence Award.
Lindsey VanNess is a contracting officer with the Sandia Field Office and is responsible for the prime contract for Sandia National Laboratories. She is also heavily involved in the transition of the $2.6 billion management and operating contract to a new contractor. VanNess was recognized by NNSA for her outstanding contract administration and leadership excellence as well as effective and efficient execution of business operations.
Janine Ford’s thoroughness and knowledge of security requirements as a security specialist for the Sandia Field Office has earned her numerous recognitions during her many years of Federal service. Ford routinely goes above and beyond to support security at NNSA’s Albuquerque Complex by anticipating problems and developing plans to overcome obstacles.
As the Sandia Field Office’s public affairs director, Tami Moore is responsible for ensuring successful communications in community and media relations, congressional and intergovernmental affairs, internal and external communications, emergency public information, protocol, and event planning. She provides extraordinary customer service and combines tact and diplomacy with attention to detail in representing NNSA accurately to its stakeholders and the public.
Linda Cordero leads budgeting in the decision support division of NNSA’s Defense Programs office. She oversees a complex $6 billon budget portfolio for maintaining and enhancing the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.
Nina Lanza of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Space and Remote Sensing group was selected as one of eight members for the 2015-2016 field campaign of the Antarctica Search for Meteorites program, which was supported by NASA. Lanza is broadly interested in understanding the history of water on the surface of Mars. Using data from Los Alamos’ ChemCam spectrometer on NASA’s Mars Scientific Laboratory, she and her team discovered manganese-rich minerals that could only be formed with copious amounts of both water and oxygen, two key ingredients necessary for life.
Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Dana Dattelbaum conducts experiments in shock sensitivity and dynamics of explosives to support simulations of nuclear weapons performance and enhance the safety of the nation’s nuclear stockpile. Dattelbaum develops diagnostics to measure the chemical species as they evolve at very fast reaction rates behind the shock front. This information is used to develop models of the performance of nuclear weapons and to enhance the safety of the stockpile.
As a Los Alamos mathematical epidemiologist, Sara Del Valle works with her team to develop mathematical and computer models to study diseases such as smallpox, malaria, AIDS, and influenza. Her end goal is to use social media to track outbreaks so that fewer people die from infectious diseases.