ERDC employee recognized as triple financial award recipient

Published May 22, 2015
McLaughlin

McLaughlin

VICKSBURG, Miss., May 8, 2015 – Kimberly McLaughlin, budget analyst in the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Resource Management Budget Division, will soon receive three distinguished financial awards:  one from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Financial Management and Comptroller) (OASA (FM&C)) Resource Management Awards Program; one from the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) (USD(C)) Calendar Year (CY) 2014 Financial Management Awards Program; and the other from the American Society of Military Comptrollers (ASMC).  All three awards will be presented to McLaughlin at the ASMC Professional Development Institute, to be held May 26-29, 2015, in New Orleans, Louisiana. 

McLaughlin is one of only two representatives from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to receive any of the FY14 OASA (FM&C) Resource Management Award Program’s Civilian Individual Awards.  McLaughlin won the award for her work on ERDC's Center Directed Research Program (CDRP).  Section 219 of the 2009 Hunter-Duncan Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) authorized defense laboratories to utilize up to three percent of all available funding for innovative in-house research, transition of technology and workforce development.  McLaughlin had to develop a way for ERDC to fully utilize this authority within its existing financial framework without violating the principles of fiscal law.  The U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology reviewed and used her innovation in discussions with other Army laboratories looking to implement Section 219 of the 2009 National Defense Authorization Act.  Hers was the model for which other Army laboratories (like the Army Research Laboratory) contacted ERDC and tried to emulate.

The OASA FM&C Resource Management Awards Program recognizes and encourages outstanding performance of individuals, teams and organizations at all command levels.  It complements installation, major command and field agency recognition programs by focusing attention on excellence and commendable individuals, teams and organizations that make significant contributions to the improvement of resource management.  All military or civilian employees of the Army are eligible for nomination.

In addition, McLaughlin won the USD(C) CY 2014 Management Award Program’s Individual Award for Contributions in Budget Formulation and Execution, below Major Command (MACOM) level.  She also won this award for her work on ERDC’s CDRP.  The purpose of the awards program is to recognize significant contributions of individuals or teams to financial management improvement.  Any military member or civilian employee of the Department of Defense (to include Reserve Components) is eligible for nomination.  McLaughlin is the only ERDC employee to ever win this award.    

McLaughlin also won the ASMC Award Program’s Distinguished Award in the Budgeting Category, unit under a MACOM.  ASMC recognizes the outstanding accomplishments of its chapters, membership and the defense financial management community through the awards program.  The program encompasses individual, team, scholarship and chapter program recognition.  Awards, with the exception of scholarships and grants, are presented at the National ASMC Professional Development Institute and recipients are recognized in the Armed Forces Comptroller and on the ASMC website.  ASMC recognizes individuals’ accomplishment within the functional fields of comptrollership through the Achievement Awards program.  Subcategories include:  Accounting and Finance, Acquisition and Cost Analysis, Auditing, Budgeting, Comptroller/Deputy Comptroller, Contractor Support, Financial Systems, Intern/Trainee, Resource Management, Small Team and Large Team.

“I am extremely proud of Kimberly,” said Roland Clavien, director of ERDC’s Business Resource Division and Resource Management.  “She started with my office six years ago as an administrative assistant and from the very first day [she] was extremely dedicated to doing everything she could to help the organization and take on the most complex tasks.  Her incredible capacity to master complicated initiatives is the reason for her meteoric rise within ERDC and it is fitting the rest of the DoD is recognizing her accomplishments now."

McLaughlin joined ERDC in September 2007 as a contractor in the Logistics Management Office.  She moved to the Coastal Hydraulics Laboratory’s Management Integration Office in January 2009.  In June 2009, she was hired as an administrative assistant in the Resource Management Office.  She moved to the Budget Division in April 2010 as a budget technician and was promoted to her current position as a budget analyst in November 2010.  She is currently the lead on the departmental, facility and CDRP accounts. She is responsible for the formulation of the annual operating budgets, monitoring execution and nominal balance and reporting analysis of these accounts.  She works closely with the labs, providing financial advice and guidance on a variety of budget and financial related matters.

 A native of Vicksburg, Mississippi, McLaughlin graduated from Mississippi State University in May 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in real estate and mortgage appraisal finance.  She is a Certified Defense Financial Manager.

McLaughlin is a member of the USACE Chapter of the Vicksburg Chamber of Commerce, the ASMC and the Junior Auxiliary of Vicksburg.  She is also the 2010 and 2012 recipient of the Army’s Achievement Medal for Civilian Service.

She, her husband and daughter reside in Vicksburg.