JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic employees Brian Reese and Marquita Priester were named this year's 2012 Modern-Day Technology Leaders at the 26th annual Black Engineer of the Year Award Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Conference Awards held in Philadelphia, Feb. 16 through 18.

The three-day BEYA conference, sponsored by Aerotek and Career Communications Group, attracts thousands of top black professionals in the STEM fields to honor their achievements. The conference also serves as a learning tool for children and young adults interested in pursuing professions in the science, mathematic, technology and engineering fields.

Reese leads a team of engineers in support of SSC Atlantic's Military Health System's new Healthcare Artifact and Imaging Management Solutions project. HAIMS manages Healthcare Artifacts and Images for the U.S. Navy and all other military hospitals and clinics around the world, including those in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"I was excited when I heard the news," said Reese. "I've received some small awards here for the projects I've done but nothing as big as this. I am honored to be named the MDTL of the year and I look forward to continuing my work at SPAWAR and hopefully reach out to the community and get some kids interested in the engineering and technology field as well."

The STEM program encourages SPAWAR employees to become involved with the community to get children more interested in math, science, technology and engineering by showing how fun and important it can be. Reese volunteers at local high schools developing plans to help keep children interested in those fields.

Priester works in SSC Atlantic's Information Assurance area, providing technical and program management support for system-level, software-level and data-level testing, analysis and documentation of IA requirements and communications policies. Her support of the biometrics program directly affects the success of warfighters in Afghanistan.

"Receiving this award has been very humbling to me," said Priester. "I didn't realize that my day-to-day efforts were making that much of an impact on the mission we do here. Receiving this award has helped me see just how important my job is here. It makes me want to keep doing what I am doing and push harder. I will keep striving toward doing excellent work that will better aide the warfighter and command as a whole."

Reese and Priester's continuous contributions and their technical expertise in making the Navy's vision of information dominance a reality has led to SPAWAR's continued success.

"It always gives me great pride to see our folks being rewarded for the great jobs they do delivering capability to our warfighters, serving as positive role models and making a difference in the community," said Capt. Mark Glover SSC Atlantic commanding officer.
There are approximately 3,600 federal civil service employees, 127 military personnel and 13,000 industry partners located at the center's headquarters in Charleston and at other Southeastern U.S. locations. SSC Atlantic's operations in Charleston had a total economic impact of $2.6 billion on the state of South Carolina in 2008.

SSC Atlantic makes IT count for the warfighter and the nation. The SSC Atlantic team rapidly delivers and supports solutions that enable information dominance for naval, joint, national and coalition warfighters. SSC Atlantic develops, acquires, and provides life cycle support for Command, Control, Communications, Computer, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance systems, Information Technology and Space Capabilities. SSC Atlantic is a leading edge Navy engineering center that designs, builds, tests, fields and supports many of the finest frontline C4ISR systems in use today, and those being planned for the future.

Total obligation authority for SSC Atlantic for 2011 was $4.9 billion. SSC Atlantic has more than 1,450 customers around the globe. Approximately 67 percent of them are Navy and Marine Corps commands, 25 percent are joint commands and eight percent are federal agencies.