For immediate release: January 14, 2016
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta awarded its annual President's Award for Excellence to Jodi Birts, Mark Craig, Greg Ehrlich, Patrick Higgins and Stacye McCall in the Atlanta office and Fred Soltau in the Miami Branch. Dennis Lockhart, president and chief executive officer of the Atlanta Fed, presented the awards in a recent ceremony. The President's Award recognizes Sixth Federal Reserve District employees who have distinguished themselves by their outstanding performance.
Birts, a senior telecommunications technician in technology solution services, has been a key contributor to several major national and District telephony projects since joining the Bank in 2002. Birts was an integral part of the District telephony migration project. Her contributions to the cost-saving telephone system consolidation led to the integration of six complex, independent systems into one telephone system. Because of her work, the Sixth District received national distinction as being the easiest District to migrate with the least number of post-migration issues.
Craig joined the bank in 1994 and moved to credit and risk management in 1997 and, in his role as director of credit and risk management, led the department through the financial crisis. Craig not only communicated operational changes to banks but also implemented new manual procedures to process interest payments until new automated systems were complete. During Superstorm Sandy, Craig's expertise and direction were essential to supporting the New York Fed's request for help with operations. And in 2015, he and his team tested the interest on excess reserves calculation to ensure the tool was ready implementation.
Ehrlich, a senior business analyst in the Retail Payments Office (RPO), has been with the bank since 1997. His operations knowledge, along with his analytical and strategic skills, allowed him to identify, enhance and develop many efficiencies and cost savings for the RPO. Ehrlich has worked on several System-level projects that resulted in improved efficiencies and costs savings and reduction in work hours.
Higgins, an associate policy adviser and economist in research, developed GDPNow, a tracking tool that provides real-time forecasts of U.S. gross domestic product. The tool has dramatically enhanced the Research Department's briefings ahead of Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings on monetary policy. In 2015, coverage of GDPNow grew among top-tier U.S. business media, and Higgins skillfully handled media inquiries about the tool.
McCall, staff director in the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion, joined the Atlanta Fed in 2003. In addition to working to make the Bank a more inclusive workplace, she nurtured the Atlanta Fed's employee resource networks (ERNs). Under her leadership, roughly 25 percent of Atlanta Fed staff participate in ERNs, and applications for membership in the Diversity Advisory Council continue to exceed available openings. McCall enrolled in the Society for Diversity Certification Program and earned a Certified Diversity Professional (CDP) designation in 2014. She was recently named to Diversity MBA magazine's ninth annual Top 100 under 50 list, an honor she was nominated for because of her work to encourage more courageous conversations.
Soltau, a construction project manager in the Miami Branch, has served the bank for 35 years. During his career, he has built a track record of completing building renovation and expansion initiatives—no matter how large— successfully and on time, aided by his attention to detail and commitment to quality and perfection. Soltau has led a long list of initiatives that have improved the Miami Branch. He led the demolition and construction for a high-security clearance operations area for the U.S. Army's Southern Command in 2004 after the payment services consolidation process. Years later, he oversaw the custom renovation for a new tenant, which involved building out 35,000 square feet of space and was completed in record time.
The Atlanta Fed is a part of the nation's central banking system, which Congress created in 1913. The Federal Reserve conducts monetary policy by influencing money and credit conditions in the economy in pursuit of full employment and stable prices, supervises and regulates banking institutions and helps ensure that the nation's payments systems operate smoothly. The Atlanta Fed serves the Sixth Federal Reserve District, which encompasses Alabama, Florida, Georgia and sections of Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. The Atlanta Fed participates in setting national monetary policy, supervises numerous commercial banks and provides a variety of financial services to depository institutions and the U.S. government.