For immediate release: January 11, 2017
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta awarded its annual President's Award for Excellence to Tracy Beauford, Doug Neisler, David Scott, Luis Somoza and Nancy Varella in the Atlanta office, and Jackie Morgan in the Nashville 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.
Beauford is a senior training specialist in the Retail Payments Office (RPO) who has been with the Bank since 1995. During her career, she has developed several training webinar solutions to meet customer needs, helping to reduce processing errors and increase customer satisfaction. Beauford launched a successful partnership with the National Automated Clearing House Association and the Electronic Check Clearing House Organization, which allows webinar attendees to earn continuing education credits to maintain their accreditation status. Beauford's initiative in creating, improving and expanding these training resources improved not only the RPO's bottom line but also customer satisfaction.
Morgan has been with the Atlanta Fed for 17 years and currently serves as the senior economic and financial education specialist in the Nashville Branch. She began her career in the check function office and led several projects, including developing a customer service training program for 250 District check services staff. In her current role, Morgan has forged strong relationships with numerous organizations involved in economic and financial education, including the Tennessee Department of Education, local school districts, financial institutions, nonprofits and university centers. She is a three-term past president and currently serves on the board of the Tennessee Jump$tart Coalition, through which she helped add a required personal finance course to Tennessee's high school curriculum. In September 2016, Nashville Mayor Megan Barry appointed Morgan to serve on the city's newly formed Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee as a member of the Financial Literacy Subcommittee.
Neisler has been handling cash for the Atlanta Fed for 44 years. As a paying receiving and control coin coordinator, he is responsible for overseeing day-to-day workflow, communicating with customers and ensuring that staff members adhere to controls. In his oversight role, he establishes high expectations for his team, inspiring them to higher performance levels. Recently, Neisler trained cash handling teams for the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. His training was so successful that the Philadelphia Fed sent its cash management to the training as well. Because of his expertise, Neisler is considered an asset to the Federal Reserve System.
Scott joined the Atlanta Fed in 1995 and works as an information technology group director in supervision and regulation. Throughout his career, he has been a leader in innovation, serving on test teams and championing new solutions for the Bank and the Federal Reserve System. Scott serves on the supervision and regulation information technology managers group (ITMG). In his role with the ITMG, Scott created a performance management framework for information technology. The performance management framework aligns services with the mission of organization, gauges technology service performance, supports data-driven decision making and assists ITMG members with managing the business. As part of the framework, Scott introduced an annual common customer satisfaction survey and maturity self-assessment so that ITMG members can determine the success of services and continue to improve them.
Somoza has been with the Atlanta Fed for nine years and serves as a senior web development program analyst in the technology solutions services department. He joined the Bank's financial statistics and structure analysis (FSSA) department, where he served in roles of increasing responsibility and became a statistical analysis expert with a focus on data mining, analysis and presentation. While in FSSA, he contributed to challenging projects and always delivered more than was expected. In his new role, Somoza has already had a chance to exceed expectations and have a positive impact on his team. He is also actively involved in the Bank's volunteer programs and seeks to inspire others to succeed.
Varella is the Atlanta Fed's director of meetings and event planning. In this role, she has created a valuable resource for the Atlanta Fed and the Federal Reserve System, developing a team known for their professionalism and expert planning services. Varella is known for her ability to take ad hoc requests and deliver a solution that often exceeds guests' expectations. Since joining the Atlanta Fed in 1990 she has held various positions of increasing responsibility in a number of departments. Most recently she served in the Bank's corporate relations department where she was known for her outstanding work ethic. Varella's knowledge of the Atlanta Fed is an asset as she serves as the "face of the Atlanta Fed" for guests, including local, national and international leaders and dignitaries.
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.