AF names 10th annual Cooke award nominees Published Aug. 19, 2014 By Janis El Shabazz Air Force Personnel Center Public Affairs JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas -- Two civilian Airmen will represent the Air Force as nominees for the 10th Annual Department of Defense David O. Cooke Excellence in Public Administration Award, Air Force Personnel Center officials said today. The award was created to promote, perpetuate and recognize the type of exceptional contributions David O. Cooke made to the federal service, said AFPC award program officials. His career spanned more than 55 years, 45 of which were with the DOD. He was widely recognized for promoting a cooperative spirit and improving operations. Air Force nominees are Audrey Goral, Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico and Nathan Henson, Air Force Space Command, Peterson AFB, Colorado. Goral's expertise is in B-2 mission planning, test range data, navigation and software. Her innovations advanced and automated navigation analysis to eliminate data channel sluggishness, increasing accuracy by 32 percent while cutting analysis times 95 percent. Her improvements to analysis software are now the standard used by multiple major commands. Her development of a chart which statistically defined test scopes and improved test adequacy was commended by the DOD director of operational test and evaluation. She streamlined analytical processes and developed manuals and procedures for navigation, weapons, software maturity and range data processing analyses. She optimized joint test resources consisting of personnel, aircraft, weapons, instrumentation, ranges and systems under test. Her robust test designs increased schedule and resource efficiencies saving the Air Force $4.5 million. She authored B-2 operational assessments and operational test and evaluations that provide expert analyses with operational impacts. Henson provided leadership and programmatic skill in designing and implementing an information technology lean technology project for Air Force Space Command. He created a shift to a network built around the mobile Air Force user, integrating diverse technologies into a successful solution that will improve the user's operational experience. He developed scheduling techniques to leverage limited engineering resources while ensuring his team could successfully develop a scalable end solution. His work to shape the Air Force Network has been organized and accepted in the Air Force community as the way to increase operational productivity while reducing infrastructure costs. He led his team to find ways to solve highly complex engineering, software and programmatic issues that occurred during the nine month project. Goral and Henson are authorized to wear the Air Force Recognition Lapel Pin. For more information about the Air Force recognition program and other personnel issues, visit the myPers website at https://mypers.af.mil. Â