Employee of the Quarter: Brooks Tramell

Dan Lowrance, OCC chairman; Brooks Tramell, employee of the quarter; Shellie Willoughby, Awards and Recognition Committee chairwoman; and Mike Thralls, OCC executive director.

Brooks Tramell, OCC Water Quality monitoring coordinator, was recognized at the June 2009 Commission meeting for being named Employee of the Quarter at the May OCC full staff meeting. As coordinator of the monitoring program, Brooks supervises or shares supervision for a staff of seven full-time water quality monitoring field staff, along with five to seven summer interns to implement at least three major monitoring programs across the state and in Priority Watersheds.

The nomination form for Brooks said "Brooks excels in his duties with the Water Quality division, training, and supervising a large, widely-dispersed staff. These duties require long hours and frequent travel. Lately, he's had to juggle training new employees and covering for employees on maternity leave with the regular increases in workload that go along with gearing up for a new year's field sampling season. He manages all these details exceptionally well. "At the same time, he never refuses any reasonable request for his assistance, whether it relates to his duties for the division or not. When a previous commitment conflicts with his ability to be of assistance, he finds a way to make it happen anyway. Recently, he's stayed late at the office to help the technical writing staff put informational packets together. Many of these additional efforts are the result of him volunteering to assist with various efforts without being asked."

The nomination form cited Brooks as setting a good examples with his strict adherence to deadlines and procedure for everything from Personnel Management Process review schedules to training and quality assurance audits. "Yet at the same time, he is reasonable and flexible in working with his staff. He strives for excellence in the program, and his knowledge, skills, and diligence have led us to an excellent program, recognized at the state and national level. Brooks is integral to the Division and Agency's program and is the type of employee which sets the Commission apart.