Envision Dallas’ Post

Did you know that nearly 70% of working-age Americans who are blind or visually impaired (BVI) are unemployed? Envision, as a National Industries for the Blind associated agency, is striving to change this statistic by advocating for a 1% utilization goal for the U.S. AbilityOne Commission by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). If this 1% goal is met, it would open the door for thousands of people who are BVI to have more employment opportunities through the National Industries for the Blind and its affiliated agencies, like Envision. Learn more at the link below. #ChampionEmploymentGrowth #NIB #BlindEmployment

This new article from the SIOP Military & Veterans Inclusion Committee - Veteran Inclusion Strategies in the Workplace: Insights From I-O Psychology - explores how I-O psychology can play a significant role in ensuring veterans not only secure employment but also thrive within their new workplaces. https://lnkd.in/gg7WSGYh #IOPsych #SIOPSmarterWorkplace

Students from across the University of Nebraska System engage in research and development on behalf of our Nation's warfighters and first responders. Brianna, a graduate student at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, has supported a project with #NSRIFellow Elizabeth Beam, associate professor in the college of nursing, to create a powered air purifying respirator (PAPR). Get Brianna's perspective in this Q&A ➡ https://lnkd.in/ggDWbNS3 Question: What do you find most interesting about the project with Dr. Beam? Answer: From a research standpoint, I would say that what I find most interesting about this project with Dr. Beam is the collaboration of multiple disciplines. This collaboration is necessary to create a product that will best benefit the potential client. To research and analyze our current helmet prototype, we have worked with biomechanical engineers, multiple branches of the military, folks in all sorts of clinical spaces, business and marketing professionals, and containment unit specialists, just to name a few. All these perspectives are necessary to use in our research as well as in our risk analysis of the helmet being made. Dr. Beam has found a gap in healthcare professional safety and people are ready for it to be filled. #firstresponders #military #PPE #militaryhealth #homelandsecurity #healthcare

This Veterans Day, empower Veterans and others with disabilities to recover more fully, secure meaningful employment, and regain independence. Your support further expands research by Kessler Foundation scientist Denise Fyffe, PhD, facilitating recovery, independence, and success in the lives of those in marginalized populations, especially our esteemed Veterans. Support our Veterans. Please make a gift today in honor of our nation’s heroes: https://bit.ly/461g8HR #KesslerFoundation #KesslerChangingLives #VeteransDay #SCI #PeopleWithDisabilities #RehabilitationResearch [Image Description: Kessler Foundation senior research scientist wears glasses, a red top, and a tan blazer. She is pointing to a whiteboard. The Kessler Foundation logo is at the bottom of the image. The content reads this Veterans Day, your support will ensure life-changing research continues so Veterans and others living with disabilities can participate more fully at home, in their communities, and in the workplace. Denise Fyffe, PhD Senior Research Scientist, Centers for Spinal Cord Injury Research and Outcomes and Assessment Research.]

𝐃𝐨𝐃 𝐀𝐜𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐁𝐈𝐆 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐎𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲: In 2018 Congress proffered a simple and elegant solution (in law) for many of the problems facing DoD acquisition for R&D and delivering new capability. That is, to really and truly learn and UNDERSTAND Other Transactions authorities and develop a "preference" for using them. There is much beauty in this simplicity: understand what is possible, so that smart people in the DoD can explore, learn, and develop new approaches and see what works (this is far superior than relying on "hot-shot" academic/bureaucratic theory uninformed by practical experience aka noise).  However, this requires learning by doing, action, gaining experience, and sharing insight with peers. Unfortunately when it has come to this opportunity, they DoD'd it: took something simple, made it unnecessarily complex and corrupted it, all the while calling it "innovative".  The opposite is true. Do folks ever get sick and tired of bringing home the "L"? When does the talking stop? When does someone take responsibility? When does the workforce roll up their sleeves? When do folks apply the solutions provided? Does anybody actually know what they are doing? - it doesn't appear so. We, the people, posterity, and warfighters, deserve better! Heroes needed. Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition & Sustainment House Armed Services Committee Democrats House Armed Services Committee Republicans Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Army Futures Command Acquisition Research Program at Naval Postgraduate School "Remember, you are a sovereign individual and the blob in our nation’s capital city is an undifferentiated mass of feckless protoplasm. You contain a cosmos of ideas and aspirations. The blob is an agglomeration of sham and failure. The blob stands for itself, not for our country. You and I can stand for our country." - James Howard Kunstler 12/5/23

"USBTA appreciates that the Maryland Comptroller's 2023 State of the Economy Report recognizes the expansive footprint we have as a catalyst for economic growth in technology and energetics research, test and evaluation, and training fields," said CEO Sean Dennis. "We took a bit of a risk moving our headquarters from Colorado to Charles County during the pandemic years, but from day one our Charles County State Delegation, our County Commissioners, the Economic Development folks, the Military Alliance Council, CSM, TriCounty Council, RMC, DHCD, MEDCO, and industry have partnered with us and continue to support our expansion and our growth allowing more jobs and revenue to be created for Maryland. Maryland is a great state for business partnerships and recognizes opportunities associated with its military installations." #usbta #CSM #charlescountymd #CCEDD #militaryalliance #TriCountyCouncil #RMC #DHCD #MEDCO #IndustryPartners Excerpt from Report: "Southern Maryland was shielded from the most negative economic effects of the pandemic due to the stabilizing presence of the federal government, notably Department of Defense (DOD) military installations, including Naval Air Station Patuxent River and the Naval Support Facility (NSF) Indian Head. These facilities support more than 50,000 employees on federal payroll and a large network of government contractors. During the height of the pandemic in 2020, St. Mary’s County, in the heart of Southern Maryland, had the lowest unemployment rate in the state. Local officials are optimistic about the region’s potential to harness DOD investments in weapons defense technologies. The United States Bomb Technician Association, a nonprofit membership association representing more than 2,500 bomb technician firms, bomb squads, and industry and government agencies located its new headquarters in the town of Indian Head in Charles County during the pandemic. The new campus will include a research, development, and training center, as well as a manufacturing park, which is expected to attract businesses in the growing energetics – explosive weapons – field." Link to the Report Here: https://lnkd.in/epFSanba MITHIX PRO, LLC, Pendar Technologies, DetectaChem, Med-Eng , ADS, Inc., Ralph Patterson, Kelly Robertson-Slagle, MEDP, John Hartline, Reuben Collins, Pam Frank, Charlotte Davis, Lesley Quattlebaum, PMP, CF APMP

You are a computer scientist? Write a small text to tell us in a post who you are as a person and how computer science is important from your point of view. We want to break clichés and show who we really are. There are three designs to match your snapshot picture. I used free canva dot com to create them. I am a Computer Scientist We are Computer Scientists I study Computer Science Link to templates: https://lnkd.in/eUuGU78U Use this hashtag and see the others that already posted. #HumansofComputerScience After you post get two others to create a Post.

#biases #biasawareness # #leaders #selfreflection #consciousness #mindfulleadership Doesn't it happen even today... amnesia kicks in whenever the bosses/leaders need to make a decision about either rewarding/ promoting a woman for her good work. Women are expected to put in double the hours/hard work to get recognized or to move up in their career. We tend to conveniently ignore/forget to appreciate/ even acknowledge a woman's contribution towards the success of a project/ task. I feel this is not just a gender bias but, it's probably more to do with an affinity/experience bias. A woman's contribution towards a project/ task, doesn't get the due credit only because her boss who is also a woman, thinks that her team member need to put in more hard work/spend more time before she could get to the next level in her career just because the boss went through much more struggle in the early stages of her career to get to the position that she's currently in. Both men and women in leadership roles need to be cautious/aware of such a thought process and maybe simply ask themselves a question before they make a decision related to a woman employee's career/ growth - Will my decision change or be any different, if this individual is a man versus a woman?

While in D.C. a few of us decided to do a "Monuments by Moonlight" tour. Our first stop was the the memorial for Franklin D. Roosevelt at Tidal Bassin. As we walked through the eras of his presidency, this quote resonated with us, as our time in D.C. was being spent talking about military spouse employment. "No country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources. Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance. Morally, it is the greatest menace to our social order." - FDR, 1934 He continues, "(…) But as for this country, I stand or fall by my refusal to accept as a necessary condition of our future a permanent army of unemployed. On the contrary, we must make it a national principle that we will not tolerate a large army of unemployed and that we will arrange our national economy to end our present unemployment as soon as we can and then to take wise measures against its return. I do not want to think that it is the destiny of any American to remain permanently on relief rolls.” Military Spouses have been unemployed or underemployed consistently at 22% for at least a decade. More must be done across our country for these individuals where 36% hold at minimum a bachelor's degree. Things your organization CAN do: ▶️ Bring military spouses into your conversations ▶️ Set-up Hiring initiatives within your organization focused on recruiting and retaining military spouses (this is in addition OR separate from your veteran Hiring initiative) ▶️ Focus on THEIR knowledge, skills, and abilities rather than their spouses job and the amount of time they "might" live in your community ▶️ Lessen barriers to entry - military spouses are over 90% female - where females are known to self-eliminate more than their male counterparts ▶️ Offer flexible and remote working opportunities ▶️ Connect with your local Military Spouse Professional Network by Hiring Our Heroes Military Spouse Program ▶️ Join the 4+1 initiative by Blue Star Families & Hiring Our Heroes Military Spouses WANT to provide for their family in a financial way, however, many are not given the opportunity, for a number of reasons. I am proud to be serving alongside these individuals, working towards helping military spouses find meaningful employment: Liz Zagraniski, Tiffany Joe Kelley, Justina Ford, MHSC, Samantha Linder

Congratulations to Dr. Jennifer Tufts on her recent award from the DOD/Defense Health Agency/Edare for her project on Multi-User, Reliable Hearing Protection Fit Test System with Integrated Education. This award is a Phase II SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research), which focuses on stimulating technological innovation. This project aims to improve the process of fit-testing hearing protection for military personnel by developing a multi-user tablet-based fit-testing system. The goal is to make the fit-testing system user-friendly enough that multiple individuals can be fit for hearing protection at once, with only a single test administrator needed. The second part of the project will evaluate the effectiveness of a brief educational sequence provided to individuals who do not reach a target level of protection after being fit-tested. One group will view the educational sequence before retrying the fit test. Another group will simply retry with no additional training. If the results show that additional education improves outcomes, the educational sequence will become a part of the multi-user fit testing system.