National news
release
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ARS Secretary
Wins Agency Award
By Jim Core
February 2, 2004 BELTSVILLE, Md., Feb.
2--Agricultural Research Service (ARS) executive assistant Diane K. Koch of
Collingsdale, Pa., has been named the agency's "Secretary of the
Year." ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.
Koch is executive assistant to the agency's North Atlantic Area associate
director, based at the ARS Eastern
Regional Research Center in Wyndmoor. The North Atlantic Area includes 13
research locations in Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, West
Virginia and Pennsylvania. Koch provides program and administrative support,
coordination and office management, and other assistance to the area.
Koch was recognized for her impact on improving procedures and services, not
only in the North Atlantic Area, but throughout the entire agency. For example,
Koch acted on her own initiative to develop a searchable electronic database
that will provide a permanent, thorough record of all foreign visitors to area
locations in response to heightened security operations. The system is
currently being pilot tested at the agency level.
As part of her additional duty of ethics assistant to the NAA ethics advisor
this past year, Koch screened ethics questions, processed applications and
responded to routine inquiries. In addition, an innovative system that she
previously conceived and developed for electronic tracking of ethics activities
has recently been adopted USDA-wide with
only slight modification.
Koch has spent her entire career with ARS in Wyndmoor. She started her first
job in 1971 as a clerk/stenographer. Over the years, she has worked at ERRC in
different laboratories and offices in several different positions.
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