Meet November 2009 Employee and Team Member of the Month
Nancy DeFrancesco
NOAA Satellites and Information Service
Employee of the Month
November 2009
Nancy DeFrancesco has helped greatly to improve the security of NOAA’s information systems. Under her leadership, NESDIS reduced the number of IT security deficiencies from hundreds to only two. From April through August, NESDIS maintained a 98 percent or better on-time progress for fixing IT security issues, the highest percentage NOAA-wide. DeFrancesco collaborated with senior executives and IT security officers across NESDIS to significantly improve the identification, tracking and completion of these corrective actions. She also helped to gain full accreditation for all NOAA systems needing updating, making FY 2009 the first year in which NESDIS completed multiple accreditations well ahead of the end of the fiscal year. In
addition to her work to accredit individual systems, DeFrancesco took actions to improve the
process across the agency.
NOAA Research
Team Member of the Month
November 2009
Donald Denbo has played a key role as architect and software development team leader for NOAA’s new tsunami forecasting system. PMEL developed the system for operational use at NOAA’s Tsunami Warning centers, where it was installed in June and is nearing completion of operational acceptance tests. It will issue accurate and timely site-specific forecasts and reduce false alarms. The system was in use on August 10, when a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck the Indian Ocean. Within an hour, tsunami measurements from a DART tsunami buoy were received by and incorporated into the new forecast system. A message was sent to 26 Indian Ocean warning points, and subsequent reports from a coastal tide gauge near Yanam, India, confirmed the forecast when it reported a 3.9-inch-high tsunami.