The U.S. Department of Energy recognized Dana Storms as the 2008 Small Business Program Manager of the Year for her commitment to partnering small businesses with Idaho National Laboratory.

As INL's Small Business Program manager, Storms developed a strategy that strives to educate the small business community about the programs and projects at INL. She contributed to nearly $300 million in total awards and $155 million issued to small businesses this year.

Her knowledge and understanding of the procurement process enabled the creation and integration of new policies and procedures to increase INL's awards to small businesses.

"We are proud of Dana's accomplishments. She researched and identified small business sources to support services previously purchased from large businesses," said Greg Wray, director of Supply Chain Management. "Her dedication resulted in millions of dollars in awards to small business."

Storms implemented a laboratory-wide Advanced Acquisition Planning initiative to obtain viable procurement requirements, and post forecasted opportunities for small businesses on the DOE Acquisition Forecast and the INL Web sites. The initiative identified over $160 million in direct-budgeted procurements that were either already identified for small business or provided the opportunity to target small businesses.

"Dana is recognized as a national leader in small business development by the Department of Energy," said Maria Mitchell, Small Business Program manager at DOE-Idaho. "Her efforts to maximize small business opportunities at the laboratory assist in the development and stabilization of our local small business community."

Storms was recognized for her continued active involvement and support to small business at the U.S. Department of Energy's annual Small Business Conference in Long Beach, Calif., Aug. 11-14.

INL is one of the DOE's 10 multiprogram national laboratories. The laboratory performs work in each of the strategic goal areas of DOE: energy, national security, science and environment. INL is the nation's leading center for nuclear energy research and development. Day-to-day management and operation of the laboratory is the responsibility of Battelle Energy Alliance.

Source: Idaho National Laboratory