When O38 Supervisor Hee Joo “Jin” Pi recently got a call from her manager asking her to meet him right away, she didn’t know what to expect.

“I was nervous,” she said.

Anxiety turned into shock when Pi arrived to find her crew waiting to present a plaque and thank her for her leadership and efforts to engage the team. “I had never seen someone reward their supervisor, so that moved me,” she said. “I never expected this. It’s priceless to me.”

Pi leads a team that inspects weld joints for defects and cracks. Scott Humphrey (O38), who works on Pi’s crew, said the team decided to come together to honor their supervisor.

“It’s common for supervisors to put praise on good employees and make them stand out, but you rarely see it going the other way. Nobody expects it,” he said. “But she puts in 120% every day. She’s always there, always trying to help us out. She goes way beyond her job description. She’ll come out on the deckplate and talk to and coach us. You can tell she cares, and her heart is always there.”

Pi said she works to guide, encourage and recognize her crew. “I try to be their shield and provide everything they need to make sure they’re strong and knowledgeable,” she said. “We are the Quality Division, and what we do is really important. We are the last line of defense.”

At NNS for 11 years, Pi worked as an inspector for most of her shipbuilding career, and has been a supervisor for less than one year. The South Korea native never expected to be in a leadership role at the shipyard. “Someone saw potential in me to do more,” Pi said.

Andy Morgan, Pi’s manager, was in full support of the crew’s recognition effort. He said the way Pi manages a large scope of work while implementing safety improvements and engaging and celebrating her crew is impressive.

“They really have a dynamic that is unparalleled,” Morgan said. “Jin has had a lot of barriers and obstacles to overcome. She’s dealing with it, and she’s crushing it.”

Pi’s advice to other leaders – or those who hope to be in leadership one day – is to value the team and try to make everyone excited to come to work.

“I never give up on a person. People have a lot of potential, but you have to build trust,” she said. “I’m just doing what I like to do. I like to share my knowledge. I like to make people laugh and make them happy. If I do something to make them happy, it makes me want to do more. That’s what keeps me going.”