Five Newport News Shipbuilding employees were honored last week with Component Fabrication and Assembly (CFA) Director’s Safety Awards for making significant contributions to the safety culture during the past year.

The award is a collaboration between CFA and Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) to recognize shipbuilders who have worked to improve safety through a range of tasks, including specific actions or improvements and specialized training.

CFA Director Kenton Meland recognized the following employees for their contributions:

• Jonathan Lamborn (M53), Machine Shop
• Ryan Leroux (M30), Pipe Shops
• Jasmine Ruffin (M32), Sheet Metal Shop
• Miles Tremblay (A572), Foundry
• Randall Wharton (M32), Sheet Metal Shop

Honorees were nominated for the award by superintendents. The nominations were reviewed by Meland and EH&S Director Yesika Kain.

“CFA is in a much better position safety wise this year than at the same time last year,” Meland told the honorees, who were gathered at The Rock for a brief ceremony. “Your efforts are paying off, so please keep your foot on the gas.”

Kain said engaged employees like the five honorees are making an impact on the company’s safety performance, and she wants to encourage others to follow suit.

“This is a really good example of bottom-up innovation and bottom-up initiative,” she said. “We’re recognizing people for their efforts because we want to show appreciation for what they have done, but we also want to grow it. We want to plant the seed for others to do the same thing.”