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LLNL's Raymond Baez Pares wins DOE award for emergency management contributions

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Raymond Baez Pares (far right) with Walk Schalk (EMI SIG Federal Member of the Year, from NOAA ARL/SORD) and Brenda Graham (EMI SIG Subcommittee of the Year, Emergency Public Information Subcommittee chair, from Pantex). Inset: Raymond Baez Pares was named ‘Contractor Member of the Year’ at the Department of Energy Emergency Management Issues Special Interest Group annual meeting.

 

Raymond Baez Pares, emergency management technical planning basis engineer within the Emergency Management Department’s Planning and Preparedness Division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), was selected ‘Contractor Member of the Year’ by the Department of Energy (DOE) Emergency Management Issues Special Interest Group (EMI SIG).

The EMI SIG coordinates the exchange of expertise, ideas and resources among DOE and contractor emergency management personnel, identifies common issues and priorities and pursues activities that address shared needs. The EMI SIG is sponsored by the DOE Office of Plans and Policy (NA-41). Members of the EMI SIG are emergency managers, coordinators, planners and trainers from facilities across the DOE system.

The award was bestowed to Baez Pares at the annual meeting that was recently held in San Jose and hosted by the four DOE Bay Area laboratories (LLNL, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories/CA).

More than 200 emergency management professionals from across the DOE enterprise attended and participated in the four-day meeting. During the meeting, LLNL hosted a group of approximately 100 to visit the Laboratory and tour the new Emergency Operations Center.

Baez Pares came to the Lab in 2020 during the pandemic and has made great strides in his role, where he ensures that LLNL’s emergency management program is meeting DOE O 151.1D Technical Planning Basis criteria.

“I am honestly humbled by the award,” Baez Pares said. “I attended the conference with collaboration as my main intent, but the award was a surprise to me. The EMI SIG community has become my extended family and the conference solidified how dedicated these professionals are to the mission. As I said before, I truly am humbled.”

Jerry Paulson, Planning and Preparedness Division manager at LLNL, was quick to praise Baez Pares for his contributions. “In our planning and response to emergencies, we have seen incremental and breakthrough improvements,” Paulson said. “Raymond’s involvement in EMI-SIG has given LLNL an easy mechanism to reach out and benchmark with other DOE sites. His connectivity has helped our Lab and the other sites.”