In its latest effort to expand and diversify its pipeline of future workers, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said it is making up to $24.5 million in federal money available to its Minority Serving Institutions Partnership Program.
The funding opportunity announcement should result in multiple financial assistance awards ranging from 12-36 months, DOE said in an April 27 news release.
The money is intended to assist science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs at participating Minority Serving Institutions. It is the latest DOE move to develop and recruit new workers, including more women and racial minorities, for its graying workforce. Application deadline for the funding is May 30, according to a synopsis of the grants initiative.
Darris Upton, the manager of diversity at United Cleanup Oak Ridge, has been appointed to the Tennessee Human Rights Commission by Gov. Bill Lee (R), the company said in a recent press release.
State Sen. Becky Duncan Massey (R) of Knoxville endorsed Upton for the position. Upton will begin his official duties at the Commission’s next bi-monthly meeting in May in Nashville.
Amentum-led UCOR is the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site’s lead environmental cleanup contractor, employing 2,100 people.
Donavan Mager, who has long replied to reporter inquiries about the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., retired after more than 30 years in communications.
“I retired as of yesterday,” Mager said in an April 28 email response to Exchange Monitor question on permit minutiae for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).
Mager’s LinkedIn profile page, which now touts his retired status, indicates that he has overseen corporate communications at WIPP, the nation’s only deep geological disposal site for transuranic waste, since December 2010. Nearly all of that period was under Amentum-led Nuclear Waste Partnership, which passed operational responsibilities onto the new prime, Bechtel’s Salado Isolation Mining Contractors in February. Mager’s online bio also worked in media communications roles for URS, Washington Group International, Westinghouse Anniston and Washington TRU Solutions. Mager previously worked as a reporter and editor for weekly and daily newspapers.
