Quarterly Newsletter - February 2024 |
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Christopher Landers
Director for the Office of Conversion
National Nuclear Security Administration
U.S. Department of Energy
(NGFP Class of 2005-2006)
What is a favorite career highlight?
Supporting the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) negotiations and serving as the U.S. special representative to the Arak Working Group.
What is a personal highlight?
My family and the endless journeys we have together. One such recent adventure was climbing Monkey Face at Smith Rock State Park in Oregon with just my 14-year-old son, Christopher (pictured on the left).
What is a favorite NGFP memory?
I was fortunate enough to be able to present and publish a paper at the annual Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) conference. But even more than that, I loved the week we spent at PNNL getting to know all the fellows and learning about all the NNSA work before the fellowship officially began.
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Shayela Hassan
Deputy Director of Communications
National Nuclear Security Administration
(NGFP Class of 2016-2017)
What is a favorite career highlight?
The biggest highlight of my career so far was becoming the Deputy Director, or Dash-2, for NNSA’s Office of Communications. NGFP laid the foundation for me to pursue a leadership role on an expedited timeline. I had a bit of a trial by fire as I began my tenure by serving as the Acting Director for six months and thus standing in on NNSA’s political leadership team. Around the same time, NNSA achieved fusion ignition, one of its most historic accomplishments to date. Within one week of starting my role, I had to plan a press conference featuring the Secretary of Energy to be streamed worldwide – during the course of a single weekend! I worked with and met amazing people from across the country, and we pulled off a successful event. Fusion even turned out to be the most Googled scientific breakthrough in the last 25 years, and it was our job to bring this good news to the public.
What is a favorite personal highlight?
I have a few normal hobbies – reading, trying new restaurants, traveling, etc., but my favorite and most unique one is probably the volunteer work I do as a wildlife rehabilitator trainee. A few times a month, I travel to an animal sanctuary and work with all kinds of critters – mostly raccoons, foxes, opossums, and skunks!
What is a favorite NGFP memory?
The travel opportunities! The program provides a generous budget for fellows and encourages trainings and mission-focused travel alike. I became closer with my fellowship class and forged some lifelong friendships, as we learned about nuclear power plant operations outside of Chicago or saw how weapons are built and disassembled in the bay at the Pantex Plant.
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Inaugural Alumni Survey. Looking back on 30 years of developing the next generation of exceptional national security leaders, NGFP wants to celebrate and hear from past fellows.
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Class of 2024–2025. Fellows for the upcoming cohort have been selected!
The 71 fellows represent 44 universities with 37 percent having attended a minority-serving institution for their undergraduate or graduate degrees. PNNL is verifying hiring contingencies for some incoming fellows, but we look forward to meeting the incoming fellows.
Orientation for the Class of 2024-2025 will be in June at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's campus in Richland, Washington.
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Class of 2023–2024. In January, fellows attended the NGFP Career Development Workshop and Career Fair, Jan. 31-Feb. 1, 2024. More than 20 organizations participated in the Career Fair, including national laboratories, NNSA contractors, and other federal organizations. The in-person networking, development, and hiring activities were geared to help fellows connect with leaders from across the nuclear security enterprise and gain career advice for succeeding in this field. These events were held at the Washington Plaza Hotel in Washington, DC.
So far, 19 fellows from the NGFP Class of 2023–2024 have received federal offers in offices all across NNSA’s mission with more expected in the coming months.
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Alumni Gatherings. If y ou are interested in attending an alumni event in your area, contact NGFP@pnnl.gov.
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Alma Mater Spotlights. Boise State University featured Kaelee Novich (NA-192 DU) and her work in nuclear research. She is a fourth-year doctoral student at Boise State’s Advanced Materials Laboratory in the Micron School of Materials Science and Engineering.
Colgate University highlighted Anna Pluff (NA-183) and her two fellowships: NGFP and the New Voices on Nuclear Weapons Fellowship.
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Arms Control and Nonproliferation Experts. As part of its efforts to demonstrate transparency about its work, NNSA welcomed 13 non-governmental experts on arms control and nonproliferation to its Nevada facilities, including parts of the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) outside Las Vegas.
NGFP Fellows Julia Crane (NA-24) and Ellen Swicord (NA-10) supported the visit and are outside of P-Tunnel at the Nevada National Security Site while hosting the NGO (non-governmental organization) Delegation Visit.
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Closing Ceremony. The NGFP Class of 2023-2024 Closing Ceremony will be May 9, 2024, in Washington, DC.
All NGFP alumni are invited to join us for a reception that follows the ceremony from 4:30-6:30 p.m. ET, in the James V. Forrestal Building.
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Sign up to be a speaker! Our agenda of professional development events is filling up quickly. If you are interested in joining us for a session or would like to share other networking or training opportunities to help fellows connect within the nuclear security enterprise, contact NGFP@pnnl.gov. |
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LinkedIn. If you have a job opportunity that might be of interest to other alumni, we invite you to share on our LinkedIn alumni page! You can also send suggestions to NGFP@pnnl.gov. |
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Become an Ambassador. Our new NGFP Ambassadors utilize personal and professional networks to help grow awareness of the program and encourage future leaders to apply. To make it easy, Ambassadors have access to exclusive resources and training to help effectively communicate the value of the program to potential applicants.
This opportunity is open to all fellows, alumni, and key stakeholders. This is your chance to make a meaningful impact on the next generation of national security leaders. Sign up today to become an NGFP Ambassador and help shape the future of national security leadership: current and past fellows and other stakeholders. |
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NNSA Graduate Fellowship Program
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
1100 Dexter Ave N, Suite 400
Seattle, WA 98109 USA
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