HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- Nearly 100 family members, faculty and co-workers gathered Thursday at the University of Alabama in Huntsville to watch the graduation of the inaugural class for the supply chain management program.

The work-share initiative, launched in January, is a collaboration between the Army Materiel Command and UAH. The program allowed 20 AMC enterprise employees to take for-credit graduate classes in the morning and work in the afternoon.

"We see you as the future innovators and leaders of the Army Materiel Command," Maj. Gen. Clark LeMasters, AMC's deputy chief of staff for operations and logistics, said. "The improvements that you'll make from the education you've received will impact the Soldiers of our Army and also the organizations that support them."

The collaboration trained the selected civilians beyond Army specific logistics to the greater supply chain management process using best practices from industry. The program went beyond traditional logistics and focused on developing critical thinking skills in order to understand the whole process and develop solutions before problems form.

"The knowledge you've gained here as you looked at civilian business practices and apply them to the Department of Defense will broaden the way you look at and think about problems," LeMasters said.

More than half of the graduates will continue their studies, applying the credits they've earned to a master's degree in supply chain and logistics management.

"Getting into a graduate-level program that supported both my professional and personal goals was a great opportunity," Don Utley, logistics management specialist at the Logistics Support Activity, said. "Lessons, like Enterprise Resource Planning, were very applicable to what we are trying to implement as Army logisticians."

Katherine Schager, logistics management specialist at the Aviation and Missile Command's Logistics Center, said she has been able to apply the course work from the beginning of the program.

"It was great being able to apply what we learned to my work right after class," Schager said.

The certification program focused on Army DOD civilian career programs -- supply management, materiel maintenance management, transportation and distribution management, as well as ammunition management.