FORT STEWART, Ga. A Fort Stewart-Hunter Army Airfield engineer with the Directorate of Public Works has been recognized as the DPW Engineering and Planning Executive of the Year for the Installation Management Command, Southeast Region. Anne de la Sierra, chief of the Master Planning Division for Stewart-Hunter DPW, will be presented her award at a DPW awards recognition ceremony during the IMCOM Master Planning Conference, April 7 in Houston.

The purpose of the DPW awards program is to recognize the hard work and accomplishments of its individual members and organizations in the day-to-day management and execution of the Army's public works and real property maintenance mission. Army garrison commands justify and submit their nominations to IMCOM regions. The regions then evaluate each nomination and the select the best in eight award categories.

"We're here to provide quality facilities for Soldiers and Soldiers' Families," said de la Sierra, a soft-spoken lady whose 25 years of federal service as an engineer include nine years with DPW.

De la Sierra credits her staff of 22 personnel, including facility utilization specialists, real property officers, civil engineers and a landscape architect, with the accomplishments for which she is being recognized. Her award acknowledges that it was de la Sierra who formed this team of specialists now making up Stewart-Hunter's Master Planning Division.

"(The Army) recognized the need for master planning to be its own division in 2004," she explained. "I came here from Hunter where I served as project manager in the Engineering Services Division."

Originally from Savannah, de la Sierra earned her bachelor's in industrial engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, better known as Georgia Tech. Among the many changes and improvements in installation facilities for which she is credited is the revision of the Installation Design Guide. This guide establishes the architectural style and structural theme throughout the installation, giving a "continuity of character" to all facilities, parking areas and even signs.

According to her award nomination form, it was de la Sierra's documentation of real property inventory, facility utilization, land planning and programming requirements during the Army's transformation to modularity, privatizing of housing, Warrior in Transition program and 4th Brigade Combat Team's conversion from a heavy to a light infantry brigade that made these programs a success for the installation.

The new, additional infantry brigade cantonment area currently under construction is an on-going project for her and her staff. De la Sierra has planned recreational facilities as well as company and battalion headquarters, tactical equipment maintenance facilities and barracks. Her plans also project future needs for additional fire and police facilities, physical fitness, shoppettes, housing, schools, child and youth facilities.