The Army Security Assistance Command has chosen Elizabeth Preston has the command's top employee of the first quarter of fiscal year 2019.
Ms. Preston serves as a Security Assistance Policy Specialist responsible for developing and managing security assistance policy a $190 billion operation. She conducts analysis of Department of Defense and Army regulations, rules, and policies in order to translate and formulate into achievable directives, guidance, and procedures that can be implemented throughout the security assistance enterprise.
Preston is already an outstanding performer, however, in an unforeseen vacancy on the policy team in 2018, she performed the duties of two people. Marvin Whitaker, director of the USASAC Strategy and Analysis staff, gave an example of her top performance. One of the tri-service (Air Force, Army, and Navy) working groups that Elizabeth participates in was examining how to best clarify the foreign military sales letter of request process. Preston researched and developed a policy proposal for the Army to better define and accurately measure the LOR (Letter of Request, the document that initiates foreign military sales cases) process.
"Ms. Preston's initiative, attention to detail, and innovative approach was superb, and was recognized by the [Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Defense Exports and Cooperation] staff to present her proposal to the tri-service policy oversight committee. The tri-service committee lauded Ms. Preston's efforts and forwarded her proposal to Defense Security Cooperation Agency, or DSCA, for consideration," said Whitaker.
In addition to this initiative, DSCA has formalized a process to examine potential opportunities to increase FMS case development performance to meet mandated development and delivery timeframes. Preston is the Security Assistance Enterprise lead for this major Office of the Secretary of Defense level activity. She spearheaded the development of an Army Materiel Command SAE initiative with objectives that included ways to decrease incomplete letters of request; how to standardize internal development actions after the LOE is received; sustain output based on collaboration amongst the enterprise stakeholders; and increase training opportunities.
Elizabeth was handpicked to serve as the AMC SAE lead for the recently established Defense Security Assistance Management System Workload Identification for Program Executive Office project managers working group. The working group was initiated to formally discuss and standardize business processes between the AMC Security Assistance Management Directorates and the PEO project manager communities to ensure FMS case workloads are accurately identified. This working group will develop procedures to resolve potential disputes among the stakeholders to foster better working relationships and an integrated approach.
Preston's tremendous efforts managing over 200 policy inquiries in three months from across the AMC SAE ensured successful mission accomplishment despite the critical manning shortage. Also, her outstanding organizational skills allowed her to complete 15 higher headquarters taskings on time while ensuring the AMC SAE equities were represented.
"Her ability to compile massive amounts of data, sort through and adjudicate the critical comments, and present the findings and recommendations were remarkable," said Whitaker.
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