Employee of the Quarter - 2020 Fourth Qtr
Mr. David Williams
Student Information Systems Specialist
Employee of the Quarter
Oct – Dec 2020
Mr. David Williams is one of only two Student Information Systems (SIS) Specialists in the Office of the Registrar, Education Policy and Operations Division at DoDEA Headquarters. He is responsible for ensuring that the Aspen SIS meets DoDEA customer needs across HQ, regions, districts, and schools, while aligning to all policy requirements. The SIS is the backbone of a school system as it contains student enrollment, attendance, grades, transcripts, health, and student support services information for current and former students. Supporting the SIS requires extensive knowledge of information systems and collaboration with Education Directorate divisions, other HQ divisions, and stakeholders across DoDEA.
One of DoDEA’s most complicated responses to the pandemic was the expansion of the DoDEA Virtual School (DVS) to provide a full-time virtual instruction option for students in kindergarten through grade 12. In response to student enrollment challenges encountered during the prior semester, Mr. Williams led the development of a new process for families to enroll their students in the DVS for semester 2. This required extensive collaboration with Teaching and Learning, Standards and Curriculum, and several IT branches to open the Aspen Family Portal for enrollment in DVS or in-person instruction. The Aspen solution streamlined the process for over 15,000 responses and cut the time required to load the data for school and staffing use from several weeks to a few days.
Even with all the new and ongoing projects, Mr. Williams continued to lead the Education Directorate participation in the new SIS contract. Mr. Williams’ ongoing partnership with IT will ensure that the new SIS provides appropriate solutions for educational, support, and administrative needs, as well as improved tools for parents to access student information such as grades and attendance.
The non-stop demand for Mr. Williams’ time and expertise never diminishes his spirit. His positive attitude is noticed by colleagues and vendors. When recently asked whether he ever has a bad day, Mr. Williams replied that he doesn’t have bad days, just bad moments. He then moves on and looks for solutions. His infectious attitude lifts all those around him as he supports DoDEA’s vision of “Excellence in Education for Every Student, Every Day, Everywhere.”
Accordingly, Mr. Williams is most deserving of this award, as his sustained excellence, attentiveness and commitment to the DoDEA mission bring great credit upon himself, DoDEA, and the Department of Defense.