NBAF UPDATE: Sense of Community
As I talk to people from outside the region about what it’s like to live in the Little Apple, I usually mention two things. First, it has that “small town” feel where you almost always run into someone you know at the grocery store or park. Second, it’s unique because that small town is bustling with the activities of a Big 12 university and is a neighbor to one of the major military installations in the country.
The truth is that the Little Apple is not really that little. There are much smaller towns in Kansas, and all over the country. But it’s the sense of togetherness radiating throughout this area that makes it feel small.
Our sense of community rolls over to the USDA National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, or NBAF, workplace. Patrick Moylan, APHIS operations director, said he’s grown to appreciate the Manhattan community since moving here more than a year ago from New York where he worked at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center. Moylan said he and his wife immediately felt welcomed and at home in Manhattan and at NBAF, which is exactly the culture we are working to establish.
One of the most important NBAF values is each employee’s commitment to working together as OneNBAF. The accomplishments we have achieved can be greatly credited to the connections made between each team and the specific set of skills they all bring to the table. For example, our Full Fit Out process was a big accomplishment that required many NBAF teams to come together and function as one cohesive unit.
“One of the things we accomplished in the last year was our Full Fit Out, which was moving more than 28,000 different items into the facility,” Moylan said. “This effort included everything that would fall out if you turned the building upside down, so things like little pieces of lab equipment and office supplies. Everyone did a great job. It was amazing.”
Much like the teams at NBAF, each complex and unique system within the facility must work hand in hand with other systems to complete required tasks efficiently. Currently, each system in containment is being tested to ensure it works harmoniously with the others as required.
“Containment is currently closed for the integrated systems functional performance testing by the construction contractor,” Moylan said. “Since the individual systems have already been commissioned, testing is now being conducted to make sure everything is working together properly.”
Although we are eager to conduct scientific work within our facility, we must first follow the required procedures to ensure every aspect of NBAF is safe. According to Moylan, this presents another opportunity for strengthening our team for success. One example is our Safety, Health and Environmental Management team’s work with our operations teams to perform NBAF’s job hazard analyses. For every job task that will be conducted, these teams have been evaluating the potential risks and how to go about avoiding them.
“If something goes wrong, it is fixed rather quickly,” Moylan said. “But then we analyze what went wrong and figure out how to improve the system to ensure it does not happen again.”
At the end of the day, it all comes down to having cohesive teamwork as OneNBAF. We need innovative and well-skilled employees to grow this facility to full operation. We continue filling positions on our operations team and will start ramping up hiring for our science teams in the coming months.
Alongside open positions being posted on USAJobs.gov, we also regularly highlight positions on our Twitter and LinkedIn profiles. The easiest way to find current employment opportunities at NBAF in USAJobs is to search for Manhattan, KS and look for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. We highly suggest people interested in working at NBAF create a profile and set up job alerts.
If anyone in the area would like more information regarding NBAF employment opportunities, feel free to email us at nbaf@usda.gov.
