Tuesday night saw a rare celebration of our nation's public servants.
The Samuel J. Heyman service to America medals or Sammies are given
out each year to a wide array of government workers across many agencies.
This year's winners come from all corners of government from an education
specialist to the State Department team that coordinated the largest
resettlement of refugees in modern US history.
NASA's Greg Robinson walked home with the flagship award Federal
employee of the Year for his role managing the construction and implementation
of the Webb telescope, the most advanced in space now sending back
those spectacular images of our solar system and beyond. I sat down
with him right before the ceremony to talk about his work.
Gregory Robinson. Welcome to the news hour. Congratulations. Thanks
for having me. I'm honored to be here. So what did you think? When
you found out that you are the federal employee of the year?
Humbling, I must say, And when I look at all of the stories of other
finalists, that's amazing work going on across government. Um, some
surprising, so I'm not
But just a lot of great work. So you you were with the federal government
now retired, But you were with the government for decades. Take us
back to 2018. There you were at NASA. You were Deputy associated
ministrations for programs you were overseeing performance. I read
of over 100 programs And then your boss came to you and said, We
want you to run the Web Telescope program. What did you think I tried
to run as well.
Ah, but he wouldn't let me go. I really enjoyed the job I was doing.
I was having fun with it. I thought I was making a difference. I
think it was
so I really love what I was doing. So I did not want to take the
Web job, so I declined a couple of times.
And over. I don't know. 23 weeks, He finally convinced me to take
it. They doubled your salary. I mean, what? Why did they? Why did
you kill government? We just talked about that. You know, uh, just
made a convincing case on on how important Web is to NASA and and
really to the world.
And we really needed to get it over the goal line.
So after reluctance and a lot of time talking with my wife and a
few mentors, uh, agreed to take it on the program was described at
that time. And this was four years ago as being as having a lot of
problems being off track. Delays. Uh, really shot through with problems
in a way. What did you do Greg Robinson to turn that around. So for
these major
Projects. We call them flagship missions. Very bold. I mean, we're
doing things that have never been done before. Some of the things
I did. One was making sure everyone was aligned from the lowest personal
on the team all the way up through NASA headquarters through the
administrator and I'll stakeholders and and be in Congress, just
making sure everyone was looking at things the right way.
Asking the right questions and responding Ah, appropriately.
That was one piece. The other one was allowing fresh eyes to come
in. There are other smart people within and outside the agency who
would not working on Web
And sometimes having those people come in and help you out a little
bit important, and we got some benefit out of that as well. You are
very aware. I know that federal employees are often invisible. They
frankly not been given a lot of credit. Over the years. You've heard
politicians talk about bureaucrats lazy, just taking up space wasting
taxpayer dollars. What should the public know about
The people you worked with at NASA. When you were there. You heard
the saying in NASA all the time. That is all about the mission. And
it really is. People get up in the morning, and their job is to get
that thing done, And that's how they operate. And even though we
went through challenges no one ever, ever took the tail and ran.
They met every challenge. Got it done.
Um so amazing workforce. I think it goes without saying Greg Robinson
that you were one of the very few black men working at a high level
at NASA or and you could say that across the federal government to
what extent has race been an issue for you and your career Times
of felt resistance to
To advancement.
And certainly to lead
Certain different parts of the organization. What I call the major
parts and certainly, uh, major flight programs of flight projects.
I had some of that and and over the years
And But I can honestly say I believe mine has been a lot less than
others.
Um, not to make it better because it's still not a good thing and
Donna program with Howard University, one of my tomatoes a year year
and a half ago, and the question came up. Are you the first African
American to lead a major program? And NASA and I had my comms team
with me. And no one can answer the question When you can't answer
that question I've been around NASA 33 years.
Thank you Got the answer, right? So I think that's a
Something we really need to work on. I shouldn't be the first one.
Hopefully. And I've had this conversation with others and five years
Greg Robinson. Just be a common name leading programs around NASA.
Your parents were sharecropper tobacco sharecroppers in Southern
Virginia. You're one of what 11 Children. Your parents are no longer
alive. What do you think they would be?
Saying If they were here today about you said, What the hell is this
boy doing up there? I
would say they would be proud of me. No doubt about it. We worked
hard coming up. Certainly. They worked extremely hard to try to get
us educated just to try to raise us. Times were tough and I started
out and segregated Virginia Southern Virginia particular.
Through grade four, Um
And segregation has its own, even after his desegregated its own
challenges, as far as opportunity and exposure and things like that.
So they would be quite proud of where I've ended up. There's a good
reason for that. And and we want to add our congratulations. Federal
employee of the Year Partnership for Public Service Greg Robinson,