2025 Director's Safety, Health, and Wellness Achievement Awards

The Director's Safety and Health Achievement Awards are the highest awards bestowed by the National Park Service (NPS) for outstanding visitor safety and employee safety and health achievements.

The Director's Safety and Health Achievement Award recognizes an employee or team that has demonstrated outstanding commitment to improving Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) within the NPS through significant achievements in the cultivation of a safe and healthful work environment for employees.

The Director's Wellness and Resilience Achievement Award recognizes employees for enhancing wellness and building resilience in our workplace. 

The Director's Visitor Safety Achievement Awards recognize significant achievements in reducing hazards or behaviors that either increase the risk of or result in visitor injuries, both fatal and non-fatal, and improving visitor injury outcomes.

The following award recipients will be honored in the 2025 NPS servicewide awards ceremony for accomplishments achieved in 2024.

Award recipients from the Historic Preservation Training Center Safety Program (left to right): Lieutenant Rebekah Abangan, Lieutenant Commander (LCDR) Adam Mannarino, LCDR Stephanie Bridges, and LCDR Joshua Greenberg. Commander Brian Czarnecki is not pictured.

NPS

Director's Safety and Health Achievement Award

Group Recipient: Historic Preservation Training Center Safety Program

The Historic Preservation Training Center (HPTC) Safety Program personnel worked as a team to identify, assess, and mitigate HPTC construction job site hazards for their projects. They began by assessing historical occupational injury and illness trends for HPTC personnel as well as reviewing training requirements and gaps in training provision. The next step in the process involved field assessments where training and knowledge gaps were further fleshed out. After analyzing what the team learned, they devised and implemented targeted solutions including training provision, proactive communications, and relationship building with stakeholders. Finally, safety assessments were completed, after action reviews with stakeholders were held, and lessons learned were shared with key audiences. Discussions and learning did not stop with just HPTC staff, broader discussions with additional NPS personnel, who work closely with HPTC, enhanced the reach of this proactive safety effort.

Award recipients from the Bryce Canyon Employee Safety, Health, and Wellness Committee. Front: Janece Pollock, Macie Monahan. Back: Jordan Barker, Jesse Olbrich.

NPS

Director's Wellness and Resilience Achievement Award

Group Recipient: Bryce Canyon National Park's Employee Safety, Health, and Wellness Committee

Members of the Bryce Canyon (BRCA) Employee Safety, Health, and Wellness Committee, who took on additional responsibilities outside their normal work duties, developed and implemented the BRCA Wellness Challenge. The Challenge involved dividing employees who chose to participate into teams. Each team gained points based on members’ engagement in various wellness activities. The Committee created a system to track activities, reported participation, and provided information and encouragement throughout the Challenge. This program garnered high overall participation with over half of the employee population engaging in healthy habits for over five months and improved relationships within teams and across work groups.

Award recipients from Colorado National Monument (left to right): Mike Pakes, Frank Hayde, Nathan Souder, Kait Thomas, Amber Martin, Perrin Pring. Sean Nelb and Greg Paulsen are not pictured.

NPS

Director's Visitor Safety Achievement Award

Group Recipient: Colorado National Monument Team

In 2024, Colorado National Monument (COLM) staff undertook significant efforts to address the urgent issue of suicide. Suicide is a leading cause of visitor deaths in COLM and the county has the highest rate of suicide in the state. Building on previous initiatives, they implemented a comprehensive strategy that included enhanced training for law enforcement rangers in suicide prevention and awareness, ensured that all staff were equipped to recognize and respond to at-risk individuals quickly and launched targeted educational programs aimed at high-risk populations. The COLM Team worked with many organizations to provide expertise on strategies and funding support, such as the Colorado National Monument Association, multiple non-profit and governmental organizations in Mesa County and Colorado state. With an emphasis on collaboration, the park partnered with local organizations to meet with community stakeholders and distribute resources, including the Resiliency Ranger booklet, provided resiliency hikes to 120 veterans and 45 non-veterans and provided park passes to encourage visitation from the veteran community. These multi-faceted efforts have contributed significantly to help reduce the suicide burden in Mesa county. Through their efforts, COLM has established itself as a leader in preventing suicides and improving visitor safety through a data informed, multidisciplinary approach.