Prestigious President’s Awards Bestowed on RTI Staff Members

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC—RTI International President E. Wayne Holden presented more than 200 prestigious President’s Awards to RTI staff members last week.

The RTI President’s Awards were created in 1997 and, since its inception, have been bestowed on 2,227 staff members in recognition of significant contributions to RTI's strategic goals that contribute to the institute’s success.

"This year’s award recipients demonstrate many qualities that distinguish RTI as a wonderful place—to work, to learn, and to grow,” said President Holden. “This special award is designed not simply to reward this type of excellence, but to recognize it by encouraging the nurturing of talent, the stretching of capabilities and the sharing of best practices. We are greatly appreciative and very proud of each of these teams’ contributions to science and technology.”

2018 President's Award Winners

Forensic Technology Center of Excellence Team

Program work by the Forensic Technology Center of Excellence team demonstrates the value of interdisciplinary collaboration at RTI. Toxicologists and DNA scientists work with experts in innovation, program evaluation, criminal justice, multimedia communication, and many other key areas to enable the adoption of new tools and methods by forensic science professionals to improve the reliability, efficiency, and effectiveness of their work. Now in its eighth year at RTI, this work is used globally in crime laboratories and by forensic scientists.

Neglected Tropical Disease Lymphatic Filariasis Team

Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) is a neglected tropical disease that impairs the lymphatic system, leading to the enlargement of various body parts, resulting in chronic pain, disability and stigma. RTI’s LF team has been instrumental in ensuring that the necessary drugs and care reach those at risk for LF and that governments can conduct high-quality surveys to assess the impact of their efforts on disease transmission. As a result of this work, 208 million people are no longer at risk of LF in RTI-supported countries, and Togo and Cambodia have received World Health Organization validation of elimination of LF as a public health problem.

Neglected Tropical Disease Trachoma Team

Trachoma, a painful neglected tropical disease, is a bacterial eye infection that causes the eyelids to scar and turn inward.  Trachoma is prevented and eliminated through a multi-pronged strategy that includes surgery, antibiotics, face washing and environmental control. As a result of the work by RTI’s trachoma team, the risk of trachoma has been eliminated for 73 million people located in RTI-supported countries. The team played a critical role in supporting several countries– including Nepal, Cambodia, Laos and Ghana–to achieve validation by the World Health Organization as having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem.

Proposal team for the Act to End Neglected Tropical Diseases

RTI is a global leader in the fight to control and eliminate neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). The organization implements the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) ENVISION project—the agency’s global flagship NTD initiative working in 19 endemic countries. RTI’s proposal team helped secure a new five-year contract that builds on ENVISION and USAID’s next iteration of support to achieve the global Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) control and elimination goals, as well as to ensure that NTD programming is mainstreamed in countries’ overall health systems.

Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi Outsourcing Contract Core Team

In 2008, RTI won a contract to manage environmental services for the government of Abu Dhabi—RTI’s largest contract ever with a foreign government. RTI has developed an innovative business model that includes managing and mentoring staff, implementing an innovative method to run an environmental agency, and training Emirati nationals to manage their environmental protection program.  Its success has given RTI a strong foothold in the region for pursuing additional business opportunities in a wide variety of fields.

National Postsecondary Student Aid Study Team

RTI’s National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) team demonstrated sustained excellence with a long-standing client as evidenced by the recently-awarded 10-year NPSAS:20 contract. This is the seventh successive NPSAS competition that RTI has won since 1994. Information from the NPSAS database is frequently cited by the federal government.

High School Longitudinal Studies Team

RTI’s High School Longitudinal Studies team continues the 20-year unbroken record of RTI’s sustained work on the National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES’) high school cohort studies. Since the early 1970s, the NCES has conducted research with high school students to examine when, why and how students make decisions about courses and postsecondary options. The findings generated from the studies help our nation’s students, parents and education leaders make these types of decisions. Reports derived from the studies are used by the research community and education policymakers.

Comprehensive Primary Care Plus Team

RTI’s Comprehensive Primary Care Plus team developed and implemented the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) project, designed to improve healthcare delivery in the United States. The CPC+ model, a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services initiative, is poised to radically transform care delivery and payment by maximally leveraging health information technology, care management, and patient and family engagement, while improving healthcare quality and increasing access to appropriate levels of care. The team’s initial work on the project led to the award of an additional five-year CPC+ contract.