Dr. Laura Santiago, the lead training specialist for the Workforce Development Branch at Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division (NSWCPD), has earned a prestigious 2025 Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Human Resources (HR) Community Award, an honor given to only six individuals and three teams across the Warfare Centers.
NAVSEA Commander Vice Adm. James Downey underscored the HR community’s importance in announcing the 2025 winners, noting that the enterprise relies on HR professionals “more than you know” and encouraging colleagues to congratulate and thank Santiago and the other exceptional performers.
Santiago was selected from 30 enterprise-wide nominations for her transformative contributions to the command’s Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) Program, a high-visibility effort within the NAVSEA enterprise that ensures acquisition workforce members are properly trained, certified, and ready to support the mission. Her work directly supports the goal of sustaining a highly trained, fully qualified acquisition workforce capable of filling critical and key leadership positions.
Recognizing a critical need to improve DAWIA certification and Continuous Learning Point (CLP) tracking, Santiago led the design and implementation of a user-friendly dashboard that provides real-time visibility into employees’ training and certification status. The dashboard equips managers, administrative officers, and training personnel with immediate insight into upcoming training needs and potential gaps, enabling them to prioritize actions and better align workforce development with mission requirements.
“Supporting our acquisition workforce means providing leaders with clear, timely information so they can invest in people before a gap becomes a risk,” Santiago said. “By simplifying DAWIA and CLP tracking, our dashboard turns data into action—freeing managers and employees to focus on developing their skills and strengthening the Navy’s ability to deliver for the fleet.”
This innovation drove the command to 100 percent CLP compliance and is estimated to have saved approximately 200 man-hours by automating manual tracking and reporting. The tool’s “risk cube” feature also enables managers to proactively identify and address potential compliance issues before they affect readiness, thereby strengthening NSWCPD’s ability to sustain a qualified acquisition workforce.
During NSWCPD’s most recent inspection, the NAVSEA Inspector General recognized Santiago’s dashboard as a “best practice,” citing its effectiveness in strengthening oversight and accountability for DAWIA requirements. NAVSEA Headquarters subsequently adopted and deployed the capability enterprise-wide, extending the impact of her work to Warfare Centers and other organizations that rely on consistent acquisition workforce management.
By standardizing how DAWIA certification and CLP data are viewed and used, the dashboard helps organizations across NAVSEA better manage training resources and maintain compliance with acquisition policy. Santiago’s efforts demonstrate how targeted process improvements and data-driven tools can enhance HR’s strategic role in delivering a ready, resilient civilian workforce to support fleet needs.
“Dr. Santiago’s work is a powerful example of how innovation in human resources directly strengthens warfighting readiness,” Corporate Operations Department Head Jeremy Scott said. “By creating a tool that gives our leaders enterprise-level insight into DAWIA certification and continuous learning, she has not only achieved 100 percent compliance here in Philadelphia but also set a standard that Naval Sea Systems Command has embraced across the Warfare Centers.”
Santiago’s dashboard is not just a tool but a tangible sign of how smart, persistent problem-solving can ripple across the Warfare Centers. In addition to this recognition, she was further honored during the NSWCPD Command Awards ceremony on Jan. 13, 2026 with the Business Operations Achievement Award, presented to a non-supervisory support professional or team that has consistently demonstrated and sustained outstanding performance, exceeding goals and resulting in significant achievements or impact. She received the honor for her significant project management achievements in optimizing the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) Program.
NSWCPD employs approximately 2,700 civilian engineers, scientists, technicians, and support personnel. The NSWCPD team conducts research and development, test and evaluation, acquisition support, and in-service and logistics engineering for non-nuclear machinery, ship machinery systems, and related equipment and materials for Navy surface ships and submarines. NSWCPD is also the lead organization providing cybersecurity for all ship systems.