The Defense Travel Management Office presented top DoD travel managers and teams with DoD’s Excellence in Practice Awards on February 27, 2025, during the tenth annual GovTravels Symposium. These annual awards recognize those who have demonstrated a remarkable level of professional skill and customer service. Get to know the winners and their accomplishments in the slideshow below.
THE CHAMPION AWARD
Alexis Durm
US Army Financial Management Command, Indianapolis, IN
This award honors a Lead Defense Travel Administrator (DTA) whose wisdom, guidance, and commitment to their organization DTAs has made a fundamental and long-term positive impact on their travel program.
Ms. Durm uses a highly effective and personalized mentoring approach to support her DTAs, Approvers, and Reviewers. She leverages data analysis tools and insightful observation to identify specific needs of organization and deliver targeted training and support. Her proactive communication, including the use of an Outlook Group to engage with Local DTAs, ensures widespread access to resources and fosters a collaborative community. This multifaceted approach not only improves the efficiency of the Army's travel program but also cultivates a culture of continuous learning and development within the DTA community.
THE PREMIER AWARD
Cpl Chelsea Burgos Martinez
Marine Corps Air Facility Quantico, Quantico, VA
This award recognizes the individual who consistently satisfies the requisite duties of the DoD Government Travel Charge Card (GTCC) Agency Program Coordinator (APC), but also exhibits vision and initiative by identifying opportunities for Charge Card program improvements and acts as the change agent to implement those improvements in their organization, resolving obstacles along the way.
As the APC overseeing 160 GTCC holders, Cpl Burgos Martinez spearheaded a comprehensive overhaul of the program, earning accolades for its excellence. Her meticulous preparation for a Marine Corps Inspector General inspection involved streamlining procedures, mentoring peers, and implementing an innovative SharePoint-based tracking system for training certificates. Her effort resulted in a noteworthy grade on the inspection and praise for the program as a model for emulation across the Marine Corps. Her professionalism, perseverance, and loyal dedication to duty reflects her exemplary commitment to the GTCC program and cardholders.
THE PARAMOUNT AWARD
A1C Katherine Lockwood
Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, NM
This award recognizes a Compliance Tool Administrator (CTA) whose perception and advisability through customer service, training, and staff development initiatives lead to an improvement in their organization's travel program.
Airman First Class Lockwood transformed Kirtland Air Force Base's approach to DTS compliance and debt management, correcting a two-year deficiency and recovering more than $100,000 in erroneous payments. Her efforts propelled the base from 32nd to 2nd in Air Force rankings. She earned accolades and improved metrics across the Air Force for creating more than 35 user-friendly guides to facilitate the understanding of DTS forms, templates, logs, and account/debt management. Her proactive approach to compliance, auditing vouchers well in advance of deadlines, has been recognized as a best practice across the Air Force, solidifying her reputation as a leader in financial management for the Air Force.
THE ELITE AWARD
Daniel Vargas, Lauriann Brown, Ryan Kerr, Tomorrow Singleton, and Angela West
Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic, Hanahan, SC
This award recognizes a local help desk team whose superior efforts result in continuous improvement and outstanding customer care.
This team provides comprehensive customer support to 4,800 civilians and military members, reviewing more than 47 million travel vouchers totaling $300 million in travel expenses, and preventing over $1.5 million in non-reimbursable charges. Through continuous cross-training, each member of the team can support every travel function with minimal administrative disruption. The team places special emphasis on equipping new employees and supervisors with tools and resources from day one, through their involvement in command Military indoctrination, command New Employee Orientation Training, and New Supervisor Orientation. The team routinely caters to informational brown bags, meet-and-greets, and lunch-and-learns where 500+ attendees are standard, and hot topics and changes are communicated.
THE ICON AWARD
James Gresham
Air Force Life Cycle Management Team, Dayton, OH
This award recognizes a major command or agency whose strategies and tactics enhance their travel program capabilities for their subordinate sites.
This team oversees Temporary Duty (TDY) Travel budgets for more than 240 employees, with oversight of a budget of $200K+ per fiscal year across three locations. They significantly improved the TDY process by identifying issues with existing procedures and implementing streamlined solutions, including the development of a form to document travel requirements and cost estimates as well as a Microsoft Teams channel for efficient processing and approval. The team established TDY request guidelines, a decision matrix for prioritizing trips based on mission needs and funding, and monthly meetings to monitor TDY projections and expenditures. A burn-down chart provides real-time budget visibility and triggers out-of-cycle prioritization when needed. The team also proactively addresses funding shortfalls and ensures all travelers are trained on the new procedures, which have been adopted as standard practice within the Directorate.