Navy Leadership: Naval Oceanography HQ Employees of the Year Both Millennials

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss.—— Recently, Commander, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Commander (CNMOC) made its selections for junior and senior Employees of the Year (EOY) awarded for sustained superior performance and beyond work-duty contributions towards U.S. Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command’s (Naval Oceanography) mission.
 
The selection of CNMOC Junior EOY Sidney Dills, International Policy Program Analyst and CNMOC Senior EOY Jeffrey Lorens, IT Systems Engineering Lead─both millennials born between 1980 and 1990─is a clear indicator the future-generation of U.S. Navy’s leaders have arrived.
 
“My favorite part of working on the staff is seeing the amazing work that individuals across the enterprise are doing to support Naval Oceanography and the U.S. Navy,” said Dills. “I love how our community is especially supportive of science and technology initiatives to improve METOC, and thus decision making, for the warfighter.”
 
The Naval Oceanography enterprise is a global entity with many foreign allies and partners. 
 
Dills’ position at CNMOC is a catalyst for interoperability between Naval Oceanography and those foreign allies and partners, which ultimately enhance reach and capability of Naval Oceanography and subsequently─the U.S. Navy.
 
“I enjoy working at the staff level and  supporting initiatives and efforts across the community and commands, I once worked in a reach back production cell and wanted to be involved in the ‘bigger picture’, “ said Dills. “Also, I’m motivated by working in a fast paced environment, and the staff can be pretty quickly spurred to action to support CNMOC’s decision cycle.”
 
According to Dills, some of the reward in supporting a greater mission is the support to Naval Oceanography’s global and highly-skilled workforce-family.
 
Lorens shared that sentiment towards the skill level of his Naval Oceanography peers when asked about foreshadowing the likelihood of his selection as Senior EOY.
 
“I did not think about being selected, the pool of talent within Naval Oceanography is competitive and high-achieving: I work alongside many dedicated and passionate peers,” Lorens said.
 
The work executed by Lorens has an utmost importance considering how essential IT systems are to any DOD agency, yet alone a DOD agency [like Naval Oceanography] that handles billions of datasets in collection and modeling.
 
“I enjoy working with the people at CNMOC, everyone is focused on supporting the Navy’s mission and optimizing use of resources we have,” Lorens said.
 
Dills and Lorens shared their professional biographies, seen below.
 
Sidney Dills Professional Biography
 
Ms. Sidney Dills is from South Carolina, where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Physics at Furman University in 2015. She received a Master of Science Degree in Geology and Geophysics from the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 2017.
 
Prior to beginning a career in civil service, Dills worked in scientific public outreach. In 2018 she joined the Naval Oceanographic Office’s Hydrographic Department as a Geophysicist where she was responsible for generating bathymetric and hydrographic products in support of safety of navigation mission and fleet requirements. She led efforts to standardize automated processes for hydrographic laser imaging, detection, and ranging (LiDAR) production and provided contract development support for unmanned vehicles. She also routinely traveled as a lead scientist onboard the T-AGS 60 class oceanographic survey ships providing survey collection and equipment validation support.
 
In December 2021, Dills became a Program Analyst for the International Programs department at Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command. In that role she engages with international partners to strengthen collaborative relationships, enhance data sharing, and work towards interoperability. She is responsible for managing security cooperation and security assistance programs, foreign visits and engagements, and is a foreign disclosure representative.
 
Dills is a member of the 2023 CNMOC Executive Leadership Program cohort where she hopes to build business acumen to accomplish her future career goals of influencing the development and implementation of new technologies by the METOC community. When she’s not busy working, she enjoys spending time at home with her husband Sean and three cats, Meatball, Spaghetti, and Pesto.
 
Jeffrey Lorens Professional Biography
 
Jeffrey Lorens is a native of the local area of south Mississippi, where he earned an associate’s degree at the Pearl River Community College in Poplarville, MS. He continued his education at Mississippi State University in Starkville, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering.
 
In 2011, Lorens joined the Naval Oceanographic Office team as a Civil Servant in the Enterprise Engineering Department (EED). As a member of the Engineering Services team, he contributed to various engineering, programming, and systems administration efforts across the Naval Oceanography community.
 
In 2015, Lorens joined the Naval Oceanography Operations Command (NOOC) as a lead engineer and project manager as part of the EED’s realignment into the NOOC’s IT Operations department, and in 2019, he was selected as the NOOC’s Systems Engineering and Integration Division Director responsible for the efforts of the civilian and contract engineering support staff.
 
In 2020, Lorens joined the CNMOC team as part of the IT Operations department’s realignment to CNMOC N6, where he leads the CNMOC N621 Systems Engineering branch, which is responsible for a variety of IT capabilities supporting the Naval Oceanography enterprise.
 
After hours, Lorens runs a large sheep ranching operation with his wife Jackie.
 
 
About Naval Oceanography
Naval Oceanography has approximately 2,900 globally distributed military and civilian personnel, who collect, process and exploit environmental information to assist Fleet and Joint Commanders in all warfare areas to guarantee the U.S. Navy’s freedom of action in the physical battlespace from the depths of the ocean to the stars.
 
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