DOE’s Oak Ridge Office names safety, technical services manager

Mildred López-Ferré has been named deputy assistant manager for safety and technical services at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office.

In this position, López-Ferré will be responsible for leading the development and execution of the requirements and guidelines for environment safety and health and quality assurance for ORO and for multiple DOE site offices nationwide under the purview of the department’s Office of Science Integrated Support Center.

López-Ferré will assist ORO in all aspects of the Integrated Safety Management System, or ISMS, to ensure that DOE operations provide adequate protection to employees, the general public, the environment, and DOE property, effectively and efficiently, a press release said.

López-Ferré began her career at the DOE-ORO in 1991 as a program manager in the former Environmental Restoration Division. Since that time, she has held several leadership positions at ORO, including team leader for Y-12 National Security Complex projects, and ORO federal project director responsible for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 environmental management operations. She has also served as special projects manager in the ORO Manager’s Office, and most recently special projects assistant for the assistant manager for safety and technical services within the DOE Oak Ridge Office.

In 2002, she was selected by the DOE Headquarters deputy secretary for environmental management to participate in a DOE complex-wide project, “Disposing Waste, Reducing Risk,” where she assumed a leadership position in resolving DOE complex-wide waste disposal issues. She has also participated in various Departmental Source Evaluation Boards for major acquisition projects at the ORO.

López-Ferré possesses several technical qualifications, including Certified Senior Technical Safety Manager (STMS), Certified Level IV Federal Project Director, and Certified Level II Contracting Officer Representative, the press release said.

She has been a member of the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Hispanic Employment Program Council, Federally Employed Women, and previously served as the 2012 Anderson County Combined Federal Campaign Chairperson.

Born and raised in the Island of Puerto Rico, López-Ferré attended the University of Puerto Rico, where she obtained a master’s degree in science and biology. While attending graduate school, she developed a prototype artificial pancreas for diabetes treatment using living cells from laboratory mice. Her work was published in several international scientific journals, including the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs (ASAIO), 1992 and the Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 1998.

Lopez-Ferre and her husband Antonio have two sons, Ricardo, 22, and Alejandro, 15. They live in West Knoxville.