CBP’s Thomas Recognized for Public Service Leadership, Alongside Arthur S. Flemming Awardees
The Arthur S. Flemming Awards, one of the highest awards in government service, will be handed out this week in a ceremony Washington, DC.
The Flemming Awards were established in 1948 and honor outstanding federal employees from all areas of federal service. They were named after Arthur S. Flemming, a public servant who served nearly every president from FDR to Bill Clinton.
This year, one of the recipients is TenaVel T. Thomas of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), who is being honored with the Leadership and Management Award.
Ms. Thomas is currently CBP’s Senior Executive Port Director of Newark/New York, responsible for overseeing the nation’s busiest seaport on the east coast, and the fourth busiest airport in the United States. She also recently served as acting executive director for the CBP Academy for the office of field operations and is transitioning to serve as acting executive director for the CBP workforce care directorate.
A native of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Ms. Thomas always wanted a career in law enforcement and joined CBP out of college. Expecting to transition to another law enforcement agency, she changed her mind after getting on the job.
“I fell in love with the (CBP) mission. I fell in love with the passion, and I certainly saw that there is a lot behind what we do particularly from a national security perspective and protecting America as a whole,” said Ms. Thomas, in an interview with FEDManager.
She credits her rise in the ranks with her willingness to take on challenges. “I was always one of the officers who would raise my hand for the challenge,” said Ms. Thomas.
“(Ms. Thomas) exemplifies what Arthur Flemming is all about,” said Kathryn Newcomer, President of the Flemming Awards Commission and professor at the George Washington University Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration. “She has taken advantage of opportunities that she has been given. To do different things, to stretch beyond her comfort zone.”
Ms. Thomas is honored for going above and beyond in her career, which includes her commitment to advancing equity.
Her many accomplishments include creating the first Repatriation Processing Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York. She also led a specialized human trafficking unit which helped to rescue over 130 indentured servants and victims of forced labor. She also established a full-time resilience team and therapy dog program.
“When people say, ‘Ms. Thomas you truly care,’ is for me the biggest compliment,” she stated.
Ms. Thomas also accounts how she received emails from federal workers all around the country, when she was promoted to a GS-15 position, many of them congratulating her and telling her how inspiring it was to see her in her position.
“It made me pause and reflect and certainly look at my career, look at my colleagues,” said Ms. Thomas. “It represents what the American dream looks like.”