INL employees selected for competitive DOE Project Leadership Institute

Two Idaho National Laboratory employees have been selected for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Project Leadership Institute (PLI) 2019 cohort. Sadie Butler and Brad Cole, INL project managers, were selected for the highly competitive program, designed to develop a future generation of successful DOE project managers.

Only accepting 20 to 25 new students each year, PLI focuses on four main learning objectives: strategic thinking and analysis, organization and general management skills, team building, and communications.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for our project managers,” said Juan Alvarez, deputy laboratory director for Management and Operations and chief operating officer. “It gives them a chance to learn from best of the best while also getting to network across DOE’s vast network of project managers and leaders.”

Over the course of a year, participants will attend five in-person sessions in various locations, complete an online course during the summer, and produce a capstone project. The content is intended as both a leadership development and skill development course, with subject matter tailored to the DOE environment.

This isn’t the first time INL employees have been accepted to PLI. In fact, INL has had an employee in every cohort in PLI’s three-year history. Brady Orchard was one of those previous attendees and found the experience valuable. “PLI helped me to better understand my leadership qualities and how to improve my personal performance,” Orchard said. “I was able to immediately apply what I learned at PLI into my work at INL.” Matthew Hammond is a member of the second cohort and will complete his PLI coursework in December.

The 2019 cohort will begin work in January and finish the program in December.