Shreveport MIC Armando Garza, Austin/San Antonio MIC Joe Arellano, NWS EEO Director Charly Wells, Carolyn Anderson of the Social Security Office of Hearings and Appeals, Southern Region EEO Director Gena Morrison and Southern Region Acting Director Steven Cooper (Photo: WFO Shreveport)

(Feb. 20, 2007) - The Diversity Team, at the National Weather Service forecast office in Shreveport, conducted a highly successful Regional Diversity Conference (Feb. 8-9) at the city's police and fire training academy. Shreveport Meteorologist-in-Charge Armando Garza, Administrative Support Assistant Lisa Frantz and Journeyman Forecaster Bill Parker worked closely with National Weather Service Southern Region Equal Employment Opportunity Manager Gena Morrison to provide this opportunity for "real world diversity training" for federal employees.

The primary focus of the conference was to provide ideas on how to improve diversity in the workplace and become more in tune with generational differences that may arise on a daily basis. Approximately 50 National Weather Service employees from national and southern region headquarters and offices throughout the south and southeast attended, as well as city officials and representatives of other federal agencies in the Shreveport-Bossier City area. The agencies included the Social Security, Veterans and Federal Aviation Administrations; and Housing and Urban Development.

Representing Shreveport Mayor Cedric Glover, Gwen Campbell referred to the conference as "exemplary and visionary". Steven Cooper, acting director of the Southern Region, also spoke of the National Weather Service's long-standing commitment to addressing diversity in the workplace.