It gives me great pleasure to announce the winner of the 2011 George Mandel Memorial Award – Gale Harris of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics!

Gale Harris has been a Librarian for over 34 years. She began her career as a Librarian for a private school teaching fashion design, interior design and fashion merchandising. From there, she went into the University environment where she was head of Acquisitions at Texas Wesleyan University for 5 years. Leaving the academic world, she joined the corporate world as a Special Librarian for General Dynamics in 1983, now Lockheed Martin. She worked her way up to Chief Librarian of Aeronautics and has held that position for over 10 years. Her expertise includes business and engineering research, collection development and con tract negotiations for electronic information.

Gale is a member of the Lockheed Martin Business Capture Association (LMBCA) and a regular contributor to the LMBCA newsletter. She is also a member of the Lockheed Martin Competitive Intelligence Working Group, the Lockheed Martin Librarians Task Force, and the Tarrant County College Advisory Council, which was created to develop a Library Assistant Certificate Program to be offered in the Fall 2011 semester. Gale has also been a member of the Special Libraries Association since 2001, and she has held the office of Government Relations for the Engineering Division and Chair of the Aerospace Section. She is respected by her fellow librarians at Lockheed Martin and peers in the Library world and has received praise and a cknowledgement awards from customers, including the F-16 Program Manager’s award for Excellence for her contributions to the program. Volunteering is also important to Gale. She makes time to volunteer annually on the planning committee of the Marine Corps birthday celebration held at Lockheed Martin for over 275 Marines, friends, and family. Gale and her Library staff are hosts to numerous drives held at LM including collecting blankets and children’s books given to the USO, as well as CDs, DVDs , toiletries, games, and more to package and send to our troops overseas.

Gale received a B.A. and B.S. in French and English and a Master’s of Library Science from Texas Woman’s University.

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We are now accepting nominations for the 2012 George Mandel Memorial Award. For more information about the award and how to make a nomination, click here or email the 2012 Aerospace section Chair, Barbara Williams.