At the beginning of March, Bob Farnam was welcomed by STARS Alliance as our new Training Functional Area Manager (FAM). Susan Westcott, our former Training FAM, returned to her position at Diablo Canyon after a faithful 3 years with our team.

Besides his responsibilities as the Training FAM, Farnam is also our representative on the Industry Corporate Training Director team, as well as our representative to INPO.

“My number one goal is to continue Susan’s efforts in getting STARS to be recognized as a strong organization with superb training programs,” Farnam said.

“Within the next few years I see the STARS training programs being innovative, progressive, and altogether industry leading,” Farnam continued.

He plans to continue this growth through his leadership style, which he says is, “supportive and facilitative.” Though, he added, he never misses a chance to make things exciting for the team.

In his first month, Farnam has begun a few new projects at STARS, all related to the “Delivering the Nuclear Promise” efforts. One project, standardized Key Performance Indicators, is nearly finished and will help compare each station’s training program performance.

“These projects aside, we have several opportunities to make a good impression within the industry this year, including 3 plant evaluations and 1 Accreditation Team Visit,” he said.

STARS is hopeful for the Accreditation Team’s findings because of our track record under Westcott.

Throughout her 3 years as the Training FAM, all of our sites received no Accreditation Team findings. They also all achieved accreditation renewal with unanimous votes by the INPO board.

“We are an alliance that is developing and improving in many areas,” Westcott said. “Bob will be able to both build on our past successes and create new ones. I found this to be one of the most rewarding assignments of my career and trust he will too.”