Dawn L. Rosarius, Civilian Deputy, Principal Assistant for Acquisition for the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Fort Detrick, Md., received her official charter as the new Acquisition Career Management Advocate for the U.S. Army Medical Command May 1. Having joined the USAMRMC in 1993 in a contractor support role, Rosarius became a Civilian staff member in 1998 when she began work for the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency. In 2008, she accepted the position of director of the Plans, Programs, Analysis & Evaluation Directorate at USAMRMC headquarters. As the sole ACMA for the MEDCOM, Rosarius has quite a task ahead of her.

"My role as the ACMA is to ensure that the MEDCOM personnel receive their certification within their two-year period, and then sustain that certification with CLPs [Continuous Learning Points]," said Rosarius. "Along with Ash Ficklin and Chris Houck, together we track all acquisition personnel throughout the MEDCOM to keep them, and their supervisors, up-to-date with the requirements necessary to obtain and sustain certification."

Many throughout the MEDCOM will benefit from Rosarius' new role, as she along with Ficklin and Houck monitor the certification files of every employee assigned to an acquisition position in the various acquisition fields. However, this new responsibility will add quite a bit of work to the already full plate Rosarius maintains.

"Actually, I think this could be a full-time job initially, because there are many things we must do at this point to make sure everyone is current in their certifications," she said. "I would say that about 10 percent of my daily work will involve the ACMA function."

Rosarius also said that selecting the new ACMA from the USAMRMC was intentional, as the USAMRMC's commanding general, Brig. Gen. (P) Joseph Caravalho Jr., serves also as the Deputy for Medical Systems to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology. Keeping the two roles in close proximity under the roof of USAMRMC headquarters is both practical and advantageous, and should provide much clout for ensuring that all employees maintain their necessary certifications and do not fall delinquent.

Although USAMRMC's acquisition workforce is a major focus of the ACMA's efforts, many other offices throughout the MEDCOM employ men and women that conduct acquisition functions on a daily basis. Among these are program management, contracting, information technology, purchasing, science and technology, production quality management, and life cycle logistics. Clearly, the acquisition process touches practically every functional area throughout the MEDCOM.

As the new ACMA and deputy PAA, Rosarius looks forward to the days ahead with much enthusiasm.

"I'm very excited about working in the PAA office and learning much from Dr. [Kenneth] Bertram [Principal Assistant for Acquisition], gaining insight from others on the team as well as the PMs [product managers]," she said. "I used to work in a type of PM role at USAMMA, so I am excited about getting back to the 'roots' and working with some of our new devices that can help our warfighters."