On March 22, the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command named Patricia Mallory, deputy chief of the S8 Business Operations Office at USAMRDC's U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense, as the 2021 Employee of the Year. The award caps a year of key contributions by Mallory to both USAMRICD and the overall USAMRDC mission.

"My initial response was 'Oh my God,'" said Mallory upon receiving word of the award from command leadership. "It means the world to me that I would even be considered for such recognition, but to actually be named 'USAMRDC Employee of the Year' is just so amazing. There are so many others deserving this honor and to be acknowledge in this way is something I never expected."

Among her notable achievements during the past year, Mallory succeeded in handling virtually all financial actions for USAMRICD following a period of transition and growth in early 2021. Unable to slow down to accommodate onboarding efforts for new employees, Mallory – who was serving as a financial management analyst at the time – assumed the workload of six people, according to USAMRICD Supervisory Budget Analyst and S8 Chief Winfield Kelley. As such, her tasks included everything from certifying funds and completing cost transfers to running all business intelligence reports and identifying and resolving all payroll errors, among a variety of others. In addition, Mallory served as USAMRICD's acting comptroller during a substantial portion of the year.

"I feel a huge sense of accomplishment," said Mallory, who's quick to thank both her coworkers and command leadership for the honor. "I am proud that despite the many challenges that we faced we had a very successful 2021. I was able to learn so much in such a short amount of time and the response and support from USAMRDC and USAMRICD staff was incredible. We were given the perfect opportunity to rebuild."

"Ms. Mallory's even-keeled, gentle and helpful spirit guided all of her interactions with all USAMRICD customers even during the most chaotic periods," said Kelley, who nominated Mallory for the award – going so far as to call her the "linchpin of all financial actions" within USAMRICD during 2021. "She was always grateful to others and appreciated their contributions even while she bore the heaviest burden of the workload."

For Mallory, who will celebrate 14 years at USAMRICD in October, those efforts were simply her way of giving back to a place that's given her a chance to grow and succeed and as a testament to that fact – she even went so far as to train the six new employees whose job duties she was currently performing once new staff came on board. For Mallory, that kind of dedication is all in a day's – or in this case, perhaps an entire year's – work.

"A huge part of what makes my position so rewarding is the people," said Mallory. "The fact that I am able to work with such dedicated and forward-thinking scientists on a daily basis who make such a huge impact on military medicine and support the Warfighter is incredible. But it's more than just the scientists, it's the sense of caring and support throughout the Command."