The Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., October 17, 2023. (photo by Allison Shelley for Partnership for Public Service)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Belmont County native who works at the federal level was honored last week for her service to the nation.

Maria (Robinson) Lefevre, a Union Local graduate originally from Morristown, is now executive director for the office of the Under Secretary of Transportation for policy. She reached a high point of her 28-year career last week as a recipient of the 2023 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal.

“It’s extremely humbling. There was a big event at the Kennedy Center on Tuesday and it was an event of a lifetime,” Lefevre said.

“It doesn’t get much bigger than this. We do so much behind the scenes, and for them to at least once a year choose a handful across the entire executive branch of government.”

She said competition was stiff.

“We were the ones that actually won,” she said, adding there were eight categories, seven of which were for federal employees and one for journalism.

“The secretary informed us there was one other group at the Department of Transportation that was nominated as well, and it’s the first time ever through the process in over 15 years that the Department of Transportation (won),” she said. “There was an event the secretary held for the finalists because the department was enthusiastic. We even had a finalist, because this program is what they call the Oscars for us federal employees.”

In addition to Lefevre representing the office of Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Gloria M. Shepherd of the Federal Highway Administration and Paul Nissenbaum of the Federal Rail Administration were selected to receive the award on behalf of the DOT, for crafting and implementing the $1 trillion infrastructure law that will modernize the nation’s highways, bridges, shipping ports, railroads and airports.

“It was a team of three that was nominated; however, thousands of DOT employees have been working on this program,” Lefevre said. “We were there to represent the department.”

She added that the DOT has about 55,000 employees.

“The millions of federal workers, to be nominated out of seven categories and win is the pinnacle of my career and extremely humbling,” Lefevre said.

She commended the entire DOT staff.

“We federal employees, we don’t use ‘I’ very much. We all work together,” she said. “The whole department’s implementing, however we three were the ones awarded for kind of masterminding how to get these dollars out the door.”

Lefevre described the process.

“As soon as the president was elected, he started what was called the American Jobs Plan, and that plan was submitted to Congress. And what Congress does is it reaches out to executive agencies and asks for what’s called technical assistance. They ask us: ‘If we change this law, how would you implement it? Can you implement it? How fast can you get it done?’ So we spent nine months to a year helping Congress draft this bill so it would be in a way the Department of Transportation can succeed for the American people in getting over a trillion dollars out the door to local communities,” she said. “After the bill passes, which come November will be two years, we have hired hundreds of federal employees and contractors to help implement this.”

She said they had an increase of formula funds yearly from the $1 trillion. For Fiscal Year 2024, $61 billion was apportioned nationwide.

“Dollars that go directly to the state on average in the past it would have been around $17 billion. This past fiscal year we gave $61 billion, and it’s quite a task.”

She added the plan had to be approved by auditors and the General Accountability Office.

“To make sure those dollars go to the right place, the right people, and there’s also other programs called discretionary grant programs that local states, mayors, cities, tribal communities get to apply for those dollars, instead of the ones that just go out the door to those states. They get to apply, and thousands of staffers that report to me and the other two folks here on the award and many others in the building have to evaluate all of those applications, their cost-benefit analysis and project readiness. Do they have their environmental permitting and things of that nature?

“It is very tedious and very rewarding at the same time to do all this behind the scenes, to make the difference for American folks,” she said. “I see them now going out the door, but it’ll be months, years before you see it on the ground, and that’s the challenging part of the federal government. I know what I’m doing today, but the American people don’t really see it ’til tomorrow.”

Lefevre said the goal was improving transportation in terms of reliability and connectivity from one mode of transportation to another and ensuring sustainability for the future.

“You get off of a plane, you get on a plane, a metro, a transit system to get to where you’re going. … What modes of transportation from one connectivity to another?” she said. “It’s very difficult in rural areas where you may not have Uber service.”

Lefevre said the needs of the infrastructure and its improvement are not an abstraction for her.

“I’m from the Ohio Valley. I know when a bridge is out, it means something big — a long way to drive to get somewhere you need to go. It’s real important to change the day-to-day lives, and of course safety’s our No. 1 priority,” she said.

Lefevre is a 1992 graduate of Union Local High School. She is the daughter of Cheryl Robinson of Morristown and the late Bo Robinson. Her grandmother, Sophie Brewster, owned the restaurant Pick’s for 50 years until it caught fire in 2013.

“My dad was a coal miner and leaving Ohio was very difficult. However, I could see the changes I could make from inside the government,” she said.

“What I take pride in is the moral values that my mom and dad instilled in me and my two older brothers,” she said, adding she learned her ethics in Belmont County and gained leadership attributes while playing basketball, volleyball and softball at Union Local. “You’ve got to honor your word. If you say you’re going to do something, you must do it, and that’s how you earn trust and fairness. My parents always said the only thing you can lose by yourself for yourself is your word. If you give it, you’ve got to keep it. It’s something that’s carried with me. …

“I would like to thank all my teachers and coaches and my family for what they instilled in me,” she added. “I may not be in Ohio anymore, but I certainly represent them here in Washington.”