USACE Vicksburg District Office of Counsel employee receives national award

VICKSBURG, Miss. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Vicksburg District is proud to announce a national award winner from the Office of Counsel.

Jennifer Williams, senior paralegal, was announced as the winner of the annual Keystone Award that is presented to a non-attorney for exceptional service and contribution to the legal mission.

The Keystone Award recognizes the professionalism and valued service of an individual or team in the USACE Legal Services Community who has made a significant contribution to the USACE legal services mission. The name of the award refers to the keystone of an arch, which is the supporting element of the structure, without which the arch would fail.

In her role as District FOIA Officer, Williams maintains an unblemished track record of zero delinquencies despite a 100-percent increase in FOIA applications over the past two years. According to Vicksburg District Chief Counsel John Breland, “Jennifer truly is the keystone of the Vicksburg District’s counsel office. She knows what to do and she exceeds expectations in getting it done.”

Williams began her legal career in 2004 as a paralegal in the private sector. She joined the Vicksburg district as a legal assistant in 2019. She received her paralegal certification in 2020 from Kansas State University through the Army Civilian Service Career program CP56. She was recently promoted from a paralegal specialist to the senior paralegal in the Office of Counsel.

The Chief Counsel’s Honorary Awards are presented at the end of each year’s annual governance meeting at USACE Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The USACE Vicksburg District is engineering solutions to the nation’s toughest challenges. The Vicksburg District encompasses a 68,000-square-mile area across portions of Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana that holds nine major river basins and incorporates approximately 460 miles of mainline Mississippi River levees. The Vicksburg District is engaged in hundreds of projects and employs approximately 1,100 personnel.