LIFT 2017 Team awarded PACE Leadership Impact Award

Published May 15, 2018
By Senior Airman Mackenzie Richardson
92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs

FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- The year of 2017 brought many things to Fairchild: an airshow, additional aircraft and the launch of a summit known as “Leaders Inspiring for Tomorrow.” The conference was the first of its kind amongst military audiences, earning its creators a 2017 Profession of Arms Center of Excellence Leadership Impact Award.

The 2017 PACE awards focused on innovations in leader development, to include creating learning environments at all levels in the workplace that accelerate growth in decision making through role-modeling, feedback and practice.

Col. Matthew Fritz, Air Mobility Command Acquisition Requirements Division chief and prior 92nd Air Refueling Wing vice commander, and Capt. Brandon Scott, 92nd ARW executive officer, were chosen as 2017 PACE award recipients for their outstanding leadership and dedication to their team during the LIFT summit.

“Everything begins with an idea,” Scott said. “Col. [Ryan] Samuelson and Col. Fritz gave me their idea, provided me with their mentorship and we formed an outstanding team of volunteers. Overall, the success of our conference was based on the hard work the team put forward over the seven-month planning period, and we couldn’t have produced the event without the support from our local community.”

LIFT 2017 highlighted 19 storytellers during the course of one day when they shared stories of inspiration, innovation, character and leadership. The storytellers were a diverse group of professionals who have led and inspired in a variety of venues: military, community, business and life.

The LIFT team’s goal was to present an event to challenge the traditional Air Force Wingman Day approach by encouraging random collisions between storytellers and attendees, leading to fruitful conversations, future opportunities, friendships and inspiration.

“Our team did an outstanding job bringing LIFT to fruition last year for the first time ever,” said Col. Ryan Samuelson, 92nd ARW commander. “This year our team brought LIFT again to Fairchild with different speakers and other bases are taking notice; one base even hosted their own LIFT-inspired event...well done all around.”

The conference was attended by more than 1,500 base personnel, including active duty, Reserve, Air National Guard and civilian Airmen. LIFT was also shared across numerous social media platforms via live-streaming and reached nearly 69,000 people in 49 different countries around the world to include Germany, the United Kingdom and Japan.

This is the second year the Profession of Arms Center of Excellence and Air University Leadership Institute have recognized individuals and teams who have established programs that have a positive impact on their organization and strengthen the Air Force’s culture.

Quality of education is a powerful retention tool; efforts such as LIFT are being made by Air Mobility Command leaders to strengthen partnerships with local educators and advocate for improvement in this key quality of life area of focus. Through deliberate development of professional Airmen comes a culture of trust, commitment and respect worthy of our service.

PACE is the Air Force’s dedicated champion to strengthening Air Force professional culture. Initiatives include infusing professionalism into existing training venues, delivering the affective instructional seminar and providing leadership tools to ensure Airmen receive a continuum of professionalism development training at the appropriate touch points throughout their careers.

Recipients of the 2017 PACE Leadership Impact Award will be invited to attend a three-day industry-sponsored leadership academy in June.

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