Dr. Stephen Mamber provides a strong letter of recommendation for Steven Thompson, who interned in his office for four summers. Dr. Mamber was impressed with Steven's initiative and writing skills when he was hired as an intern. Steven proved to be a highly productive intern who learned technical skills quickly and consistently completed complex assignments efficiently. Steven's work resulted in multiple publications and presentations. Dr. Mamber commends Steven's work ethic and commitment to their work, and strongly recommends him for a position at USDA.

1. September 27, 2015
Dr. Dwaynya Goodson
Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer
1400 Independence Ave. SW
Rm 3140 South Bldg
Washington, DC 20250
Dear Dr. Goodson:
This letter of recommendation is in very strong support of Mr. Steven Thompson, who is
applying to your program. Steven interned for me in the USDA/FSIS Office of Data Integration
and Food Protection (ODIFP) for four consecutive summers (2011-2015), and I am certain that
he is an excellent candidate for a position within the Agency.
My original interest in hiring Steven came when I had the opportunity to hire an intern to write
and edit scientific documentation from my data analysis projects. While several candidates
initially appeared to have microbiology credentials better suited to the position, Steven captured
my attention with an intriguing essay on a relatively obscure but important scientist (an essay he
had written in pursuit of a previous internship). I was impressed with his initiative and his
writing, and hired him as my intern. I was delighted to find that my instincts were on target, and
Steven proved to be the most productive intern hired by FSIS for the summer 2011. I was very
pleased to be able to hire him for subsequent summer internship positions.
With a relatively small amount of training, Steven readily learned and comprehended both basic
and advanced scientific spreadsheet and graphing techniques. Given his background and
expertise in biological illustration and graphics, the tasks I assigned to him involved preparing
tables and graphs for: a) internal FSIS documents, b) scientific manuscripts intended for
publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and c) PowerPoint slides and posters intended
for presentations at national meetings. Steven efficiently and rapidly completed the
assignments that I gave him. He never complained, even when changes in the data prompted
me to have him completely redo an entire table or chart (often, more than once). I frequently
assigned Steven projects that would have taken me at least 4 hours to complete, and he always
completed them in half the time I would have had to invest in doing it myself. In fact, our working
relationship is at a point where I can simply say, “do X” and I know it will be done efficiently.
Steven’s assistance resulted in generating multiple publication-worthy documents. In fact, he
had sole responsibility for creating and formatting several poster presentations for both the 2012
and 2015 International Association for Food Protection meetings. One of these posters (PPT) is
attached here as an example of his work. As a second example of Steven’s work, I have also
attached a document (.DOC) for which I asked him to convert multiple vertical Excel/PowerPoint
charts into horizontal Tableau charts (Tableau being used to create superior charts; see pages
36-63).
Steven has a pleasant manner about him: he is courteous and well-mannered while engaging
with others in the Agency. He is eager to learn new techniques, constantly improving his skills. It
is apparent that he has a very strong work ethic, and clearly was committed to the success of
our operation. I think Steven realized the opportunity that his internships at FSIS presented, and
he consistently demonstrated that he has a great deal to offer.

2. For all these reasons (and more), I strongly recommend Steven as a candidate for an
appropriate position at USDA with no reservations whatsoever. If you have any questions, or if I
can supplement this recommendation with additional commentary, please feel free to contact
me.
Sincerely,
/S/
Stephen W. Mamber, Ph.D.
Data Analyst
Office of Data Integration and Food Protection
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service
Mail Stop 3793, PP3, Room 9-145B
1400 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20250-3700
202-690-6474
202-690-6459 fax
202-465-6156 cell
Steve.Mamber@fsis.usda.gov