The Governor’s Awards of Excellence is designed to highlight excellence, build engagement, and provide a direct connection between the governor and executive branch employees. Nominations for 2025 are now closed. For 2025, employees will be nominated in the following four categories:

  • Civility – An individual who treats everyone with a high level of respect and takes every opportunity to share gratitude and give grace.
  • Safety – An individual or team whose actions prevented harm or improved the outcomes related to health, injury, and illness for the department, agency, or industry, or in defense of the state or nation.
  • Leadership – An individual who demonstrates the highest qualities sought in a leader whether in their work or community.
  • Innovation – An individual or team whose discovery, program, change, or use of technology significantly impacts the department, agency, industry, state, or nation to be more efficient, effective, and safe.

Safety

Shaina Smykle is the Substance Use Prevention Program Manager with the Division of Behavioral Health with the Dept. of Social Services. Her guests included her daughter Aviana, and Kimblerly and Tory Sorenson.

As she has worked to combat substance use in South Dakota, she learned that several states on the east coast had implemented something called an overdose follow-up program. Shaina took the idea and explored whether it would be a possibility in South Dakota, put in the leg work to get it started, and is currently working with providers to begin service delivery.

There are two overdose follow-up programs involved in this pilot project. When an individual experiences an overdose and EMS is called or they show up at the emergency department, in addition to being treated for the overdose, that individual is given an opportunity to be connected to resources to aid in their recovery journey in a personalized way. These resources can be catered to the need of the individual being served and include things like peer support or medications for opioid use disorder.

While people are in a vulnerable state, it helps to understand that they don't need to walk the journey of recovery alone. The program is still new, so it will take time to see the impact but because Shaina pursued the idea of starting this program in South Dakota, individuals will be given a greater opportunity to recover from their addiction following an overdose and ultimately, they will be given an opportunity to live to their fullest potential.

"Shaina Smykle started with the State in March 2020 as a Substance Use Disorder Counselor providing treatment services to incarcerated offenders in the State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls. Shaina transferred to the Department of Social Services, Division of Behavioral Health's Prevention Program in November 2021 and became the Substance Use Prevention Program Manager in May 2022. Shaina has also been a big proponent of educating the public on substance abuse disorders. Her direct involvement in efforts to eliminate stigmas and other barriers to treatment leads directly to making the community we call South Dakota a safer place." –DSS Secretary Matt Althoff

Leadership

Mark Rath is an Engineer for the Water Rights Program at the Department of Agriculture of Natural Resources. He attended the ceremony with his wife heri, and daughter Markita.

Mark Rath is an exemplary employee who takes his work seriously and is devoted to the management of water in South Dakota with the Water Rights Program. His engineering expertise in agriculture and water and land-use comes hand-in-hand with a rich institutional knowledge of places, people, and events of South Dakota. His experience with the legal battles with other states and the Corps of Engineers over the Missouri River, changes to the behavior of rivers and lakes in South Dakota, legal battles over the ever-growing contention of water, building personal relationships with local and state agencies and landowners, and being able to make the tough decisions, are what keep this beautiful machine chugging along.

Mark also helped facilitate the implementation of the first South Dakota DEM's. Protecting South Dakota's right to use our water is incredibly important, and future planning is so, so important. Mark teaches everyone to take all people in stride, and take in as much detail as you can, because you never know when another puzzle piece will fit. He constantly goes out of his way to teach about history, takes his coworkers on special road-trips to get the best dam tour you've ever had, pun intended. Mark has been a real leader in our program with the way he handles conflict, the way he never backs down when it comes to protecting our state rights, and always stressing our duty to manage the water that flows so ubiquitously (or sometimes not so ubiquitous) through the rolling prairie.

Mark Rath, an Engineer in DANR's Water Rights Program, has dedicated 38 years of service to protecting and preserving South Dakota's water resources. His engineering expertise in the fields of agriculture, water management, and land use along with his rich institutional knowledge of South Dakota's people, places, and history make him invaluable to DANR and our entire state, both as a technical expert and a mentor for our young employees. His honest, science-based approach to problem solving has helped build and maintain the high level of public trust seen today in DANR's Water Rights Program. Water issues in the west are always contentious and Mark has dealt with many important water issues over the years including Missouri River management and water rights, setting ordinary high water marks, and drainage issues. Mark has also served as a statewide expert during flood and drought events supporting state government and our producers during those challenging times. Mark's leadership and ability to build meaningful, lasting relationships with stakeholders has helped him navigate these situations and achieve the best possible outcomes for South Dakota. –DANR Secretary Hunter Roberts

Service

Tina Johnson is an Employment Specialist in the Rapid City Job Service Office for the Department of Labor and Regulation. She attended the ceremony with her husband Daniel.

Tina serves her participants with compassion, respect, understanding and commitment to them, each of them. She goes out of her way to guide the participants she works with, from whatever point they are at when they start, with meaningful coaching that stands out. Her participants just really love and respect her and it shows.

A participant that she started working with was going through legal matters, needed housing, resources to assist with daily needs to just get by. You name it, she was in need of assistance and someone who would be able to work well with her. To put it best, she was not particularly easy to work with at all in the beginning. Tina worked through the mistrust and strong opinions that she held about everything, with patience, understanding and a warmth that brought this participant to a complete 360 by the time she successfully achieved each barrier in her life and I absolutely believe it was because Tina coached her in a way that she completely understood and respected. Her participant, over the months of one-on-one time spent with Tina, came to depend on her as a mentor of sorts. She listened to and took the great advice that Tina had taken time to research and advise her with.

Tina Johnson works with participants who are considered the "hardest" to serve. The TANF recipients on her caseload often have multiple barriers to success. Tina coaches them patiently and without judgement as she works to hold them accountable and achieve their goals. She understands the importance of building trusting relationships with her clients while not enabling them. Tina sees a path forward for everyone she works with and realizes this path needs to be unique to the individual. She has the rare ability to follow complex program guidelines in a stringent manner while still offering creative solutions. – DLR Secretary Marcia Hultman

Innovation

Mike Barnes a program manager at the McNenny Hatchery in Spearfish for the Department of Game, Fish & Parks. He attended the ceremony with his with Nancy, son Joseph, and daughter-in-law Anastasia.

Dr. Mike Barnes has been a fixture in the South Dakota hatchery system for over three decades. Throughout this time, he has established himself as one of the most technically sound hatchery researchers in the country. Utilizing scientific methods to solve hatchery issues and increase hatchery production have been the foundation of Dr. Barnes' career.

Utilizing extremely limited resources, Dr. Barnes worked with state hatchery staff from both McNenny (Spearfish) and Cleghorn Springs (Rapid City) hatcheries to develop the first RAS units within the state-run hatchery facilities. Using only hatchery staff, fabrication of small units to test in storage building in fisheries offices around the state was the first step. Not long after, Cleghorn Springs, once again, using only hatchery staff, developed more complex systems in some unutilized office building space.

Dr. Mike Barnes has spent his career bringing innovation to everything he does for the hatchery system in South Dakota. With other rural offices/hatcheries having problems obtaining and keeping seasonal help and interns, Dr. Barnes has figure out how to consistently hire great people seasonally at one of the most remote facilities in the state sitting only miles from the Wyoming border. Over the past three decades, due to his constant use of science and innovation along with positive leadership and management, he has consistently figured out ways to increase hatchery production and meet the needs of fish managers despite, sometimes gigantic, increases in fish requests. Taking this large-scale leap in hatchery processes by utilizing RAS units, has, once again, allowed Dr. Barnes to get more out of less.

"Our agency recognizes that one of the top priorities to recruit and retain anglers is to assure they have fish to catch. To accomplish that objective, we rely heavily on our hatchery system, comprised of three hatcheries, to produce the millions of fish needed to stock lakes, ponds, and rivers that ultimately lead to fish on the end of the line. To continue to meet those objectives and the demand for fish, our Hatchery Program Administrator and McNenny Fish Hatchery Manager, Mike Barnes, has led the way working with all aquatics staff to determine new ways to produce fish, focusing on ROI, and being on the leading edge of technology in fish production. Forward-thinking is about innovation and exploring new ways to accomplish objectives; Mike Barnes is a master at this and has been for quite some time. South Dakota and GFP are lucky to have Mike leading the charge in new innovative approaches to fish production that will bring smiles and memories for years to come." – GFP Secretary Kevin Robling

Employees were recognized by Governor Noem and Lt. Governor Rhoden in four categories at an awards dinner on Thursday, on May 4, 2023.

L to R: Governor Noem, Matt Oxner, DPS (Innovation), John Peterson, DOM (Service), Kayla Oelkers, DOC (Safety), Emmett Keyser, GFP (Leadership), Lt Governor Rhoden