Cut-Rate Diplomas:How doubts about the government’s own “Dr. Laura” exposed a fraud

ReasonOnline ^ | January 2005 | Paul Sperry

[OldEagle]

I suspect that this is much more prevalent in other government agencies where additional pay for additional qualifications is quite prevalent.
I also question some of the individually-tailored degree programs offered by many schools which allow constructive credit for life experiences.

[Wristpin]

What about the poor bastards fired by this witch?!!!

[FreePaul]

The Houston Independent School District has a similar problem with many of their administrators. When this started to come out several years ago they solved the problem by denying access to employee qualifications. Of course the HISD doesn't have any oversight committee to worry about.

Since the fraudulent degrees are often used to get more money out of government agencies their use should be prosecuted. Doesn't happen often since the first thought of most in government employ it to cover up any misdeeds.

A company I worked for several years ago hired a man with multiple BS, MS and Phd degrees. When he showed up and hung them on the wall I noticed that they all were from the same "college" and all signed with the same three names. The interesting thing was that the signatures showed that the positions these people held changed back and forth on different documents. They didn't seem to know what position they held from time to time. Didn't take long to check out the diploma mill. This guy was under suspicion from the start and it didn't take long to get rid of him. He had worked other places using these same documents and didn't get fired.

[LauraleeBraswell]

Great point! It is curiouse how those files came to be lost isn't it....

[dennisw]

Callahan’s management style had always been heavy-handed. Once, while working in a previous supervisory role at the Clinton White House, she reportedly warned computer workers to keep quiet about an embarrassing server glitch that led to the loss of thousands of archived e-mails covered by federal subpoena.

Why was the Clintonoid POS ever given a job at Homeland Security? Is someone powerful protecting her? Is her sugar daddy?

[dennisw]

Laura L. Callahan, Ph.D.

U.S. Department of Labor

Deputy Chief Information Officer

Director, Information Technology Center

 

 

Laura L. Callahan was appointed as the Department of Labor’s Deputy Chief Information Officer (CIO) in November 1999, and the Director of the Information Technology Center, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management in August 2000. As the Deputy CIO she provides leadership and management oversight of the Department’s Information Technology (IT) programs that comprise a $420 million investment portfolio. Dr. Callahan functions as the chief architect and primary IT advocate who justifies and defends the Department’s IT investment portfolio to external entities.

 

As the Director of the Information Technology Center, Dr. Callahan is responsible for daily operations of the core network infrastructure linking the Department to the Internet, and the wide area and local area networks that connect and enable data communications between the National and regional offices. She is also responsible for all applications systems development, enhancement, and maintenance activities that support business functions carried out by administration and management organizational units.

 

Dr. Callahan has served in the civil service for almost seventeen eighteen years, both in remote field locations as well as at national headquarters. She has worked in IT positions ranging from computer programmer to systems engineer and information systems security officer. She began her career with the Department of Defense in 1984 where she was responsible for orchestrating the design, development, implementation and maintenance activities for computer systems installed at U.S. Navy bases located in seven countries.

 

Dr. Callahan provided computer engineering and systems design support from 1991 to 1996 to researchers at the Defense Technical Information Center and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s Pittsburgh Research Center. Her engineering and design efforts focused on the implementation of laboratory information management systems for gaseous and health sampling analyses, and application of artificial intelligence to detect sensory stimuli for search and rescue activities.

 

Dr. Callahan worked for the Executive Office of the President in a leadership capacity where she had direct oversight of the network infrastructure and desktop computing environment used to support the business functions of the President, Vice-President, and other officials and offices at the White House.

 

Dr. Callahan is a member of the Chief Information Officer’s (CIO) Council, the Executive Council, and Co-Chair for of the CIO Council’s Committee on Security, Privacy, and Critical Infrastructure ProtectionWorkforce and Human Capital for IT Committee. She is a member of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association and the National Security Telecommunications and Information Systems Security Committee. She is a published author on the subject of computer science and has received over 45 various awards and forms of recognition for her contributions as a civil servant. Dr. Callahan has Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Computer Science, and holds a Ph.D. in Computer Information Systems from Hamilton University.

[infowarrior]

Its not at all hard to figure out. You have to understand that the typical federal supervisor is as ignorant as a high schooler.

And some of us "high schoolers" are a heckuva lot smarter than many federal supervisors, no matter where they got their diplomas...

the infowarrior

[Cincinatus]

2003 Federal 100 Awards
Laura Callahan
March 24, 2003

Laura Callahan
Deputy Chief Information Officer and Director of the Information Technology Center
Labor Department

Laura Callahan had more than a strategy for tackling the Labor Department's management and budget challenges — she had a vision.

Callahan deployed systems to integrate the needs of each agency within the department by ensuring that a strong information technology capital plan was in place.

"She has been able to take a big picture of where a Cabinet-level agency should be in five years and begin to implement a framework of a foundation of security procedures," said Theresa O'Malley, executive officer for Labor's IT Center.

Creating a common e-mail system to allow communication among all entities in the department was one step Callahan took. She also helped manage funds that cut across the department, spending money for departmentwide initiatives and "getting more bang for the buck," O'Malley said. Callahan also conducted an IT workforce assessment, identifying skill needs and core competencies for those workers.

"For most of it, she was the complete think tank behind it," O'Malley said.

SOURCE

Lord, help us.....

[em2vn]

Could this mean that Doctor Nick's diploma from the Hollywood Upstairs School of Medicine isn't valid? If so someone should call Homer Simpson.

[Cincinatus]

Bump to you, sweetie! Here's an example of The Problem....

[shezza]

Clinton refused to let the FBI vet most of his appointments. Most of them refused drug testing as well.

Yes, kind of disconcerting, isn't it? Thanks to the Clinton era, many of the people with access to the most sensitive information available regarding our national security haven't even been investigated. My understanding is that Congress as well as all of their staff members (in addition to gubmint appointees) are exempt from scrutiny.

On the other hand, my husband's background check took the FBI nearly a year to complete and was quite exhaustive. In their investigation the FBI talked to everybody from in-laws (my family) to his childhood school teachers to neighbors from decades ago to workmates from previous jobs just to make sure he was trustworthy. Congressmen don't even have to fess up to a parking ticket to get access to top secret info, nor do their office staff. It's an abomination, especially considering how the "insiders" practically trip over themselves to be the first to leak sensitive info to the media.

[Fenris6]

"That means that each and every fellow idiot they promoted remains in place"

Worse, they are promoted "up and out" - so that some other department (NIMBY) has to deal with the incompetence. There are several layers of supervisors in the DOL who have no business running a lemonaide stand.

Almost forgot the lesbian nepotism - "you hire my lover and I'll hire yours". Most of these hires have only one qualification - they're sleeping with a GS-xx.

[thombo]

Your right, the title is misleading. I thought the same thing as well.

[Max Combined]

"Affirmative action and ignorance."

I think you are on to something there.

[Sloth]

The whole football team loved Laura.

In every position, from what I hear.

[PeterPrinciple]

People who claim they can do it in two or three years are kidding.

You weren't enrolled in liberal arts or education were you?

[Fenris6]

"I think you are on to something there"

Careful. You can't manage minorities in DOL. If you critique their work they file a racial complaint. Get to many complaints - even if they are ALL frivolous - and you become non-promotable. Thats the main reason the Fed Gov is so screwed up: you can't get rid of non-performers without risking your career.

[muawiyah]

No one claimed the people with the fake credentials were beneficiaries of affirmative action.

[Fenris6]

Correction - I said "minorities" when I should have said "blacks".

[Doctor Stochastic]

More of the "Doctor" Kent Hovind ilk.