Proven Impact
Paragon has delivered successful management of 200+ subcontracts; 4,000+ student internships, fellowships, and scholarships; 350+ faculty fellowships; 800+ student and educator travel-support awards, 100+ educator stipends; and 700+ mini-grants to schools and organizations. Paragon established systems that ensure prompt, accurate delivery of sub-awards to recipients, detailed tracking of sub-award uses, and a commitment to accountability and transparency.
The Paragon TEC Evaluation Team (as part of a NASA Glenn Research Center Team) received an Agency Honor Award in 2019 by transforming organizational strategy, measures, supporting tools and business processes into exemplars of innovation in federal government that was viewed so positively that we were invited by OMB to deliver training to 60 reps from 17 federal offices and agencies.
In recognition of the value of Paragon’s expertise in implementing common solutions and efficiencies across the Agency. Paragon has supported NASA with streamlining and unifying several redundant programs since 2013.
When NASA combined its historic Aerospace Education Services Project (AESP) and NASA Explorer Schools (NES) into the combined Educator Professional Development (EPD) project, Paragon engaged in change management as a bridge from one cooperative agreement to the next. Paragon brought both new strategies and refinements to existing processes.
Thanks to an increased focus on Internet-based approaches, Paragon achieved a 60% increase compared to the previous fiscal year to more than 20,000 educators served. With over 700 EPD events, both face-to-face and virtually, this averaged to an event every single week at each of the 10 Centers.
For over 10 years, Paragon TEC, as a prime contractor , was solely responsible for the IT environment focused on MIS and CRM for the Science, Engineering, Mathematics, and Aerospace Academy (SEMAA) National Office. This included the management, design and installation of 24 state-of-art Aerospace Education Laboratories (AELs) in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Paragon TEC also developed a web-based IMS to standardized data collection and reporting for the 24 SEMAA sites.
Paragon TEC has continued to update and improve our Information Management System (IMS) to meet NASA’s reporting requirements and performance measurement goals as they have evolved. Data collection includes capturing the number of participants, student demographics, use of NASA facilities and content, school districts, partnership and sustainability efforts, actual expenditures, family involvement and stakeholder feedback on a quarterly basis to ensure that performance goals are being achieved.
Paragon TEC developed and maintains a similar IMS for ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp program (2007 – 2017) which was comprised upto 23 sites located at college and universities extending from as far north as Alaska to as far southeast as Florida. Paragon developed financial training guides, conducted F2F and virtual training, provided on-going support to awardees for quarterly and annual reports, tracked budget, reviewed allocations for adherence to policies and procedures, reported deviations, and recommended budget approvals.
Paragon TEC was awarded the status of a first-tier subcontractor by Harris Corporation, an international communications and information technology company serving government and commercial markets in more than 150 countries. For over 5 years, Paragon TEC provided IT support to Harris Corporation on an IDIQ basis. As change management agents, Paragon engineered new user interfaces and queries to allow the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs users to research open claims and expedite their resolution.
Paragon TEC managed the Visitor Center at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center from 2009 to 2014. Paragon was responsible for all operational aspects of the GSFC Visitor Center including the overall facility and various technical exhibitions and displays. Paragon managed one of the major high-tech exhibits called Science on a Sphere which targeted walk in visitors, formal education event participants, and science professionals who used the system as a platform to share their work with the science community. This mesmerizing visualization system was developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and allows data to be projected on a 6-foot-diameter sphere.
Paragon TEC has provided technical, market, economic and other studies, products, and activities to support communication and education initiatives for NASA’s Aeronautics programs. The team helped to define, test and disseminate messages including the development of materials and message architectures. These messages have included public outreach campaigns with respect to both the Agency as a whole as well as specific Centers and Directorates.
Paragon TEC was tasked with the management of education communication support services at NASA Headquarters from 2006 to 2013, supporting NASA’s Education goals through communications and stakeholder engagement. Paragon delivered a robust communication infrastructure that supported all of the organizations internal activities and external engagement programs.
For three years ending in 2012, Paragon TEC led visitor education and community outreach support services for NASA Glenn Research Center that involved visitors, teachers, students, and the regional community with NASA accomplishments and activities regarding the aeronautics and space program and their benefit to humankind.