Armstrong, Strinden present 2025 Governor’s Awards for Excellence in Public Service

BISMARCK, N.D. - Gov. Kelly Armstrong and Lt. Gov. Michelle Strinden today presented the 2025 Governor's Awards for Excellence in Public Service, recognizing teams across state government for their exceptional efforts to serve citizens and meet a variety of challenges.

This year's awards recognized team efforts, both within individual agencies and among agencies inside and outside of state government. More than 300 nominations were submitted by state employees.

"Our state agencies continue to deliver world-class service in collaboration with each other and our local, tribal and federal partners," Armstrong said. "This year's awards highlight teams that went above and beyond in serving our citizens and making North Dakota an even better place to live, work and raise a family. Congratulations to all the award recipients and nominees, and thanks to everyone who nominated their colleagues for their outstanding work."

Armstrong and Strinden presented the awards during a ceremony in the Capitol's Memorial Hall.

Following are the award categories, descriptions and recipients:

Triple-Play Award: Recognizes a high-performing team that flawlessly executed a complex, multi-stage project with precision, speed and without errors.

• Recipient: NDPERS Retirement Plan Transition Team, forimplementing a major policy change by transitioning the retirement plan for new state employee hires from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan within a challenging 18-month timeline.

Prairie Pheasant Flush Award: Honors a sharp, fast-moving team that spotted a challenge, coordinated their strike and delivered a timely solution before it became a crisis.

• Recipient: Department of Public Instruction (DPI) and Center for Distance Education (CDE) for Choice-Ready Framework for Military Readiness, forengaging the National Guard to swiftly develop curriculum and create a first-in-the-nation, comprehensive military pathway program after data revealed too few students were meeting military readiness benchmarks under the state's choice-ready framework for K-12 education.

Backbone Collaboration Award: Celebrates a resilient team that tackled the tough, behind-the-scenes work to strengthen North Dakota's infrastructure, energy or economy through grit and cross-agency collaboration.

• Recipient: North Dakota Parks and Recreation's Little Missouri State Park Trail Restoration Team, for the demanding, often dangerous work of restoring over 5 miles of abandoned and impassable trails to strengthen the park's infrastructure, increase public confidence and ensure future generations can experience the park's beauty.

Strength from the Soil Award: Awards a team that advanced agriculture or natural resources innovation in North Dakota through cross-agency or cross-community involvement.

• Recipient: North Dakota Game and Fish Department's State Wildlife Management Area (WMA) District Managers, for their innovative approach in building partnerships with local livestock producers and implementing managed grazing systems to help restore prairie landscapes, improve nesting cover for upland birds and enhance forage diversity for deer and other big game.

Roaming Bison Award: Recognizes an exceptional team whose innovation, teamwork and citizen focus set the standard for public service in North Dakota.

• Recipient: October Wildfire Unified Command, for coordinating the remarkable efforts of more than 15 agencies that worked tirelessly to protect North Dakota residents and communities from historic wildfires that burned over 118,000 acres and caused millions of dollars in damage in October 2024.