Meet Matt Brainard, PMP Senior Program Analyst with AST for over six years. Matt utilizes and manages the Program Information Collection System: Nuclear Energy (PICS:NE), a web-based Program Management tool utilized by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Through this system, Matt provides continuous and direct financial, analytical, and program management support to the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) and its operations offices, affiliated national laboratories,
universities and industry partners. This support includes assisting DOE-NE with their annual/lifecycle budget initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, and closeout procedures for several different federally funded programs.  Other support activities include preparing and facilitating monthly program performance reviews, initiating baseline change proposals and work authorizations and setting up and training new end users of PICS:NE.

“PICS:NE is cool!” says Matt.  “This nationally known system developed and maintained by AST was specifically designed for tracking DOE-NE’s annual budget.”  As a Senior Program Analyst for AST, Matt tracks the funding and budgets for several different DOE-NE Programs and what’s being accomplished (or in some cases not accomplished) with that money.  Being the numbers guy that Matt is, he finds this aspect of his job fascinating! In addition to working on something he is passionate about, he also gets to
travel around the country to attend DOE-NE meetings, which he also finds interesting.

For Matt, the ability to help people excites him and through his position at AST, he gets to help people all the time. From assisting his own colleagues on the Analyst and Programming teams, to helping a National Laboratory staff member or a DOE-NE Federal Manager with a PICS:NE system issue, it excites him to help solve problems quickly.  “Every day is a challenge, something new pops up all the time.  It’s exciting to be able to face those challenges head on and produce a desired outcome that in the long run, will help someone do their job more efficiently and effectively” Matt said.

Matt resides in the small, but very historic town of Gettysburg, PA with his wife and five kids, ages 8, 10, 12, and 15 (twins).  They are into just about everything, from swimming, to soccer, to baseball, which keeps them busy all year round.  He enjoys getting out on the golf course as much as he can (which isn’t very often these days), catching a few beach days per year, and sampling some microbrews from all over the country.