The National Safety Council (NSC) named its "Top 40 Under 40" Rising Stars of Safety, and one of the top honorees is a naval officer stationed aboard USS Frank Cable (AS 40), homeported in Apra Harbor, Guam.

Lt. Malia Gonzalez was selected by the NSC as one of the 2016 Rising Stars of Safety, beating out more than 100 other nominees from every industry throughout the United States.

The award recognized her work as the safety officer while assigned to Frank Cable, and specifically her contributions to safety from April 2015 to present.

"I was proud to hear Lt. Gonzalez was recognized by the NSC as a winner of the Top 40 Under 40 Rising Stars," said Rear Adm. Frederick Roegge, commander, Submarine Force, Pacific Fleet. "This recognition reflects very positively on Malia as a naval officer and provides positive exposure to the Navy as a leader in safety."

The NSC formally announced the members of this elite group in the October 2016 issue of Safety+Health magazine, the official magazine of NSC Congress & Expo.

The NSC plans to recognize the "Top 40 Under 40" winners during their Congress & Expo next week in Anaheim, California, and each honoree will be presented their award during the National Award Celebration Reception, Oct. 18. Gonzalez, who is currently deployed, will receive her award at a later date.

Gonzalez established a safety culture on Frank Cable and actively engages her peers to ensure all programs are evaluated on a routine basis. Her efforts resulted in zero on-duty class "A" and class "B" mishaps and no lost man-hours or limited duty days resulting from on-duty mishaps while completing the mission over the past year.

"Protecting our people and assets by managing risk is paramount," said Roegge.

Gonzalez's leadership in the safety program aboard Frank Cable was responsible for a 62 percent reduction in safety mishaps and an 87 percent reduction in safety discrepancies over the past year. Her strategic planning ensured her command adhered to all safety requirements and maintained the highest safety standards while executing the mission, as evidenced by the completion of seven Continuous Maintenance Availabilities, 55 Voyage Repair Availabilities, and 17 Remote-Site Fly-Away teams tasking, encompassing more than 2,965 jobs and totaling more than 345,000 production man-hours of quality maintenance aboard submarines and surface ships throughout the Pacific theater.

"My ultimate goal is to ensure that every Sailor, mariner and contractor goes home every day in the same condition in which they arrived," said Gonzalez. "It is my moral obligation to ensure a safe and healthy work environment for all personnel working on USS Frank Cable. A good safety attitude and safety behavior is vital to the success of our safety programs on board."

Gonzalez's dedication to ensuring safety on board Frank Cable largely contributed to her ship's selection for the fiscal year 2015 Secretary of the Navy Safety Excellence Award, which was presented by Under Secretary of the Navy Dr. Janine Davidson at a ceremony at the Pentagon in August.

Frank Cable is one of two forward-deployed submarine tenders and is on a scheduled deployment in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations to conduct maintenance and support deployed U.S. naval force submarines and surface vessels in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

Also based out of Naval Base Guam are submarine tender USS Emory S. Land (AS 39) and four Los Angeles-class attack submarines assigned to Commander, Submarine Squadron 15. The submarines and tenders are maintained as part of the U.S. Navy's forward-deployed submarine force and are readily capable of meeting global operational requirements.

For more information on the USS Frank Cable, visit http://www.facebook.com/FrankCableAS40, or http://www.csp.navy.mil/frankcable.

For more news from Commander, Submarine Squadron 15, visit http://www.csp.navy.mil/css15 and http://www.facebook.com/SubmarineSquadron15/.

Thinking of being stationed in Guam? Check out http://www.csp.navy.mil/go-guam/ for more information.

For more information, visit http://www.navy.mil, http://www.facebook.com/usnavy, or http://www.twitter.com/usnavy.

For more news from Commander, Submarine Squadron 15, visit http://www.navy.mil/.