Jonathon P. Houser, executive director of the Submarine Learning Center (SLC) in Groton, was presented the Navy League of the United States 2015 Robert M. Thompson Outstanding Civilian Leadership Award during the league's national convention in Tampa, Florida. June 16-21.

The award, named for the father of the Navy League, honors an outstanding civilian leader who has made a personal contribution to furthering the importance of sea power.

Houser was cited in the award as responsible for creating, coordinating, and executing the future training and education vision for the submarine force. He was also praised for guiding the development of a 'virtual world' prototype project, a virtual 3-D classroom and laboratory environment which represents the future of Navy training delivery.

The award also praised Houser's authoring of studies that addressed expanded submarine training needs on Guam and additional Virginia-class submarine loading in Norfolk, Virginia, and noted that he possessed an innate ability to foresee problems and develop answers ahead of time.

The recognition came as a surprise to Houser, who was quick to redirect the praise to those he felt were instrumental in making the award possible -- the SLC staff across the domain.

"The award is a lot bigger than just one person," Houser said. "It's an organizational achievement and a terrific reflection on the excellence of the SLC staff.

Houser also noted that the SLC team is focused on the future of the submarine force.

"Their engagement, energy and expertise are all critical to our success both in maintaining a consistent level of excellence on a daily basis and also in the continuing development of training solutions for real-world situations that have not yet developed," he added.

In nominating his executive director, Capt. David Roberts, commanding officer of SLC, said that Houser's team responded quickly to fleet needs.

"The Submarine Learning Center is an agile organization, ready to respond to the warfighter, such as when Commander, Submarine Forces identified a critical need for electronic surveillance (ES) and contact management (CM) performance improvement," said Roberts. "He (Houser) oversaw development of new courses of instruction to improve readiness."

Roberts added that Houser's vast experience and leadership ensures that the U.S. Navy will retain undersea dominance throughout the world's oceans for years to come.

The Submarine Learning Center, with training sites located at fleet concentration areas world-wide, is accountable for all undersea curriculums, training delivery methodologies, and for developing and maintaining professional development continuums for all undersea warfare officers and ratings to include Electronics Technician (communications and navigation), fire control technician, sonar technician, machinist's mate (auxiliary and weapons), missile technician, and all nuclear training ratings.

For more news from the Submarine Learning Center, visit http://www.netc.navy.mil/centers/slc/ .

For more news from Naval Education and Training Command, visit www.navy.mil/.