Courtesy Photo | Delaney Burlingame, SSP Newcomer Onboarding Workshop Program Manager, Workforce...... read more read more
Meet Delaney Burlingame, Strategic Systems Programs’ (SSP) Newcomer Onboarding Workshop Program Manager.
Burlingame’s journey to SSP is quite unique. In 2017, shortly after graduating with her bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, she applied and received a Fulbright scholarship to teach English in Taiwan. The Fulbright Scholar Program is a government-sponsored, highly coveted opportunity to study, teach, conduct research, or contribute to communities abroad. According to the Fulbright website, the U.S. government oversees an extensive suite of fellowships and scholarships in partnership with more than 160 countries worldwide.
“Right after college, I started teaching in Kinmen, Taiwan,” Burlingame said. “Kinmen is not part of mainland Taiwan, but a tiny island off the coast of Xiamen. I taught English at an elementary school there for the duration of my grant.”
After completing her Fulbright Scholar Program, Burlingame moved back to the United States and landed a job as an apprentice with Seattle Children’s Theatre. She worked as a freelance artist for a while until an opportunity to work as an education coordinator came around. She packed her bags and moved south to Montgomery, Alabama, to work for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in 2019. She worked there until the COVID-19 pandemic rampantly spread across the country in March 2020.
“Once COVID happened, we weren’t immune to the effects other industries were facing,” she said. “There were massive layoffs across regional theatres nationwide, so I moved home and began teaching theatre at a public school in Florida.”
As the country encountered quarantining protocols and social distancing, essential in-person jobs like teaching were shifted to hybrid and remote environments. This came with several new challenges that most school systems in the country were not prepared for, including teaching K-12 coursework to children through a video camera.
“During COVID, I was hybrid teaching, which was a bit of a nightmare,” she said. “I loved the kids and I loved teaching, but engaging classroom and online students simultaneously became a significant challenge.”
As she looked for new work, Burlingame came across SSP.
“I heard there was a developmental employee opportunity at the command, so I applied and was interviewed for it,” she said. “To be completely honest, I did not know what I was getting myself into when I first onboarded, but it turns out that this has been one of the best jobs I could have asked for. It is a great working environment.”
Since joining SSP in 2022, Burlingame has become a fundamental pillar to SSP’s new employee onboarding process. For the past three years she has spearheaded a Newcomer Onboarding Workshop (NOW) that is designed to support the learning of SSP’s mission and workplace culture.
“I came on in October 2022 and by February I was tasked to start developing SSP NOW,” she said. “When I first onboarded, I wasn’t really familiar with the culture, terminology, the way things functioned, and all those sorts of things, which made settling in a little challenging. I had to work really hard to acclimate myself to the command and get my bearings. So, I took those experiences and the task I was assigned and started developing this curriculum that offered this friendly, newcomer experience.”
Part of the SSP NOW curriculum Burlingame developed involves understanding how the Navy’s strategic weapon system evolved through the past 70 years. This includes the start of SSP as a government organization under the guidance of Rear Adm. William “Red” Raborn in 1955; to the development of the Polaris A1 missile; to the Navy maintaining and developing the current Trident II D5 Life Extension missiles aboard U.S. ballistic missile submarines.
Burlingame used her teaching experiences to cultivate a program that is informative and engaging. SSP NOW is a multi-day event that – apart from learning the command’s history – offers new employees networking opportunities with one another and creates a shared onboarding experience.
Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe Jr., the Director for SSP, frequently emphasizes the command’s strong workplace culture, describing SSP as a family. SSP NOW serves as that beginning step, integrating and welcoming newcomers to the Navy’s strategic deterrence mission.
Burlingame’s efforts with SSP NOW have supported – and continue to support – technical and nontechnical employees from across the SSP enterprise, including field activities and program management offices scattered across the country. The program offers new employees quarterly check-ins, site visits, and other resources to support their growth and development at the command during a yearlong cycle that starts with a two-day immersive training.
“I think that has been the biggest accomplishment during my time here,” she said. “Getting it to where it [SSP NOW] is today has been a major milestone. It has gone through a lot of changes since it started – changes to the content of the seminar. To be more effective, we have solicited, and continue to solicit, feedback to improve the program for every cohort. That’s been a big win for us.”
Burlingame said she appreciates working for a tightly-knit command like SSP and looks forward to leading more workforce development projects in the near future.
SSP is the Navy command responsible for sustaining the strategic weapon system (SWS) on the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) and supporting the integration of the D5LE weapon system on the new Columbia-class SSBNs. Looking to the future, SSP is actively modernizing the sea-based leg of the nuclear triad through development of the D5LE2 SWS and pioneering regional strike capabilities of the future through development of the nuclear-armed sea launched cruise missile and the non-nuclear hypersonic conventional prompt strike system.
| Date Taken: | 01.23.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 01.23.2026 10:43 |
| Story ID: | 556628 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 12 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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