Naval Air Systems Command honored Kimberly Brown, public affairs officer at Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, with the 2025 Supervisor of the Year Award for Point Mugu on Jan. 21.
Brown was selected from 206 nominations submitted across NAVAIR commands. She represents Point Mugu as one of 12 site-level supervisors honored for their fairness, authenticity, and leadership that helps others succeed.
"Being trusted by your team is the highest honor," Brown said. "Supervision isn't about control. It's about making sure people have what they need to do their best work."
That mindset shapes Brown’s approach at NAWCWD.
As the command's PAO, Brown leads a cross-site team of public affairs specialists, technical writers, and resource support staff responsible for delivering timely, transparent communication to the workforce, senior leadership, and the public.
Brown’s path to public affairs began with chance meeting.
While living in Germany with her late husband, who served in the Army, she crossed paths with two Army public affairs officers searching for a volunteer writer.
"I had just moved to Germany and was looking for something to do," she said. "I literally backed into the public affairs officer and deputy in the hallway. We started talking, and when they learned I had experience, they asked me to draft briefs for the base paper. After seeing what I could do, they created a full time position."
After returning stateside, she worked for the Veterans Affairs hospital system in New Orleans during one of its most challenging periods. Hurricane Katrina had devastated the facility and the community it served. She wrote about recovery, resilience, and the people rebuilding care for veterans in a city still healing. That experience continues to influence her leadership and her focus on taking care of the people around her.
Brown became the base PAO at Naval Base Ventura County in 2012. Three years later, she was recruited to NAWCWD, where she became site lead for Point Mugu and, in 2023, took her current position.
"Public affairs found me," Brown said. "I've stayed because it connects people, across commands, across missions and across stories that deserve to be told."
Two decades with the Army, VA, and Navy taught her that communication and trust are the true measures of leadership. With a team spanning two sites 180 miles apart, that can be difficult.
"Geography is probably my biggest challenge," Brown said. "I wasn't going to let distance become an excuse for gaps in coverage or performance."
Each week, she takes the air shuttle from Point Mugu to China Lake, connecting teams that drive innovation and mission success across both sites.
For Brown, supervision means closing every kind of distance, whether it’s the miles between sites or the support her team needs to do their best work.
She secured cameras, lighting equipment, a MacBook and editing software for modern public affairs work. When Public Affairs Specialist Tim Gantner needed advanced training, she arranged his seven-month enrollment at Defense Information School.
“She gives us the tools, the training and the trust,” Gantner said. “When it comes to feedback, her turnaround time is measured in minutes, not days.”
Brown provides specific, actionable feedback while the work is still fresh. She explains her reasoning, offers examples, and often ends with “dealer’s choice,” reinforcing trust while teaching.
That same trust shows up in how Brown supports her people through life’s hardest moments.
When Gantner’s family faced multiple miscarriages during an in-vitro journey in 2024, Brown was there through each unexpected emergency.
“She never questioned me leaving,” Gantner said. “She told me, ‘Your wife needs you there.’ She checked on me during the darkest moments. That kind of support sticks with you.”
For Public Affairs Specialist Deidre Patin, Brown’s leadership became a turning point in her two-decades at NAWCWD.
“She is the only supervisor I’ve had who provided a path to career growth,” Patin said. “She made me fight for it and do the hard work, but seeing her confidence in me and knowing there was an achievable outcome was something I hadn’t experienced before.”
Patin described Brown’s leadership in one word: fair.
“She holds us accountable when we miss expectations and gives honest kudos when we exceed them,” Patin said. “She manages with a calm, lighthearted demeanor and can sense when we’re overwhelmed. She responds quickly with guidance or resources to help us get things done.”
Brown’s approach to leadership began long before she became a supervisor.
While teaching history at a small California college, she learned the power of a simple question: “What do you need from me to support you?”
One of her adult students was excelling in every subject except hers and had reached a breaking point.
"He was angry, ready to quit," Brown said. "I asked, 'What do you need from me to help you get through this?' He looked at me like no one had ever asked him that before."
The exchange stayed with her.
"I realized no one had ever asked me that either," she said. "So that's what I do now. I ask everyone."
Travis Ball, head of the Strategic Communications Division, said that Brown’s ability to guide, empower, and hold her team accountable is exactly why they chose her as Supervisor of the Year.
"Kimberly navigates difficult conversations without delay and gives her team freedom to stumble and learn," Ball said. "People fill their own confidence meters and excel. She's also a storyteller by trade. She'll see right through the dog-ate-your-homework excuse.”
Genesis Johnson, NAWCWD's chief of staff and operations, once supervised Brown. She says Brown has become a leader who faces tough moments head-on.
"Kimberly never shies away from hard conversations, but she leads them with affectionate listening," Johnson said. "She adjusts her own efforts to ensure her actions have a positive impact."
Brown's influence reaches beyond her branch. As command PAO, she advises the commander, executive director, and senior leadership team on messaging and communication strategy.
"Most of our supervisors also have 'day jobs,'" Johnson said. "Kimberly's just happens to be one of the most demanding and constantly 'on' in the entire Command. Public Affairs and crisis management is a 24/7 job, and the fact that Kimberly devotes so much time and energy into advocating for and supporting her team is truly extraordinary."
Under Brown’s supervision, NAWCWD’s messaging became more strategic and mission-aligned in 2025. She led her team in executing the NAVAIR Social Media Refresh strategy. They focused on linking every message to lethality, readiness, and warfighting.
To Brown, the value of communication goes far beyond messaging. It’s about impact.
“The challenge is sharing the right information, the right way, at the right time,” Brown said. “Doing that strengthens security, supports research and raises the profile of our work. More importantly, it makes these unforgiving jobs safer. It helps make sure this sailor, this aviator, this Marine can do what she needs to do and get home to tuck their children in at night.”
Johnson said that focus on people and purpose defines Brown’s leadership.
"She deeply knows just how critical the work is that her team is responsible for, and she makes it her job to ensure they have everything they need to succeed," Johnson said.
Brown said any recognition she receives is the result of a team effort.
Every Teams meeting still ends the same way.
Two years in, her team knows she means it.
"What do you need from me to support you?"
| Date Taken: |
01.23.2026 |
| Date Posted: |
01.23.2026 15:12 |
| Story ID: |
556671 |
| Location: |
POINT MUGU NAWC, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Hometown: |
ELIZABETHTOWN, KENTUCKY, US |
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