2023 Covia Excellence Awards

Every year, Covia recognizes the outstanding work and contributions of Team Members, project teams, and plants, through several awards and accolades. The Covia Excellence Awards are one way we celebrate our team’s efforts. We are proud to announce this year’s award winners and hope that you join us in celebrating their incredible work. The 2023 Covia Excellence Award winners are:

• Prism Award – Vincent Rodriguez
• Commercial Impact Award – Terry Gwinn & Haley Dickerson
• Support Impact Award – Amanda Meehan & Kristin Lewis
• Plant of the Year – Ahuazotepec, Mexico
• Leaf Award Winner – Roff, Oklahoma
• President’s Safety Award – Cleburne, Texas
• Operations Impact Award – Lampazos & Monterrey, Mexico
• Volunteer of the Year – Rocky Rivers

Prism Award

The Prism Award recognizes a Covia team member who exemplifies and promotes diversity and inclusion where we work, who we do business with, and where we live. Our 2023 award winner is Customer Service Manager, Vincent Rodriguez, from Huntersville, North Carolina.

Vincent was nominated for his exceptional contributions in cultivating an inclusive, friendly, and cohesive work environment within the Customer Service team. Under Vincent’s leadership, the Customer Service team has become a vibrant and dynamic group with diverse skillsets, experiences, and backgrounds.

Commercial Impact Award

The 2023 Commercial Impact Award winners are Terry Gwinn, Sales Manager, and Haley Dickerson, Senior Representative, Inside Sales. Their record-setting performance helped spur massive growth in projects and applications, improved sales margins, and opened new business opportunities for our Performance Materials business.

Support Impact Award

This award was presented to Amanda Meehan, Director of Communications, and Kristin Lewis, Manager of Community Relations from our Independence, Ohio, office for their outstanding work on the launch of Covia's new intranet, The Quarry. This project has had a significant positive impact on Covia's employees – giving them a unified space for internal communication. Since launch, we have seen the continuous growth and utilization of this vital collaborative tool, which serves as the primary source for company news, up-to-date documents, and resources.

Plant of the Year – Ahuazotepec, Mexico

The Plant of the Year award recognizes a Covia plant that goes above and beyond – showing excellence across a range of performance measures, including plant efficiency and effectiveness, safety, environmental leadership, and community involvement.

Covia’s 2023 Plant of the Year is Ahuazotepec, Mexico. The plant had exceptional safety performance, including zero lost time incidents and zero recordable incidents. On the environmental front, the Ahuazotepec team continued the level of effort that earned them the 2022 Leaf award for environmental excellence through a continued effort to develop community partnerships and a shared vision for a vibrant community – developing local leaders and supporting initiatives such as new communal rainwater harvesting systems and reforestation.

Leaf Award Winner – Roff, Oklahoma

Covia recognized the Roff, Oklahoma plant by presenting them the Leaf Award for Environmental Excellence. Roff Team Members were recognized for their exceptional teamwork and achievements in three key areas: Environmental Compliance, Environmental Projects, and Community Involvement.

An example of the team’s commitment is their continued participation in the Wildlife Habitat Certification (WHC) program. Their most recent certification renewal included removal of invasive eastern red cedar trees to make way for native species in the prairie habitat near the plant. Roff team members have also taken steps to relocate fish and turtles from a man-made pond to a larger habitat by constructing a channel with netting. In addition, the team manages 5.3 acres of pollinator gardens and tracks bird feeders, bird houses, and wood duck boxes on the property.

President’s Safety Award – Cleburne, Texas

Covia’s 2023 President’s Safety Award winner is the Cleburne, Texas, plant. The team there achieved the highest level of safety performance across several key categories, all of which help to ensure that our production goals are met in a safe and timely manner. Through the plant’s collective efforts, Team Members were able to achieve excellent results, including no LTIs or reportable incidents, 100% completion of specific safety activities, and a very commendable 91% score on a health and safety audit.

In addition to their exceptional safety performance, Cleburne also met all Quality Improvement Program (QIP) requirements and conducted a thorough process risk assessment in 2023. The Cleburne plant also showed their commitment to being a strong community partner and supporting local needs by sponsoring local schools and scholarship funds, donating more than 600 hours of volunteer time into their community, and hosting annual food drives.

Operations Impact Award – Lampazos & Monterrey, Mexico

Our 2023 Operations Impact Award winners are a team from the Lampazos and Monterrey, Mexico plants. The team worked together to develop a plan that considered all aspects of the Lampazos plant, looking at competitive issues to help them to improve the plant's gross margin. The implementation of their plan resulted in positive financial results for the year. In conjunction, Team Members at Monterrey developed a long-term strategy that ensures the plant’s ongoing success.

Volunteer of the Year – Rocky Rivers

Supporting our local communities by donating our time and financial resources is a key component of our Clearly Covia Values and a cornerstone of the Covia Foundation. The Volunteer of the Year Award shines a spotlight on an individual whose consistent service is making a difference in their community. Rocky Rivers, Environmental, Health & Safety/Quality Coordinator at the Oregon plant in Illinois, has been recognized with the Volunteer of the Year Award for his remarkable number of volunteer hours in 2023 and his commitment to his community. Rocky volunteers with a number of organizations, including coaching a middle school basketball team and managing the Avalanche softball team, a year-round team. In addition, with Rocky's guidance and support, Covia’s Oregon facility partnered with the Department of Natural Resources and the Illinois Conservation Foundation to host the Becoming an Outdoors-Woman program's Bass Fishing Workshop.

Leading the Way

We are honored to celebrate such outstanding work and involvement from this year’s winners. They exemplify Covia’s values through every aspect of their lives – both at work and in their communities. We thank them for their hard work and encourage them to continue leading through example. Covia is a place where great things happen. If you’re looking for a rewarding career that empowers you to be your best, check out our Careers section. We have open positions for a wide range of specialties and experiences throughout our North American footprint.