Lorenza Salinas: Document guru

Lorenza Salinas is celebrating a lengthy and stellar career with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory. Her Argonne story began when a high school teacher brought her and several other students to an interview on site. Salinas did not have to wait long to hear back after her interview. In fact, she heard before she’d even returned home.

“I got the job,” said Salinas. ​“From that office procedures class on, I’ve been working at Argonne.” She has worked for Argonne for more than 40 years. She started in 1982.

Salinas works in the Communications and Public Affairs Writing Center of Excellence. She formats many different projects for Argonne divisions and directorates. As the go-to person for troubleshooting difficult formatting or style issues, she is known among her coworkers as ​“the document guru.” Due to her expertise and dedication, she has been honored with numerous awards. These include Core Values Shout-Outs, Impact Argonne Awards, Pacesetter Awards, and part of a group who received a 2022 Argonne Board of Directors Distinguished Performance Award.

“I get to see all kinds of documents for formatting work,” she said. ​“The variety is interesting and exciting.” The variety of work Salinas receives means there is also considerable variation in the rhythm of the workday. ​“The day-to-day work changes,” Salinas said. ​“It all depends what kind of request we get.”

Some documents Salinas has formatted have been very long, and others very short. ​“It ranges,” she explains. ​“It can go from templates to something much more complicated.” Salinas has worked on reports over a thousand pages. ​“Even one over 10,000 pages a couple years back,” she said.

The contents of the documents vary greatly as well. ​“The content could be, for example, strategic plans, proposals or environmental impact statements (EISs),” she said, adding, ​“The EISs are usually the huge ones.”

In addition to her formatting work, Salinas assists the digital team with special projects, posting articles to Argonne’s public website and archiving memos.

Managing tight deadlines is one of the greatest challenges of her work. Her ability to multi-task and prioritize projects helps her to succeed, and her love of reading in her spare time certainly doesn’t hurt.

Salinas emphasizes her commitment to making sure every document accomplishes its goals and satisfies its customers. She said, ​“I like to help customers meet their projects’ needs.”