Celebrating Women Leaders at NETL - Deborah Buterbaugh

With an extensive educational background, Deborah Buterbaugh holds both an associate degree and a bachelor’s degree in education from Fairmont State University as well as a master’s degree from Regis University.

She is currently the associate director of Business Integration in the Laboratory Operations Center at NETL. In her position, she manages the Directives, Continuous Process Improvement, Internal and External Auditing, Financial Management Auditing, Quality Assurance, Enterprise Metrics, Federal Viewpoint Survey and Contract Administration programs.

Buterbaugh has been with NETL since November 1990, and she didn’t begin her career in a managerial role. She began as a secretary after she completed her undergraduate degree. Within 11 months of starting this position, Buterbaugh was able to work her way up within the organization and was promoted to a facility operations position.

From there, Buterbaugh continued going the extra mile and has held multiple other positions, including safeguards and security officer, space manager, project manager and business management specialist.

She was the technical project manager for a $100 million Workforce Training project in the Technology Development Center and oversaw the development and management of the Information Technology (IT) operations budget and IT business processes. She also served as the contracting officer’s representative (COR) for multiple site support contracts, including Site Security Services, grounds and janitorial services for Morgantown, IT Support Services and served in subsequent COR roles for the Site Operations Services and Management Execution contracts.

In 2022, she was promoted to her current position as the associate director of Business Integration. Throughout the years, Buterbaugh has always kept her eyes open for opportunities to further her career. It took her a long time and a lot of hard work, but she says it was worth it.

Even today she is still always looking for ways that she can advance her career and education. Her biggest advice is to be constantly looking for and taking advantage of opportunities that could be hiding in plain sight, “you never know where that experience can take you in life.”

In Buterbaugh’s opinion, Women’s History Month is a time to not only commemorate women, but it is a time to celebrate women who have made a significant contribution or impact on the nation or in a particular sector of society.

“It is also an ideal time for us to honor the women throughout NETL and DOE history who influenced the shaping of the laboratory and/or the Department,” said Buterbaugh. “I have worked with some amazing women throughout my career at NETL, all of which have contributed to my career development and success.”

Deborah Buterbaugh