By Brian J. Martin
July 20, 2016
Roger Vasquez brings a unique perspective to the U.S. Mint team. Having worked at the San Francisco facility for over twelve years before spending the last two in Washington, D.C., he has seen many different facets of the Mint’s mission.
In San Francisco, Vasquez worked as an engineering technician with a primary focus on project management and technical drawings.
His position at headquarters, though, requires a different kind of tool set. As a program specialist in the Office of Design Management, Vasquez works with artists, Congressional Gold Medal honorees and recipient organization liaisons to ensure that approved legislation goes from concept to coin design as smoothly as possible.
As an artist himself, he particularly enjoys seeing new designs for the first time.
“The broad spectrum of ideas that artists bring to the table is a favorite part of my job,” said Vasquez. “Sometimes you just think ‘wow, that’s incredible’ when you see a design for the first time.”
Vasquez reflects fondly on his time in San Francisco—where he won a Rittenhouse Award in 2010 for excellence in engineering—and still thinks of his coworkers there as family.
It was bittersweet leaving the West Coast, but even so, the opportunity to advance his career, work closely with art and bring his wife and three-year-old son closer to family was too hard to resist.
“I have a wonderful team here,” Vasquez added about the Design Management team at headquarters. “They have helped fill the gaps between what I was doing before and the kind of projects I am managing now.”
In his off-duty time, Vasquez is a music aficionado and overall fan of the creative arts. His favorite activity, though, is drawing something with his son and letting him add his own creative touch to it.
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