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Commerce Awards $2 Million to Encourage Innovative Business and Manufacturing Growth Statewide

Illustration depicting high-tech equipment.

Yesterday, Washington State Department of Commerce announced $2 million in grants to accelerate manufacturing job growth and economic opportunity across the state.
Six businesses and four innovation clusters were awarded $200,000 each through the #EvergreenManufacturing Grant program, including Washington VERTical and our north Richland neighbor, OCOchem.
These grants support the BEST Act, which was passed by state legislature in 2021 and provide framework for adding 300,000 new manufacturing jobs over the next 10 years!

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Waynette Roberson

Waynette Roberson is CPCCo’s Director of Mission Assurance & Optimization. With more than 30 years of experience in the nuclear and manufacturing sectors, she leads initiatives to align CPCCo’s goals with a strong nuclear safety culture.

Previously, Waynette was the Chief Performance Assurance Officer at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, where she designed the Performance Assurance Organization and developed the Performance Assurance Program. Her career roles focusing on performance assurance, quality management and regulatory compliance with several companies across the DOE complex and internationally.

She holds a master’s degree in business and organizational communication and a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering technology from Murray State University. Certified as an NQA-1 Lead Auditor, Waynette excels in performance and quality assurance, incident investigation and root-cause analysis.