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Sustainability is the future.

On this week’s episode of Women of Washington, Gigi Schumm welcomed Una Song, a senior adviser at the Energy Department’s Office of Environment, Health, Safety and Security. Before joining DOE, Song worked for the Environmental Protection Agency and several well-known private sector companies including AT&T, Dell and IBM. She’s been a huge champion for the department’s Energy Star program, a joint effort between Energy and the EPA to promote energy efficiency.

Her current role is centered on sustainability and environmental compliance by providing technical assistance to the department’s 47 different sites. She also works with another colleague to provide support for the management programs dealing with endangered and invasive species.

“What I really like about my job is that there isn’t kind of a typical day-to-day, because with technical assistance, you don’t know what questions are going to come,” she said. “The department is actually quite diverse [and] I don’t think people really know that.”

The Energy Department manages over 2 million acres of land — roughly the size of Yellowstone National Park. Song said it is her team’s responsibility to manage the invasive species on that land. She also hopes to develop a repository of resources and best practice examples to help the department in the future.

That includes creating a website that will consolidate the skills and assistance the technical team can provide. Song said this will help the different areas of the agency find someone that can help them much easier, and quicker.

“I need to constantly be learning and I love to problem solve. So anything new, I really love to just dive in and figure out what I can do there,” she said. “So this is a perfect job for me.”

Federal sustainability

There are many ways for federal agencies to reduce and potentially re-use energy.

In fact, many of the labs associated with the Energy Department are working on initiatives to become certified net zero buildings. In other words, the total amount of energy consumption used by the building is equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site.

Song gave several examples of how an agency can do this:

• Update lighting fixtures to more sustainable bulbs
• Adding solar panels to buildings, garages and even parking lots to create renewable energy sources
• Planting more native, drought-resistant plants that use less water and require less maintenance

Song says her team is part of a federal-wide working group talking about invasive species, and sharing best-practices for sustainability in order to keep up with federal policies. It is their goal to soak in that information, share it with the various Energy Department sites, and make sure they are up to date with the newest policies and procedures.

“Since we manage so much land, it’s an integral part of how we manage the land that we’re responsible for,” she said.

Career-building

While she spent most of her life in the Washington, D.C. suburbs, Song said she has more of a Western mindset. Before fourth grade, she spent a lot of time in Colorado. She remembers that at one time she wanted to own a ranch with a lot of land and hiking trails.

Her love for nature never changed, even as she relocated to Maryland. Her dad, originally from South Korea, also worked for DOE, first in California, Tennessee and Colorado, then eventually at the headquarters in Washington.

“I say that my dad is the luckiest man alive because we moved from Colorado to D.C. in the Nixon administration, right before a hiring freeze began,” she said. “So my dad got hired the day before the hiring freeze went into effect.”

Song worked in the private sector for 15 years before she decided to commit herself to energy efficiency. Through several volunteer jobs and working for small energy efficiency associations, she found an opening to join the Energy Star initiative. That is how she ended up at EPA and now the Energy Department.

“I felt like I wanted to do something more for a community. So I … took some time off and I went into business on my own trying to find myself in my 30s. I ended up kind of researching the energy efficiency and renewable energy business and I saw that this has a lot of social benefit …,” she said. “There was a lot of good that comes out of it. So I decided to switch industries.”

She was attracted to the goal of thinking about the future and the way we consume energy.

Song said she’s been lucky to not have many work-life balance challenges. The Energy Department is very accommodating, and does allow telework, as it cuts back on travel time and increases productivity.

But sometimes life can get a little hectic and Song said she’s very efficient and likes to check-off the boxes as she goes. Her colleague asked her once if she ever looked back on all of the work she’d done and appreciated the experience.

“I was like ‘no’, but maybe I should do that,’ she said. “I would tell my [younger] self to just kind of slow down and enjoy the ride a little more more.”

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Being able to take a step back, reassess and broaden your horizons is an important asset, according to one civil service employee.

On this week’s episode of Women of Washington, Gigi Schumm welcomed Mary Erickson, deputy director of the National Weather Service (NWS). Erickson has held positions across the span of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for more than 30 years including brief stints with the National Ocean Service and Coast Survey Development Laboratory.

NWS has a mission dedicated to protecting lives and property. How? By providing accurate forecasts to the public on weather, water and climate issues.

One of Erickson’s main responsibilities is to oversee the agency’s change initiatives — including new programs and technology aimed to improve the quality and speed of the forecasts. She said this takes the work of all three components of what is called the “weather enterprise.”

“It’s made of government agencies, academic institutions and I use the term the ‘weather industry,’ [or] folks in the private sector,” she said. “And they’re really along the whole value chain of creating weather forecasts from taking observations, from doing models, having high-performance computing technology [and] all the way through making forecasts and then distributing forecasts.”

The media — one example of a private industry — is a great partner for the NWS in terms of helping to get the word out, Erickson said. It is a vital partnership because whether someone is driving in a car listening to the radio, or at home watching T.V., they can still get the crucial information they need to stay safe.

This includes NOAA Radio, which was created to give even those stakeholders with weak radio signals the ability to stay up to date with weather forecasts. The agency also continues to look into new platforms as technology continues to evolve.

“We’ve recognized, probably just about a decade ago through some devastating tornado outbreak events, that making an excellent, accurate and timely forecast is not enough,” she said. “If you really want to save lives and property, you need to make sure that people hear that message and hear that forecast each morning and understand it.”

Figuring things out

Erickson said while meteorology — especially at the national level — is a 24-7-365 type of job, she’s always been interested in the weather, science and math. Originally from upstate New York, she was no stranger to weather changes and had planned to study physics. It was a high school teacher that turned her eyes to her current passion.

Her father, a materials engineer, also played a part in her decision to pursue meteorology and was one of her mentors.

“He was an early champion of women in science, so he was mentoring other women in the engineering field and even took me to engineering symposiums and things like that,” she said. “So he always encouraged me to go into science.”

Erickson said women make up about 20% of the NWS workforce. But as they continue to hire new employees, that number continues to grow closer to 30%.

While studying at Penn State University, Erickson was in the Air Force ROTC program. But as her goal to pursue public-sector meteorology became more clear, she dropped out of that program and started an internship program with the National Weather Service.

“I think very early on, I was very drawn to the idea of public service and the nonprofit aspect of applying science to something that mattered to people every day,” she said.

As she moved up the ladder, Erickson said she learned many important lessons on how to be a good leader. She also learned how to build her network and keep ties open between departments.

Moving forward

In any job, there are going to be awkward or unexpected circumstances that arise. Sometimes weather changes, sometimes predictions are wrong and sometimes things happen a little too quickly. One of Erickson’s mentors gave her advice that she said she will always remember: You have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Learning is a continual process. Some of that is taking chances and some of that is getting to know yourself better. Erickson said it’s OK to have weaknesses, but building teams that compensate for those is key.

“I would say that’s the first ingredient: You know what your strengths are. And always try to lead with those strengths. [But] be aware of your shortcomings,” she said. “I think those things help you move forward and take some chances, take some risks. And then every time that you take a risk and succeed, it’s just such a huge energy boost and then you can go on and do more and more things.”

Erickson has also been part of coaching and mentorship programs across NOAA, including one program where younger employees come to the corporate office and shadow more experienced employees, as well as a NWS-specific program aimed at mid-career employees.

Her current position at the NWS is never boring because she’s able to do something different every single day, which helps to feed her curiosity. She said she realized it wasn’t her core expertise to just be interested in one subject.

Erickson’s journey wasn’t necessarily as winding as some, but she said everyone has to find their own way. What worked for her may not work for someone else. There are sacrifices everyone has to make when pursuing their dream career. There is no ultimate solution.

“Don’t try to be finding the ‘perfect’ way. Follow your curiosity, follow what you really enjoy doing and what engages you,” Erickson said. “That’s going to be the best path for you.”

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On this week’s episode of Women of Washington, Gigi Schumm welcomed Danielle Brigida, the acting deputy director of digital strategy at the Interior Department. Previously, she served for four years as social media manager for the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife. Her Digital.Gov bio says she’s “a wildlife geek who loves being outside and playing online with purpose.”

Brigida said a lot of her day-to-day activities center on content creation for the agency’s social media channels, as well as keeping an eye on analytics — usually via Google — to help develop a strategy of how best to reach their followers. The Interior Department’s mission is a unique one, she said, and their digital strategy is focused mainly on how the agency can open better communication lines to promote the public lands it manages.

Moving from a smaller agency to a department-wide position is often a large jump that comes with a lot more responsibility. Brigida said through the transition she was able to really get to know Interior, all of its bureaus and its broader scope.

“We’re nicknamed the department of ‘everything else’, I think,” she said. “Because we do cover a lot of ground. I think the difference is just the broader mission and how we kind of incorporate those messages in a way that makes sense for our audience … and how you can really actually communicate, not just say words at them, but really talk with them and hear them too.”

Her team is currently focused on two main objectives with the digital strategy: Providing updated technology to all of the bureaus and programs, and problem-solving. She said one of the biggest things she wants people to walk away with when coming to the Interior social media pages is to see the progress the department has made and what they’re continuing to do to ensure public lands and programs flourish.

Those channels also make it easier for Interior officials to interact with the public and receive their feedback.

A graduate of Christopher Newport University, Brigida studied technical writing. She said if she hadn’t joined the federal workforce, her career would still center on content creation, or writing. In the field of digital media, she said it’s important to have both a creative and analytical side.

“Some days, I’m really trying to stick to creative, [and] it’s actually really challenging to balance between the two,” she said.

If her resume didn’t already reflect her interest in nature, one of her hobbies will. Brigida said she likes to go birding during the weekends, as her parents instilled a love for animals and the environment in her from a young age. She also enjoys sketching and has recently picked up the guitar.

Sometimes even a digital strategist needs a break from the online world.

“I try and get outside, but a lot of my fun, personal time is actually doing stuff that relates to work. That’s just kind of part of it,” she said. “A lot of people worry about work-life balance, and that’s certainly a concern of mine, mostly because digital is all so engrossing and people are spending so much time on their phones. So when I go birding, most of how I interact with digital is just taking photos … I try and step away from electronics when I can.”

Career progression, advice

Brigida started using social media in the same way most did, via Myspace and Facebook. She was also part of the Ecology Club which used these free channels to keep in contact — and work to get recycling on campus.

This led her to join the National Wildlife Foundation, where she worked for eight years and which she said was just like one big ecology club. Brigida stressed pursuing a career path that you actually like.

“I think if there’s something you’re really good at or if there’s something you like doing, you should do more and find ways to do more of it, even if it’s not necessarily paid,” she said. “I think the expectation that we’re all going to always love our job and never find it to be work is not a great message for millennials.”

All jobs have highs and lows. Identifying where you can add the most value and not being afraid to ask questions are two important skills to have when working for a government agency, or in general.

When she first began her social media journey in the workplace, people were often confused on its purpose. Brigida said there is always value when opening the communication lines between a company or agency and it’s stakeholder.

“Follow-up and follow-through is really the key — then recognizing and thanking people as you go as much as possible,” she said. “I always want that gratitude to shine through my work. I hope that it does.”

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What does it take to be a “data mastermind?”

On this week’s episode of Women of Washington, Gigi Schumm welcomed Caryl Brzymialkiewicz, who currently serves two roles within the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, as assistant inspector general and as the first chief data officer. For her tenacity and great ideas, Brzymialkiewicz was named on FCW’s Top 100 federal employees of 2019.

Brzymialkiewicz said over the past four years she has made it her goal to act as an executive champion, promoting the department to focus more on data-driven decisions and ultimately leveraging that data as an asset. One large example of her work was the agency’s Enterprise Dashboard, a tool that provides easy-access to the status of projects within the department and other monetary data.

Brzymialkiewicz and her team wanted all those working under HHS OIG to be able to visualize the ongoing work of the organization without relying on outdated data or legacy systems.

“[It’s] so that all 1,600 plus people in our organization could take a look at the same things across the organization about how many reports are we conducting? How many audits? How many evaluations? How many investigations? And so some of that’s the nitty gritty, behind the scenes work,” she said. “It’s been really fun building a team with passionate people that love working in these areas to grow the program.”

Her passion for data integration is clear now, but her path to where she is today wasn’t exactly straightforward.

Biomedical engineering to data engineering

Brzymialkiewicz studied biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt University. Originally from Texas, she said her steel-worker father and teacher mother supported her interest in STEM fields. Her husband too has always been a team player when it comes to making decisions and taking chances.

She moved on to Duke University to continue her medical aspirations and receive her doctorate degree. She said at first she did toy around with the idea of pursuing medical school and becoming a doctor, but she saw herself more as a behind-the-scenes person.

After Duke she became a research analyst for the Center for Naval Analyses and spent time in Afghanistan. She also worked for the Joint IED Defeat Organization. But as someone who loved statistics and math, she realized how important data could be and she wanted to be part of the conversation.

“I felt like I could make recommendations from the outside, but the folks making the decisions were actually in the government, and I wanted to help solve problems,” she said. “And I had mentors, and some other folks say, ‘are you sure that you want that job?’ … I thought, well, why not? This is where I want to try to make things better.”

She ended up moving up to higher positions very quickly and eventually moved on to join the federal workforce as an analyst for the Department of Homeland Security. Less than four years later, she moved into HHS.

Climbing the ladder as an introvert

“I like the notion of thinking about myself as a federal entrepreneur and building things, standing things up with really hard problems,” Brzymialkiewicz said. “When I left to come to Health and Human Services, it really was an exciting time. Just talking about it seemed really exciting to me to help build this… like how many times do you get to build something in the federal space?”

The OPEN Government Data Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump on January 14, requires federal agencies to publish their government data in machine-readable and open formats. It also made it imperative for the federal agencies to put someone in place to develop best practices for their organizations and act as a chief data officer.

Brzymialkiewicz said as an introvert, she was okay not being in the spotlight. She just wanted to help people. Networking and partnering with the people around her was an important step in her career.

“There’s so many talented people out there, you can learn a lot from a lot of people if you’re open to it. Networking takes a little bit of work, but not a lot of work,” she said. “You just have to put yourself out there … Don’t be that person in the corner just not doing anything.”

She said she’s happy her team, full of what she calls “the best and brightest” data talent, are supportive of her ideas. Sometimes it’s not about what you’re doing, but about who you work with. You don’t have to have it all figured out right away.

“You’re going to continue to grow, you’re going to continue to learn new things. You’re going to have mentors throughout your life, whether you call them a mentor or not. You’re going to have to learn new opportunities from different training,” she said. “Be open. Trust your gut. If your gut tells you something, make sure that you’re listening no matter what. Then just more than anything, have fun.”

She said living life to the fullest is just as important as success.

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Life is all about priorities, protection and being present.

On this week’s episode of Women of Washington, host Gigi Schumm welcomed Assiya Ashraf-Miller, deputy assistant secretary  within the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS). Ashraf-Miller served many years overseas and her team is responsible for the oversight of U.S. law enforcement and security policies for over 250 U.S. diplomatic posts, and direction of resources and programs at all 275 U.S. diplomatic posts with a budget of over $2 billion.

Ashraf-Miller said her team — the law enforcement and security arm — also trains diplomatic security personnel and U.S. government personnel serving overseas, conducts complex criminal investigations, and protects the U.S. Secretary of State, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and foreign dignitaries visiting the United States.

“We are very innovative in terms of physical and technical security. We are also very forward-looking as an organization,” she said. “We have a cybersecurity element where we’re all looking at our sate and non-state actors who are a threat to our networks and the State Department and how to mitigate those threats.”

Her work also includes sometimes partnering with the Defense Department, U.S. Agency for International Development, Peace Corps and other agencies with posts overseas.  Ashraf-Miller and her team are committed to guiding DS special agents overseas, called regional security officers, to ensure their success to facilitate U.S. foreign policy objectives safely and securely.

“Every country is unique, every country has unique issues. There’s nuance, there’s context culturally, politically and economically, so [a] regional security officer wants to make sure that every person in that US diplomatic post is prepared and aware to perform and be effective, be safe and secure,” she said. “The regional security officer is really the key to making sure that we as a country can successfully further and enable our U.S. foreign policy and national security objectives around the world.”

When stationed overseas, the security officers are also responsible for not only training their team but also to serve as a liaison to the host country and its law enforcement at the posts. Ashraf-Miller previously served as a regional security officer (RSO) in several posts including Kabul, Afghanistan; Kuwait City, Kuwait; and Damascus, Syria.

She returned to the U.S. only eight months ago from her position in Kabul, an experience she hopes never to forget. Despite being in a war zone, she said it helps her in her current position to make sure the government is supporting other regional security officers around the globe and giving them the resources that they need.

“I want to make sure that our RSOs feel like they’re not by themselves out there and that I have their back,” she said.

Growth and development

Ashraf-Miller joined DS in 1999, and said the agency has come a long way since. From taking trips to the most dangerous parts of the world — war zones, terrorist attack sights and more — to making sure facilities and people are better protected, she said the agency has found a way to ensure the diplomatic reward is worth the risk. If not, they have to tell the leadership it’s not worth it.

“I can tell you, in my experience, that the vast majority of U.S. ambassadors and the rest of the State Department appreciate that and they understand it. [But] those occasions when we say ‘pause, this might be a little too risky’ to our personnel is pretty rare,” she said. I can tell you that we are doing things around the world, going into places that are quite dangerous, but we’re doing it in a way that makes sense. Nothing’s ever guaranteed 100%, but we are very deliberate in our planning.”

Planning is key in many areas, even from a young age. How did Ashraf-Miller decide to join the State Department’s security arm?

Originally from Alexandria, Virginia, she described herself as a precocious, yet rebellious child and not one to conform. But she knew early that she would either work in government or join the U.S. military.

“I felt public service was very important,” she said. “As a child of immigrants, my parents instilled in me how grateful we should be in being in this country. Both my parents immigrated here and even though they came from well-off families … they still had to start from scratch coming to a new country.”

She said her drive and strong will came from the other women in her life who were industrious and supportive of one another. The men in her life too gave her the space she needed to figure things out for herself.

Ashraf-Miller said her dad gave her confidence through one piece of advice that she’s kept with her.

“He always told me ‘you know what Assiya? I know whatever you do, you have a strong head, strong mind and you’re not going to do something that will get you in trouble.”

She also served as a platoon leader and battalion commander in the Reserve Officer Training Corps during high school.

She studied at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she met her husband of 25 years. During a Washington Semester Program through USC, she also started her journey to working with the government. Her internship placement through the program was with the DS.

“I don’t believe in destiny … but that is what caught my attention. It really was perfect, because I always loved to travel. I love exploring. I love trying new things, new cuisines, meeting new people, different cultures …,” she said. “I was also interested in law and justice because my plan originally was to go to law school. So this was a perfect fit in the best of both worlds.”

The rest was history, she said.

Work-life balance, advice

Work-life balance is a misnomer. Ashraf-Miller said work-life quality or work-life flexibility are better terms, because they don’t imply that there’s an equilibrium between work and personal life. This isn’t usually the case in diplomatic security, or any 24/7 global organization.

Finding a type of balance often comes from going out of your comfort zone. She said sometimes you just have to throw your hat in the ring and see what happens.

She said she would give her younger self and others two pieces of advice.

“One is to stop and smell the roses, because you see my career [is very] driven, just taking on greater responsibilities and challenges, but I think sometimes it’s okay to slow down and just enjoy the experience and be present,” she said. “The other thing is to trust your instincts. You know something on the surface may seem right or seem correct, but if your gut is telling you that not so much, I would say follow your intuition.”

Ashraf-Miller said her intuition has yet to let her down.

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What needs to be done to influence change? Susan McHugh-Polley said making the right decision, even when it’s unpopular, is vital.

On this week’s episode of Women of Washington, host Gigi Schumm welcomed McHugh-Polley, a 31-year veteran of the federal workforce. Polley recently retired from government after working for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Now she serves in the private sector as a strategic advisor covering the federal market at World Wide Technology (WWT).

Her first federal job was with the Justice Department after the passage of the Immigration and Control Act of 1988.

After the Sept. 11 attacks just before the Oklahoma City Bombings, Polley helped the government stand up the Department of Homeland Security and its 22 agencies. At the time, she said the world was on high alert and the government faced many challenges. It could no longer rely on legacy data or systems.

“People are very passionate about what they have and what they know. When you’re going into the unknown, such as standing up DHS, I looked at it differently … We could design and create this as an opportunity to lean forward and change,” Polley said. “But working on the 22 agencies and getting it right, it took some time. But there were definitely culture changes. There were definite power changes. People didn’t want to give up what they knew. But it [also took some] leaning forward in an uncomfortable moment to embrace the unknown.”

She said she learned in that situation how to work together with other leaders to try new things and go from there. It was that experience within DHS that helped her transition into VA.

When she started her position at the VA  Polley said she noticed a lot of disconnect between the offices. One of the biggest challenges came from rules that were stood up decades before. She was able to help stand up practices there that essentially “right-sized” the agency and allowed the different offices to work together and address issues quicker.

“We did a right-sizing of the field to make sure there were bodies on the ground, and boots on the ground, and services that we could do to really get to our end users,” she said. “Speed to service was critical to do that alignment so that we could make sure the veterans are getting the desperate care they need.”

As deputy assistant secretary for IT, she was responsible for the work of more than 380,000 VA employees and a budget of $2.7 billion. She also helped to stand up the Enterprise Cybersecurity Plan. Her brothers and many other members of her family were in the military and she said working for VA just made sense.

It was just challenging for her to get past the rules that were already set in place. In fact, many times her colleagues were so focused on the end result, they missed steps along the way.

“Everyone wants to do the right thing for the veterans and for each other,” Polley said. “That passion is sometimes so focused on what you want to see as the end [and] you’re not realizing a lot of times that along the path, things you’ve missed or haven’t been able to pick up that could have helped you be more successful.”

Joining the private sector

After three decades in the public sector, Polley announced last May that she would be leaving the federal workforce. She said it was difficult choosing her next move, but WWT  really opened her eyes to capabilities she said would have been useful during her tenure.

“So I went to St. Louis and the entire executive team allowed me a full day to interview with them and really talk to them … And you have to go with what your gut tells you and that feeling was that I really wanted to be with this company and bring them into what they’re trying to stand up in the public sector, especially on the civilian side of government,” she said. “If I would have had some of the capabilities that they had, I know the speed of service that we could have provided our end users would have been fantastic.”

Polley said it was their values, teamwork and willingness to always try something new that sucked her in.

“It’s been a game changer,” she said. “They really encourage diversity, women, technology and there’s nothing that they say ‘no’ to. They say, ‘OK, let’s try it, and then let’s see how we can fix it and go from there.’ It’s been a wonderful experience for me.”

Much of her life was spent traveling across the country both with DOJ and VA. But she said there were times when she needed to take a step back.

“I didn’t think of it as failure or negative. I always called it my positive pause time,” she said. “You need to get back to some activities and really work on that work-life balance.”

Even in her current role, Polley enjoys reading, riding her bike through the park in her Florida neighborhood or spending time with her two brothers Robert and Paul.

Polley said if she hadn’t gone down the federal service or contractor role, she would have worked in the hotel system. She said she really enjoys people and would like to make sure their experience is a good one.

That work is similar to what she does at WWT — essentially helping to test drive IT services that could make the government’s experience with their constituents better. She said embracing the unknown and not letting your mistakes define you is really important.

“Don’t be afraid to fail … it’s okay to fail, because there’s a different with being afraid and having to be OK. I would also say that you really need to hone in on others’ communication,” she said. “It’s not just what people are saying, it’s the unsound word.”

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Dr. Carolyn Clancy has made it her career-long mission to improve the quality, safety and value of programs within the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The ability to help people is what originally attracted Clancy to the medical field, plus she was already a fan of science. She said she enjoyed hearing others’ stories and helping to figure out what solution best made the most sense for the patient.

Clancy quoted a notable physician that once said, “a good doctor treats the disease, a great doctor treats the patient.”

After completing medical school and a fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, she began working at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in their medical college. She was on the VCU faculty for six years before moving on.

Clancy wasn’t the only woman on the faculty, but she was the first to relocate for the job.

“There were people I worked with who I wouldn’t say thought I was a martian, but they thought this was really unusual,” she said. “But I loved it there.”

She said her career in medical academics, and to some extent at VA, was focused on three key areas: Clinical care, teaching and research.

“In real life, it’s actually hard to be really terrific at all three. By the way, sometimes that would require way, way more hours in a day than exist,” Clancy said. “So trying to figure out how do you get the right balance for you that meets the needs of the organization you’re working for and so forth, I think it’s a challenge for everyone. In funny ways, technology had made parts of that easier and parts of it much harder.”

Her transition from a professor to a federal employee was a somewhat smooth one. She said she became interested in figuring out a better way to help those who didn’t have insurance, or direct access to health care — and the VA’s dedication to their mission was what initially attracted her.

Clancy first joined the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which was at the time a new agency under the Department of Health and Human Services. She joined its ranks to help the government figure out how to get the best return on investment by improving access, quality and safety to the American public.

“I thought it would be a good change for a couple of years and then I’d go back to academics,” she said. “That’s not what happened. I stayed there for 22 years and ended up being the director for about half the time.”

She took on the responsibility of making sure the information the agency produced was usable by clinicians, veterans hospitals, outpatient care and so forth.

Now at VHA, she oversees a robust research program focusing on diseases that are important and sometimes unique to veterans.

Three groundbreaking initiatives the VA spurred, according to Clancy, were the creation of the nicotine patch, completing the first-ever liver transplant and medical barcoding — including the requirement for patients to wear wristbands detailing their medical information to ensure VA patients were given the correct medicine.

Both of her parents held careers in a STEM field, and she said her mother was very encouraging.

“If there’s one message I got from my mother, it was ‘why not?’ So when I told her I wanted to be a doctor when I was nine, she was thrilled with that,” Clancy said.

More girls and women need to take on the same mindset, she said. And she often wishes she would have had more courage to pursue her ideas when she was younger. Because when you have a passion and you pursue it, life is more fun and easier to deal with.

“Stick with what you love and it’ll all work out,” she said.

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When it comes to efficiency, in all areas of life, the details matter.

On this week’s episode of Women of Washington, host Gigi Schumm welcomed Maria T. Vargas, director of the Better Buildings Challenge at the Energy Department. The department is working with leading organizations in the public and private sector to cut down on wasted energy.

“They’ve all stepped forward and said ‘we’re going to reduce 20 percent of our energy use across our facilities. We’re going to share what we’re doing with you. We’re going to share with you what works and what doesn’t’,” she said. “[It’s] in the hopes that all organizations can benefit from what it is they’re doing and the lessons they’re learning.”

She said if the United States could reduce its energy by 20 to 30 percent, we could save tens of billions of dollars per year. That could go to better classrooms, grocery stores, multi-family homes and better manufacturing facilities. It’s a wonderful opportunity as a country to protect the environment and lead the way to efficiency, she said.

There are a couple of barriers to maximizing that efficiency though. Vargas said one step is getting past the belief that energy is an “overhead cost” and not one that can be reduced. Another is convincing senior management to make the commitment across entire companies and government.

“There’s also the people side. A lot of the organizations that we’re working with, true leaders in the space, are getting their employees and their customers involved,” she said. “It’s a change not only to equipment that you have and how you use it, but it’s also how to make sure that the message is getting out to the people who work there, and possibly shop, stay or go to school in the building being used.”

To take that leap, an organization must truly understand how their buildings are performing and what investing in opportunities for improvement can yield.

Vargas said making the commitment helps an organization become more resilient, employs a stronger workforce and helps the community in the long run.

Pursuing energy, environment efficiency

Vargas said she has always been interested in the environment, even at a young age. That’s what brought her East from Salt Lake City, Utah, where she grew up in the Greek community. She said her parents, both in the medical field, seized an opportunity when they both landed in Utah, and she said she had to follow in their footsteps.

“It’s what I’ve done in my life too … to have a sense of where you want to go, but then follow an opportunity which presents itself, that you may not have seen in a couple years or even a couple months prior, and have that inform some of the decisions,” she said.

Living near some of the national parks and having her eyes opened to natural resources may have played a small part. She said she learned to appreciate them and wanted to pursue a career where she could protect them for this generation and generations to come.

Vargas began her career in the private sector, but she said that didn’t last long. She wanted to do more and eventually that landed her on a small team — at the time anyway — at the Environmental Protection Agency working on issues relating to climate change and the depleting ozone layer. After moving to Oregon and receiving her master’s degree, she returned to the D.C. area and began running the EPA’s new Energy Star program, and that’s what introduced her to a decades-long career focused on energy efficiency.

Now, there are a lot of appliances and equipment that we don’t think about that carry the Energy Star label. She said the company was created as a way for consumers to voluntarily choose more efficient items.

“And now that the Energy Star labels are on 60 to 70 different kinds of things … as well as new homes and commercial buildings, it is a platform that the federal government can be very proud of,” Vargas said.

Joining the Energy Department was just a natural progression.

Mentors, advice

Vargas praised one particular mentor for pushing her, and her team, to think outside of the box and to look at solutions others may not have thought about. She said watching his team and how hard he pushed them to be excellent really stood out to her.

“I think it’s watching people who you respect and admire, and being willing to do the hard work that it takes to be excellent, because it’s easier not to be excellent. It doesn’t take as many hours in the day and it doesn’t make your brain work quite so hard,” she said. “That, I think, made me into the professional that I am today.”

Through her mentors, she learned to appreciate the details. Sometimes people, things, opportunities and circumstances may stop you in your path, she said, but you have to make the decision to either take no as an answer or find a way around it.

Vargas said it’s how you face rejection that really reveals who you are as a person.

If she wasn’t working for the Energy Department, she said she would still be in the public space working to protect the environment, natural resources and the earth in general. But she doesn’t spend too much time thinking about it.

“The path I chose in life was one that afforded me the opportunity to say yes when something very interesting, something I could be passionate about, something I believed in came up,” Vargas said. “It’s something I feel very fortunate to work on. I don’t spend a lot of time looking back, I spend time looking forward.”

She said there are four things in particular she would’ve told her younger self:

• Don’t be so nervous and afraid
• Find a mentor
• You can always learn from the people around you — no matter who they are or what they do
• The world is a wonderful place, if you’re willing to work hard and put in the effort.

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From a young age, Lisa Pape knew she would dedicate her life to social work. This may or may not have had something to do with growing up near a Department of Veterans Affairs center in northwest Ohio.

On this week’s episode of Women of Washington, host Gigi Schumm welcomed Pape, deputy chief patient care services officer at the Veterans Health Administration within VA. In her role, she is responsible for social work, care management and chaplain services. Until July 2018, Pape served as acting chief of staff for VHA, paying special attention to veteran homelessness.

Care management is twofold, Pape said. First, the department has a program designed to work directly with veterans and their caregivers. The second is called Transition and Care Management (TCM), and is focused on helping transitioning service members leave the DoD and move into the VA.

Pape said she is also excited about a new program VA is developing to focus on mitigating domestic violence cases. She said she doesn’t know for sure if domestic violence is more common within VA families but she wants everyone to be safe regardless.

“Just educating the general public about intimate partner violence and our veterans can help decrease the issues that come around that,” she said. “So we’re starting that. [We] already have some services at about 60 hospitals and our plan is to roll that out across the system so that everybody gets some kind of screening.”

One issue that is significant among veterans is homelessness. When the VHA started its initiative in 2010, veterans were over-represented in the homeless population for many reasons: Mental health issues, substance abuse and a lack of affordable housing.

Pape and her team were able to decrease that by 49 percent, and by 17 percent between January 2015 and January 2016 alone. For her efforts and dedication, the Office of Personnel Management awarded Pape a Meritorious Executive Presidential Rank Award in 2018.

“It was not just me. It was the dream team in the homeless programs being recognized,” she said. “I was just so honored to be able to serve veterans my entire career and to be recognized for the work that me and my team were able to do.”

Mentors, advice

Pape started her social work career back home in a town just outside of Cleveland, Ohio. She said in that time of her career, she gained several mentors in her life, primarily those in senior positions.

“There’s so much to learn from somebody who has made their way up the career ladder and done some things. So I always try and see that as a mentor,” she said. “One was my first supervisor … he was the chief of the homeless domiciliary and he was also a social worker. [He] just helped me early in my career — when you’re not as confident and you’re not sure you’re doing the right thing. He was always available to give me good advice and to guide me.”

A few years later when she moved to D.C. to start her federal career she invited him to come along. He did and the tables were turned, she then became his boss. She said he told her to always take the high road, even in times of stress and frustration.

Pape said she appreciated this advice because it reminded her how important it was to always do what’s right for the veteran, not just what’s easiest.

“Sometimes the easy thing is to just let [the veterans] do it on their own, or just giving them a name or referral. But it’s not [the] right thing,” she said. “Sometimes those veterans need us to make that phone call, to make that connection, to help them find whatever it is they need for services.”

Being able to make an actual difference, whether in a hands-on role or behind-the-scenes, is what keeps Pape, and others like her in their public sector positions. While the private sector may in many ways bring in more money or opportunities for entrepreneurship, Pape said the fulfillment she gets from public service is more than enough.

Many women are also attracted to the public sector because of its commitment to diversity. Pape said the government — especially in the healthcare sector — is more acutely aware of women and minorities because these groups represent the clients that they serve.

In the end, it all comes down to doing the right thing for you and for your clients or in her case, for the veterans. Her advice? Don’t be afraid to speak truth to power. It’s okay not to bite your tongue, but make sure you say it professionally, she said.

“I wish someone would have told me not to worry so much about the small stuff, and not try to control it,” Pape said. “I spent a lot of my early career just really worried about some of the little things that would happen that looking back, didn’t really matter. Because it’s really about how good you’re serving the veteran.”

Some are lucky and do find their calling early in their career. Pape was one of them.

She said she always knew she would be a social worker and couldn’t imagine herself in any other role, except maybe working with animals.

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Kathleen McInnis always knew she would find herself in the policy world but the precise destination changed frequently.

On this week’s episode of Women of Washington, host Gigi Schumm welcomed McInnis, an international security specialist for the Congressional Research Service — where she works to help Congress address national security and defense strategy issues. McInnis is also a nonresident senior fellow with the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council.

She has experience with the Pentagon, Center for Strategic and International Studies and has traveled all over the world. To top it off, she is the author of “The Heart of War: Misadventures in the Pentagon.”

McInnis’ decision to join the federal workforce was natural and not entirely unexpected. An only child, she lived with her family on military bases around Washington, D.C., and abroad, as her father was a civilian. Moving around helped McInnis develop the ability to adapt to different circumstances.

“I think it was an experience that forces you to build empathy quickly. It helps you operate in different contexts and in different cultures,” she said. “And as an international security specialist, it helped me in two ways.”

Many of her classmates had parents who were stationed in the Balkans or in Iraq, and overflights were common where she was living. She said they were constantly surrounded by these operations and growing up around that made her interested in what they meant, especially for the families.

“If we’re going to be doing international security operations, if we’re going to be operating globally, we’re going to be doing military operations, let’s make sure we have good strategy,” she said. “Let’s make sure that we think through the implications. That was the major inspiration for me.”

It wasn’t until one of her professors introduced her to the world of security studies that she truly found her passion. Still, she said she knew where the path seemed to be leading her ever since her junior year of high school.

Knowing exactly what you want to do is the first step but it does not guarantee a perfect position straight out of college. McInnis said she worked for Parliament, a think tank and the International Institute for Strategic Studies while abroad in London pursuing her masters degree.

Lessons learned, lessons taught

When McInnis returned to the U.S., she took a job with the Center for Strategic and International Studies as the coordinator of the project on nuclear issues. After studying the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and transatlantic relations for most of grad school, she said the transition to CSIS wasn’t necessarily easy.

“I [ended] up in this job on nuclear weapons and I could barely spell deterrence. So it was very much a fish-out-of-water kind of story,” she said. “But it was fascinating. I took the job because it forced me to learn a new issue area. And frankly, that has been an enormously formative experience for me because … nuclear weapons, an understanding of deterrence dynamics and those sorts of things is really foundational for a lot of other issues that we look at.”

She said her job of international security is both technical and political in nature. It requires understanding how humans make decisions to trust each other if in extreme circumstances, or not trust each other, to cooperate to reduce arms to compete and do arms-buildups.

McInnis said she was lucky that she loved subjects across the spectrum from science and math to art and literature.

“I’ve always been the story of person that tries to bring both sides together and bring that into my analysis,” she said. “That’s why I wrote the book that I did. It’s a different way to understand international security issues.”

Her novel focuses mainly Dr. Heather Riley who loses her brother in Afghanistan during the war and is forced to join the government in order to pay off her loans. Through her experience, she realizes that the Pentagon isn’t just a “war-machine,” but is filled with people who are providing their service to the country and there she finds her own call to service.

It is in some ways loosely based off her own experience working within the Defense Department. Though, as she said, her work was mostly analytical.

“I wanted to find a way to walk people through the crazy experience of what the Pentagon is like, what it feels like to walk down the halls [and] what it feels like to be in a pressure cooker of a situation … how the Pentagon is almost a character in and of itself and the sacrifices that people have to make,” she said. “These aren’t easy jobs and you’re expected to work very long hours, so work-life balance fails off. And again, finding a way to explore this in a way that audiences could walk in her shoes and bring their own experiences and reflections.”

Hobbies, advice

McInnis began writing her novel while finishing her doctorate degree — leaving her little time for hobbies.

“I don’t recommend those life choices, bad life choices,” she said. “I wasn’t sleeping much.”

But one of her hobbies now is cooking, and she’s a “throw things together” kind of person. Hosting dinner parties is one of her specialties. She said some of her own recipes have been a “debacle,” but the experimentation is fun.

Life is a lot like a recipe. You have to try new things to really understand who you are. And much of her resilience comes from the lessons she had to learn in her career.

“I would love to be able to tell my younger self that it’s okay to be imperfect, especially as I was getting started in my career [with a] hypersensitivity that I had to be on point all the time,” McInnis said. “Any failure at all was so cringeworthy and it was so deeply personal and it [was] almost debilitating. Working through that and getting older, I realized that actually my flaws and imperfections, just like anybody, they can also be our greatest strengths.”

So if she didn’t work for the federal government, what would McInnis do?

“I always said I’d love to be a florist because flowers make people happy,” she said. “But I think [I’d be] a novel writer. I’m so fortunate to be able to do both things that I love at the same time.”

She said there are plenty of stories to tell about the national security world, and another book could be in the works.

Dr. McInnis spoke to us in her private capacity. Any views expressed are not necessarily those of the Congressional Research Service or the United States Government. McInnis is also a former employee of the Pentagon.

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Data is the lifeblood of any agency or consulting firm — but is there a such thing as too much.

On this week’s episode of Women of Washington, Gigi Schumm welcomed Annette Rippert, senior managing director of Accenture Technology. Rippert is responsible for leading a team that helps clients achieve digital transformation using latest emerging technologies across cloud, mobility, analytics, artificial intelligence, security and more. In layman’s terms, her team focuses on helping clients at the intersection of technology and business solve problems through innovation.

As technology develops, agencies and companies alike become more dependent on the data they’ve curated from constituents, for their clients and their own company data. Rippert said one goal of her job is to help their clients — including Oracle, SAP and Amazon, among others — use the data they’ve collected and leverage new technologies to change their own enterprise.

Developing trust is a big component of that.

“You’re not only looking at opportunities to use data, but now you have an obligation. You have a requirement in order to protect that data, be the steward of that data…,” she said. “So that’s become ever increasingly a part of our practice in terms of understanding not only the regulations, but the right ethical things to do with data, the right permissions to seek around the data.”

Data talent pool

The evolution of technology has in many ways outgrown its workforce, and consulting firms — and federal agencies — have had to scrounge for employees with the right skillset.

Data scientists are vital to a successful business, as they focus on analyzing and interpreting data. Information officers too are needed, as they focus on harnessing the data and helping with IT modernization and other digital strategies. But where can they find this talent?

Rippert said Accenture focuses mainly on harnessing talent from universities. Universities have recognized the need for data science skills. Many have programs dedicated to the importance of understanding and analyzing information.

“If we take a look at the importance of data, it’s becoming the next most important resource out there,” she said. “We need to be able to really think about how do we manage that in enterprises, in government, not only for deriving that value, but there’s a lot of data that is problematic because it’s inaccurate, it’s been kept, it’s been uncurated, etc. This is the kind of next frontier and our universities are starting to see that and tailor programs towards it.”

She said the important thing in her job is to make the right decisions for the client, “in their environment, in their industry, for the purpose that they’re trying to adopt that technology.”

Natural progression

Growing up in a suburb of Chicago, Rippert often spent time outside of school with her grandmother. When going down to the country store, she would always buy Rippert math workbooks. Why? Rippert said she loved them.

“Maybe that was a sign very early on … I had this passion for math. I had this passion for science. Even through junior high and in high school, I can remember getting excited walking into my science class to learn something,” she said. “I knew that about myself … that was something I really loved.”

When she moved to college, she decided to study computer science and electrical engineering. She said the degree helped to understand how machines work and how that correlates to data, programs and devices built around them.

Rippert said she never felt singled out as a woman, even when her classes were filled with mostly men. But she does understand why many women shy away from the STEM fields.

“I know that there are a lot of other experiences. I hear them from other women in my own organization,” she said. “I look at that and try to listen extra carefully, because I think that while it may not be something perceived by you individually, the problem or the circumstance is real in the environment … being aware of that and creating structures around it is pretty important.”

Originally seeing herself in a research role, Rippert realized she needed to be in a career where her research would have an impact. That’s when she gravitated toward the technology field and consulting.

After graduating with her MBA, Rippert started working at the Chicago branch of the consulting firm that would one day become Accenture. Before moving to the Accenture Technology team, Rippert had significant influence over the company’s Federal Services team.

“Our organization was really reorganizing around how we support the federal government and it gave me an opportunity to take what I had learned from a commercial standpoint and really bring it to the notion of the mission here within many of our federal agencies and departments,” she said.

Role models, advice

Rippert was recognized in 2018 by the National Association for Female Executives for her avid support for women in technology. In 2017, she was also honored by Women in Technology.

She said she owes a lot of her dedication to being a role model for young women to the lessons she learned raising five children.

“I felt it was important to create environments where women could have other role models where they could connect with other people who were like them and experiencing similar things early on,” Rippert said. “I felt very passionate about that for a while.”

Rippert said it’s also important to encourage young girls to pursue STEM from an early age. Accenture Technology supports education programs in schools, she said.

Finding your career path isn’t always as linear as Rippert’s, though. Success is made up of your trial and error moments, as well as your triumphs. It’s all in the data you curate from your choices, your goals and your education.

It’s also important not to be too hard on yourself, she said.

“Sometimes it’s okay to let life happen … If you make a mistake, it was a step on a path towards something that will take you to a better place. Pay more attention to learn about yourself,” Rippert said. “[Doing] what you like to do will make you so much happier about the career that you’ve chosen. And believe in your own self-resilience.”

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Women have had a workplace rights office for almost a century. Once only 20 percent, women now make up almost half of the workforce. But have these facts actually helped women’s struggles for equality?

On this episode of Women of Washington, Gigi Schumm welcomed Tiffany Boiman, director of the office of policy and programs at the Labor Department’s Women’s Bureau. Boiman said her position is based on research and policy analysis and providing anyone and everyone access to that information from private sector employees to federal workers to individual women.

This includes information on women’s job rights, which she says continue to circle the same questions of equality.

Gender-occupational segregation

More than half of the problem starts from the choices people make in terms of occupation. Boiman said people often self-select themselves into certain types of jobs that may in general have more men or women.

“There is the issue of implicit or unconscious bias,” she said. “Where people are not consciously bringing a set of gender expectations about abilities, aptitudes and performance. I think that absolutely is an issue when you look at women’s advancement opportunities and things like that.”

One question an employer often asks in the interview process is how much the potential employee made at a previous job. If the bias existed in a previous position, it would then follow the employee throughout their career — thus a pay-gap is more likely.

Boiman said this is one reason why women often come into a new position at a salary disadvantage. It’s not always intentional or inevitable, she said. There are some places in both the private and public sector where a job is valued prior to the interview process.

“One of the things a handful of states are doing is trying to ban salary history as a point of negotiation to try and help level the playing field,” Boiman said.

When you add children to the mix, a culture gap develops between the way men and women are viewed, Boiman said. In many cases, men are often seen in a more positive light and may even receive a pay bump, while women may seem less committed to their career when they choose to stay home with their kids.

“I do think there’s a lot we can do from an education standpoint in getting people to just think a little more consciously about the biases that they bring in dealing with employees of different genders,” she said. “People want to do the right thing, but I think a lot of times they’re not even thinking consciously about the ways in which they’re bringing disparate sets of expectations.”

Career development

Boiman said a lot of her inspiration came from her mother, who was part of what she called a “vanguard” of women who worked in the computer programming field during its beginning. So she comes from generations of women who made their own rules.

She took her first women’s studies class in her sophomore year of college, and she was hooked.

“In those years, I felt like I had found my calling. This is what I wanted to do with my life. I enrolled in as many gender-focused classes as I could,” she said. “That was really the moment for me.”

Her first stint with the government had her researching and evaluating workforce development as part of the Government Accountability Office. She’s also worked with social service organizations to help those with developmental disabilities, as well as with other non-profit services. She was motivated to return to government work because this is where policy decisions are made and implemented.

“I really liked being in the room and having a hand in that process,” she said.

Now in a managerial role, Boiman said she works with a team of 10 to 15 people who do the majority of the front line researching. However, she still considers herself to be very data-focused.

In terms of work-life balance, she said it’s still a work in progress. She’s had to learn how to be willing to ask for help when she’s struggling.

“For a lot of years, I felt like I needed to soldier on alone. These were my issues and my issues alone. I tried to keep this kind of strict firewall between home and work in ways that often did not serve me well,” she said. “I think I’ve gotten better about asking for help both at work and in my personal life.”

She said she used to be wary about telling her bosses when she had a familial obligation — not anymore. Even in her office, she makes sure her employees understand that it’s OK. Boiman said she’s also impressed with the different states that have started rolling out paid family leave policies, both for men and women.

Originally planning to become a journalist, Boiman opted for studying public policy in graduate school instead.

Biggest piece of advice for women in the workplace, or those trying to find their place?

“Two things. One, don’t be afraid to take some risks. I look back on my career and I think there were times where I followed the path that seemed responsible … and I think it took me longer to reach my destination as a result,” she said. “The other thing is to let go of self-doubt.”

Confidence is not a replacement for competence, she said, but letting go of insecurities can free up more room to chase opportunity.

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“My belief is: If you don’t ask, the answer is always no,” Kathy McShane said.

On this episode of Women of Washington, Gigi Schumm welcomed McShane, assistant administrator for the Office of Women’s Business Ownership at the Small Business Administration. She oversees centers around the country that help women launch or expand their businesses.

McShane said her goal is to provide women with the guidance — such as curriculum, networking opportunities and mentorship — and services they need to successfully launch.

“We very much empower our centers to do what I describe as ‘act locally while we’re thinking globally.’ They look at their market, they have a really keen insight into what the market needs and they offer services based upon the market need,” she said. “Sometimes they help women develop a business plan. Sometimes they [also] help women to actually put documentation together to get a loan.”

Networking, one-on-one counseling and helping women secure government contracts are services provided by the SBA office. One reason why many women decide to go into business for themselves is to find work-life balance, especially when they are also mothers, McShane said. Helping women find the right mindset early on is important to her and her team.

She outlined four differences between women and men when it comes to business ownership:

1. Men prioritize money while women prioritize lifestyle.
2. Men don’t personalize their work whereas women often see their job as an extension of themselves.
3. Men hesitate less before removing something that isn’t working. Meanwhile women often feel one mistake could cause the entire thing to collapse.
4. Men tend not to think of their job as a hobby as much as women do, and the latter often nurture their staff more than necessary.

Career development

Two skills that helped McShane in her career were her open-mindedness and curiosity. Instead of pushing back against the unknown, she embraced the challenges that came with her different positions across the private, academic and civil service spheres.

After graduating from high school, McShane worked for payroll company ADP in New York before being recruited to American Express. Six months after starting her position — though she was told the training would last 18 months — her bosses were impressed with her work and transferred her to Boston to help turn a company around. From AE to CitiCorps Diner’s Club to Mastercard, McShane used her skills to help push growth and development.

Working for a company became more difficult when she became a parent. And she decided to pause and reassess her priorities. Her next step? Entrepreneurship. What started as a job-sharing environment turned into Ladies Launch Club.

Through this business, she was able to help other women find work-life balance by sharing responsibilities. Each woman was able to work part-time and spend time with their family, and still have the means to support their households.

“I’m a big believer in if you know what your objectives are, the rest falls into place,” she said.

The biggest obstacle for her, though, was finding mentors to help her and the resources to ensure it would succeed. She said her biggest inspiration was her mother.

“Frankly, my mother’s expectations were that I would succeed. However, she also encouraged me to march to my own drum. She didn’t try to suppress that,” McShane said. “She seemed to know intuitively that [it] would take me places. She said, ‘if you’re happy, you know at least one person’s happy. You cannot please everybody.’ She had strong ethics [but] was a very fair person. She expected us to do well and really encouraged us.”

Solo-entrepreneurship

In 2018, so many other women have turned into “solo-preneurs,” working out of their homes. McShane said this only works if you define your business hours, choose a specific work space (preferably not your dining room) and create a “do not interrupt” atmosphere. She said it’s important to run your own business the same way you would if you were not in a senior leadership position.

“I always tell people when they say to me, ‘Oh, as an entrepreneur you don’t have a boss.’ Well, guess what? I had eight clients at one time [so] I had eight bosses with different personalities, different approaches,” she said. “So we do have bosses.”

One of the biggest gifts of working from home is the ability to take five minutes or an hour to spend time with your family and friends. But McShane said it’s important to stay focused and to have a real plan. It’s easy to come up with hundreds of ideas, executing them is a different story. Having infrastructure in place is critical.

Despite having launched three businesses on her own, McShane still finds workshops and classes advantageous. In fact, her Ladies Launch Club business was directly influenced by an incubator franchise she took and then purchased with a similar name: Ladies Who Launch.

She loved her foray into the world of small business and felt she could use it in many different ways. Eventually, she joined the federal workforce to help on a larger scale.

What advice would she give to someone who wants to do something similar in their career?

“I would say be focused. However, while you’re being focused, make sure you’ve got antennas out everywhere and if something feels right, it probably is right,” she said. “Don’t take yourself so seriously. I believe having fun and working is so important, and I do not believe its not achievable.”

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Only you know what’s best for you. But time is the only true measurement of how “right” those choices are.

On this episode of Women of Washington, Gigi Schumm welcomed Melanie Corcoran-Freelander, chief technology officer at Ursa Space Systems — a company focused on geospatial-intelligence and data services. In this role, she focuses primarily on the long-term vision of radar sensing and what the company will do, who will be involved and how to market their products to both commercial and government companies.

Before joining the Ursa team, Corcoran-Freelander ran her own company: Analytic Fusions. In this role, she served as an adviser to bleeding-edge companies to help promote their technology vision and foster success in federal markets.

For three years, her career was focused on the relationship between those companies and the federal government.

“I knew what technologies the U.S. government really needed and I had the exposure to a number of great startups that were cultivating and creating those new technologies that the government needed to acquire,” she said. “So in many ways for me, my consulting company just had to happen.”

Corcoran-Freelander did find success with her company, but when she was contacted about becoming CTO for Ursa, she saw a new opportunity to help a business grow. She also helps in the recruitment department shining light on entrepreneurs and other cyber talent to join their workforce.

“Entrepreneurs are like gladiators. Even if the odds are against them, they still get up day in and day out and they keep going,” she said, quoting Tony Robbins, a well-known entrepreneur, author and philanthropist.

Widening your vision

Everyone has probably had — though not necessarily appreciated — people in their lives that go the extra mile to push you to make certain decisions, Corcoran-Freelander said.

“Great mentors understand how to look at you as a person, understand what you need and how to open your aperture beyond what you can see,” she said. “It’s those people that care enough to understand who you are and customize advice to help you grow to be your best.”

Sometimes your choices are based on a gut feeling. Corcoran-Freelander actually moved to the west coast to study for her MBA at the University of Southern California on a whim. The nice sunny weather and opportunities to expand into the international market, particularly Asia, were deciding factors. It was her mentors at USC that really opened her eyes to accounting and understanding how to manage finances for entrepreneurship.

You do not have to be an expert in everything. But you do need to know who and when to ask for help. Asking for assistance is not a sign of weakness, she said.

Making the right decision

We are all in the same place. Men and women in both career and private sector roles need to learn how to take calculated risks when making important career choices, Corcoran-Freelander said. And while those choices may seem difficult on the outside, sometimes they can be the easiest decisions to make. It’s all about the trade off.

She said for balance in her life, she relies heavily on her phone for both her Ursa and parenting responsibilities. It’s a tool with her calendars for work and home, plus the ability to keep in contact with those who help her take care of her kids. And sometimes, she just wants to spend time with her family.

“The key component that you have to walk away [with] from those decisions are that they’re not lost opportunities,” she said. “That is always and will always be one of the biggest struggles for working mothers.”

Being present at networking events with colleagues and other occasions for work is useful when climbing the ladder. Making decisions to take a business trip, attend an event that could maybe lead to a later promotion or spend time at home with your family can be tough, but it’s also true of finding the elusive work-life balance that so many fight for.

Through her work alongside federal government, Corcoran-Freelander said she has also noticed some women evading promotion opportunities in order to maintain that balance. But she sees the workforce evolving. For example, there are now more opportunities for men and women to work from home. But finding a true balance will continue to be a struggle because those networking opportunities are career investments.

Even she continues to struggle, she said. That is where her secret weapon, her support system, comes in.

“I wish I was able to achieve it … thankfully I’ve got the right support system in place. It’s one of the goals I’m working towards. Definitely with my fantastic team, I like to remind them they need to leave and stop working. But it’s definitely more of a do as I say and not [as] I do,” she said. “Until then, I’m just very lucky my family still loves me.”

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Don’t just be passionate, be relentless.

From countless travels with UPS Inc. to leadership within the Small Business Administration, to being a single mom — Jovita Carranza has long been a pioneer for going the extra mile, even when resources are limited.

The treasurer of the United States was a guest on this week’s episode of Women of Washington with host Gigi Schumm. Appointed to the Treasury Department by President Donald Trump in June 2017, Carranza oversees the Office of Consumer Policy and serves as a principle adviser to Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Carranza said her career has had its ups and downs, but she wouldn’t change it.

‘Making it’

Growing up, people often have an idea of where they want their lives to take them. Having one’s signature on currency that travels around the world is no small feat, but Carranza said she still wouldn’t say she’s “made it.”

After several promotions, opportunities to manage more and more people, and larger speaking platforms she said she continues to learn.

“It’s not been an easy journey. It requires an expansion of beyond the comfort zone that we think we’re going to end up in. My comfort zone is actually achieving and expanding. The more I do that, the more motivated I am to give to the community,” she said. “Don’t ever think you’ve achieved or arrived. It’s an ongoing journey because then you have the responsibility of developing the future leaders.”

Carranza said as she looks around and sees young adults and children, she pictures future senators and educators for whom we should want the best. Resilience and the ability to reciprocate the help others have given you are two of the most important characteristics of success.

“If I could put my arms around the whole world and say, ‘OK, now learn from how I experienced this and do it better; do it faster; do it smarter.’ Those are my lessons,” she said. “Every incremental change or achievement brings forth an additional level of responsibility.”

Private and public sector jobs aside, Carranza is also involved with several charity organizations such as United Way, American Cancer Society and the National Center for Family Literacy that allow her to support others in the community. She said she wanted to give big and to give back, and these organizations allowed her to do that.

“I wanted to optimize everything I learned at the United Parcel Service. So people invested in me and I thought it was time for me to continue investing in various sectors, whether it’s the medical sector or whether it’s the entrepreneurship, business sector or academic,” she said.

Sponsors, mentors and executive coaches were all instrumental in Carranza’s career. She recommends everyone — even high school and college students — to have all three.

Mentors, which are essentially sounding boards, are no longer sufficient on their own, she said. Sponsors are the trustworthy brands willing to give their name in support of you. Coaches are the most experienced individuals to provide the skills, guidance and constructive criticism needed, and which would not be take from others.

“It depends on what you’re trying to achieve,” she said. “I always reach out for smarter people than me.”

Spare time

Working for the federal government often leaves little time for hobbies.

When Carranza was younger, particularly in high school, she played many sports. But she said she doesn’t have the time nowadays to fit that in. Although she did train at golf in order to engage with her clientele before joining the workforce. In both the public and private sectors, she also found it difficult to spend time with her family. Her neighbors or family members would care often for her daughter while she was on business trips.

“Do I have regrets? Everyone has regrets. Could I have done it differently? I’m sure. But I’m pleased with what I’m able to give back to my daughter,” Carranza said. “We have a great relationship … and I have a grandson. So I perfected the process with him as well.”

If she does have a spare moment, she enjoys catching up on reading and spending the time with her family she wasn’t necessarily able to before. When asked what she would be doing if she hadn’t been appointed to her role at the Treasury Department, she said she would focus more on nonprofit work.

“I probably would strive to do it differently, but more of the same. When I participated in the non-for-profit [sphere], it was more about how I can go in and fix it. How can I help them be better at what they do, while serving the community? So I probably would continue doing that line of work,” Carranza said. “I guess I’m just a change agent, a reformer. And I will probably continue doing that moving forward.”

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