The Executive Appeal with Alex D. Tremble

Karen M. Rainey is a masterful technician, leader, coach and speaker, whose passion is advocating for the equity, diversity and inclusion of women in the federal service. Ms. Rainey has made and indelible mark for the advancement and elevation of women in leadership and created greater opportunities for the professional growth and career advancement within our local, state and federal communities. Karen serving in her second term as the 24th National President of Federally Employed Women (FEW) in Philadelphia in 2018. She has 15 years of federal service experience at the Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) within the Modernized, Information Technology and Service division. As a federal employee she is responsible for managing teams that provide a secure and sustainable environment for various tax systems and financial applications on a variety of information technology platforms.Academically, Karen has a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degree in Computer and Information Systems from the University of Detroit Mercy specializing in computer and information systems and process improvements.Ms. Rainey believe strongly in the vision of “Soaring to New Heights” to propel the organization forward by being the organization of choice in leadership, diversity and inclusion. Karen promotes through her advocacy, the organization mission to end sex and gender discrimination and to encourage the talents of women to create a more united and diverse pool of intellectual leaders inclusive of women leaders in the federal sector.She is the recipient of FEW’s most prestigious awards, the 2012 Presidential Award and the Barbara Boardman Tennant Award in 2018. In addition, she is currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund (FEEA), devoted solely to provide emergency financial assistance and scholarships to civilian and postal public servants and their families; and the National Coalition for Equity and Public Service (NCEPS), a coalition of organization that work to promote diversity and inclusion of minority employees career advancement. Originally from Union, SC, she lives with her family in Farmington Hills, MI.

Name: Arthur Allen (arthur.allen@va.gov)Short Bio: Arthur Allen is an infrastructure Project Manager in Service, Delivery Management section of VA’s IT Operations and Service division within DevSecOps of OIT. He has been with the Department of Veterans Affairs since June 2015. He has led a diverse team of IT professional responsible for the implementation of several enterprise-wide infrastructure projects (SCCM – 2012, Google Chrome-Pexip, ITSM Tool [ServiceNow] EHRM Facilities Server Room (Data Center) Assessment/Remediation and Microsoft Teams). These projects satisfied two of VA’s strategic principles, namely, Innovation and Teamwork. At the same time, the projects satisfied three of OIT’s Strategic Imperatives specifically providing Exceptional Customer Service, IT Modernization, and Seamless and Secure Interoperability. Arthur is a retired U.S. Air Force Officer that can claim he enjoyed his Atlantic crossing aboard the USS Cape St. George while training Navy CIC personnel. His favorite hobbies are traveling, photography, and jazz music.Name: Kathy Lipkea-DurkopShort Bio: Kathy Lipkea-Durkop is an Implementation Manager with the Service Management and Planning (SMP), Service Delivery Management (SDM), National Implementation Management Team. Ms. Lipkea-Durkop has been with the Department of Veterans Affairs since April 1991. She worked several administrative positions before joining the Office of Information Technology (OIT) in February 1998. Her 23 years of OIT experience ranges from VistA Application Support, System Analyst, Deputy Facility Chief Information Officer, Former Region 2 OIT Project Manager to her current position. She has led the implementation of several enterprise-wide infrastructure projects to include VA Applications Consolidated Servers (VACS), Microsoft Teams, and the Real Time Location System (RTLS). The Microsoft Teams implementation fulfilled VA’s strategic principles, namely, Innovation and Teamwork.Name: Stacy WashingtonShort Bio: Stacy Washington is a Manager, Technology Consulting Group (TCG) in VA National TeleStroke Program.  She has been with the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) since August 2007.  She has led diverse teams responsible for the implementation of several enterprise-wide infrastructure projects the Office of Information Technology (OIT) and as a Project Manager with the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Healthcare Transformation (OHT).  OHT is a program office in the Office of the Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Health (PDUSH) and provides the USH | PDUSH with program management, healthcare systems engineering, and strategic implementation services.  She led the successful migration of VA Pulse Social Platform to Microsoft Office 365 (O365) and SharePoint Online (SPO) and provided custom MS Teams and SharePoint Online (SPO) training to the VA employees. She demonstrates the VA’s ICARE core values and characteristics on each Project using her interpersonal skills to include my ability to resolve potentially difficult situations, which reduced resistance to change.Her favorite hobbies are traveling, cooking, and DIY projects.

Tiffany Pollard is a Human Resources Specialist with over 12 years of progressive Federal experience.  She began her Federal career in 2008 as a Human Resources Assistant for the Human Resources Operations Division of the Defense Commissary Agency but has worked for the Department of Army since 2011.  She spent the majority of her tenure with the Department of Army working for the Civilian Personnel Advisory Center (CPAC) at Fort Detrick and has been able to apply her knowledge of and experience in classification, staffing, and recruitment and placement to her current role with the 21st Signal Brigade.  Tiffany specializes in civilian human resources and personnel management and has established herself as both an expert and trusted advisor.  Her outstanding performance has earned her recognition as both the Civilian of the Quarter and Civilian of the Year and she most recently received a Civilian Service Achievement Medal.  She continues to demonstrate the Department of Defense core values of leadership, professionalism, and technical knowledge and prides herself on providing comprehensive advisory and exemplary customer service.  Tiffany believes that "as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" and attributes everything she’s accomplished to everyone she’s ever worked with, humbly admitting that there’s not one person she’s crossed paths with that she hasn’t learned something from.

LaJuan Bryan-Beveridge, affectionately known as “LBB”, currently serves as the Department of Commerce Chief Learning Officer (CLO).  LBB’s 32-years of federal service truly exhibits her resilience while serving currently over 50,000 employees.  As a change agent, acts intentionally to build a shared vision with others, translating vision to action.  LBB within her current and previous roles, continuously sets the dynamics and collaboratively leverages organizational strategic priorities.  Although, diversity and inclusion are more recent priorities among government agencies, LBB has always fostered inclusivity and diversity among internal and external stakeholders. Driven by her tenacious approach to exceeding expectations, she remains committed to continuous improvement and delivers high-quality products and services.    9Customer service is always on the forefronts of every effort she leads, in hopes to build, manage, and enhance staff throughout the organization. LBB effectively creates learning environments that breed successful leaders at all levels and cultivates self-awareness, goal setting and planning, while providing exceptional customer service.  Challenges become the platform which helps to show her dynamic problem solving and critical thinking skills in the least ideal circumstances.LBB serves as a catalyst, emphasizing the benefits of respect and love. People are the heart of every successful organization, which explains why each opportunity to help customers is her primary focus and drive.  LBB maintains these guiding principles for the most amazing outcomes.Her truth: “Without the people, there is no process.”  

Ms. Amy Purnell is a Brooklyn, New York native. Raised in a single-parent household, her mom moved the family to Florida during her teenage years to provide Ms. Purnell and her two younger siblings with a better life.  There, she continued her education and graduated from high school in Orlando. Ms. Purnell holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Jackson State University and M.B.A. from Strayer University. Ms. Amy Purnell started her professional career in the insurance industry. She was recruited by State Farm Insurance during her senior year of college. During her 12 years with the company, she worked in various offices and held multiple positions. In 2013, Ms. Purnell changed career paths and became a federal employee. She currently supports the Department of Defense, excelling in her career as a Financial Analyst. In addition to working for the federal government, she also serves on the Fairfax County Tenant-Landlord Board of Commission, is a treasurer for the National Black MBA Association, Greater Maryland Chapter, and an Alexandria City Public Schools substitute teacher.  Leadership is a journey, not a destination. As Ms. Purnell continues her journey, she focuses on building relationships with other great leaders and leveraging their influence as pipelines of opportunities for underrepresented groups (single parents, recent college graduates, etc.). Cultivating a culture of change for equitable opportunities both professionally and personally will always remain on the forefront for Ms. Purnell as an advocate, new parent, and transformation leader!

MYSHEIKA W. ROBERTS, MD, MPHHealth CommissionerColumbus Public Health is working to protect the health and improve the lives of all residents by addressing our community’s most critical public health issues such as infant mortality, the opioid epidemic, tobacco use and obesity. Health Commissioner Dr. Mysheika W. Roberts leads the organization and a team of nearly 500 public health professionals who are focused on neighborhood-based approaches that address the social determinants of health from safe, affordable housing and education to jobs and violent crime in order to decrease the health disparities that exist.Dr. Roberts has a prolific 18-year public health background at the local, state and national levels. Prior to her appointment as Health Commissioner in December 2017, she was the Medical Director and Assistant Health Commissioner at Columbus Public Health. She also built a solid foundation in public health early in her career by investigating outbreaks in Ohio for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and leading an STD clinic and hepatitis prevention efforts at the Baltimore City Health Department. Dr. Roberts extends her service to the community beyond the walls of Columbus Public Health where she is active on the boards of the Columbus Medical Association Foundation and the YWCA of Columbus, as well as the Lifeline of Ohio Minority Advisory Group and OhioHealth’s Faith, Culture and Community Benefit Committee. She also serves as a mentor in OhioHealth’s Physician Diversity Scholars Program.She earned her MD from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and her MPH from the University of Michigan. A native of Los Angeles, she now calls Columbus home and enjoys spending down time with her husband Edward and their dogs Cosby and Rudy.

Nominate yourself or another federal employees for the 2021 Unsung Heroes of Federal Service awards at www.waepa.org/PSRW Carmen is an organizational heretic and all-purpose troublemaker whose only real expertise is asking stupid questions and noticing odd, new things that might amount to something…or maybe not. Carmen spent 32 years at CIA but when you meet her you will hardly notice. The top five skills that people on LinkedIn endorse her for are strategy, analysis, leadership, national security, and government, FWIW. She is the co-author of the new book: Rebels At Work: A Handbook for Leading Change from Within, which was informed by her career as a heretic at the CIA. She likes to speak in public and will go just about anywhere if you pay her expenses. She is an in-demand expert on critical thinking, diversity of thought, and intrapreneurship, speaking to Fortune 500 companies, major non-profits, and governments. Some of her most recent presentations include speaking at South by Southwest 2019 and TEDxMidAtlantic on Surviving as a Change Agent, at SXSW2018 on avoiding the Mediocrity Trap, and on Critical Thinking at SXSW 2017. Recently she has spoken: to US Treasury officers on Diversity of Thought; to Canadian Federal senior executives about Diversity of Thought and Rebel Thinking, to the California STEM Education conference 2020, at the Business Innovation Factory 2017, and multiple times at GovLoop’s NextGen Leadership summit. If you’re interested in more serious career details, read this paragraph. From 2005-2007 Carmen was part of the executive team that led the CIA's Analysis Directorate; in her last assignment before retiring she began the CIA's Lessons Learned program and led the Agency’s first effort to address the challenges posed by social networks, digital ubiquity, and the emerging culture of collaboration. She was a leader on diversity issues at the CIA, serving on equity boards at all organizational levels and across Directorates. She was the first CIA executive to conceptualize many IT applications now used by analysts, including online production, collaborative tools, and Intellipedia, a project she personally green-lighted; as a senior executive, she began using in 2005 social networking and blogs to reach her diverse workforce. Upon her retirement from CIA, she received the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal. From 2011—2015, Carmen was a member of Deloitte Federal Consulting where she served as senior advisor and mentor to Deloitte's flagship innovation program, GovLab, and sponsored research projects on Bitcoin, Millennials, and the impact of the Internet of Things on government. Carmen describes herself as Puerto Rican by birth and Texan by nationality. She likes to garden and cook things that she has grown. She has an extensive collection of Karaoke songs and you are always in danger of becoming the after-dinner entertainment. You can follow her on Twitter @milouness and visit her two blogs: recoveringfed.com and rebelsatwork.com.

David Smith, PhD, is co-author of the book, Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace and Associate Professor of Sociology in the College of Leadership and Ethics at the U.S. Naval War College. A former Navy pilot, Dr. Smith led diverse organizations of women and men culminating in command of a squadron in combat and flew more than 3,000 hours over 30 years including combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a sociologist trained in military sociology and social psychology, he focuses his research in gender, work, and family issues including gender bias in performance evaluations, dual career families, military families, women in the military, and retention of women. He is the co-author of Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women and numerous journal articles and book chapters that focus on gender and the workplace. Learn more about David at: workplaceallies.com

Please share your thoughts about this interview at http://alextremble.com/?p=298M. Shane Canfield brings more than 25 years of experience in insurance and non-profit leadership to WAEPA.Shane came to WAEPA in 2016 and served previously as Executive Director of the Council on Employee Benefits. He has spent most of his career in the pooled-risk group/affinity insurance industry. In his role as WAEPA CEO, Shane is responsible for strategic planning and leadership, managing stakeholder relationships, and serving our Board of Directors in organizational oversight. With extensive experience in coalition building, government relations, and reporting to Boards, Shane leads WAEPA by consistently prioritizing member satisfaction, membership growth, and retention. He earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from George Mason University, a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Washington Adventist University, and is a board member for the Council of HR Management Associations, member of LIMRA, PIMA, International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP), and is a past board member of the ASAE Business Services Inc. Additionally, Shane holds various certifications, including CEBS, RHU, CAE, SPHR, and SHRM-SCP.

Share your reaction to this interview at http://alextremble.com/?p=300About Holly Hughson:Having worked for almost two decades in high-stakes crisis response, humanitarian action and civil-military coordination, my expertise is building teams and leadership capability in extreme environments. I am a writer and international speaker and my consulting expertise is built on the foundation of a deep understanding of human dynamics and complex systems.​The experience of working unarmed in some of the most insecure locations on the planet has a way of honing a key skillset. This has direct application for leaders, teams and organizations facing existential crises where approaches that may have been effective in earlier, less complex and less distributed environments no longer reliably work.  Working on the frontline of 21st century conflict, I have seen first hand, the disruption to20th century norms of security, power, profession and identity. From a broad and unique witness, operating both as an unarmed aid worker and military advisor in some of the most complex conflicts of the 21st century, I have honed the art of connecting at all levels of power.  My comfort is navigating uncertainty, building trust in times of insecurity and assessing organizational performance in uncharted territory. My approach is not to replace the client’s need to think critically and but to encourage them to own the process and pace of implementation.    The challenges are the ground of opportunity: leadership and culture empowered by intuitive adaptability.  ​My work experience by country: Afghanistan, Denmark, Ghana, Hungary, Iraq, Italy, Kosovo, Macedonia, Russian Federation, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, United Kingdom and the United States of America.