Nancy Nord, EWG President

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Call for Nominations & Volunteers for 2007-08 EWG Leadership

The EWG Board announced that it is forming the 2007-08 slate which will be presented shortly after nominations close in April. The nominating committee, chaired by Maria Parisi Vickers, Deputy Director, EPA, is seeking nominations for president, treasurer and secretary. To be eligible, the candidate must be a member of EWG and for the presidency currently in the SES or serving in a political or elected position. We are also seeking positions for several committee chairs and volunteers. Please contact Maria Vickers at vickers.maria@epa.gov or 703-308-8895, or any board member for more information or to nominate yourself or another candidate. For a complete listing, visit http://www.execwomeningov.org/our_people/officers_and_committee_chairs.html.

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"Conversation With..." Series is a great success

Began in November 2006, Luncheon series takes off.

Conservation with Lynn Scarlett: The EWG Luncheon series began November 20th with Lynn Scarlett, Deputy Secretary for the Department of Interior. Ms. Scarlett shared perspectives on her position at Interior and the role of women at the executive level in the federal government. Lynn balances Interior’s complex mission of oversight for 1/3 of our nation’s energy sources, native tribes, and our nation’s maps. She juggles such competing interests as park management, urbanization of the west, invasive species, homeland security, and audit/land conservation.

As with many successful women today, Lynn began her career when women leaders were an oddity in the workplace. Lynn shared her views on pivotal people and life experiences that helped achieve “her dreams” and characterizes successful management and policy as—“No man is an island”.

Essential elements are:

• Shared governance. Connections and relationships are essential for cause and change.
• Experiential knowledge. “Go to the source and tap wisdom on the ground.”
• Complexity. “No solutions, only tradeoffs.”
• Policy and management. Equate to people and ideas.
• Civility. The greatest civic virtue.
• Ability to listen. “Sequencing matters in communication—and what people hear is important, not what you say.”
• Personal relations. “All are important and deserve respect”
• Global fundamentals are --“Family” and “Do Well.”
• Success. Know where you are going in your organization, in your career, and measure progress.

She told us how she initially chose nursing as a career, as either becoming a nurse or a teacher were the two options advised by her mother and most open to women at the time. The skills she acquired as a nurse in her early years served her well in every position she has held since. The most important of those skills being: communication, building consensus, working under pressure, thinking on your feet, involving the "family", keeping your word, feeling good about what you're doing, and having a sense of humor. Each of her career moves meant assuming more responsibility and came with a steep learning curve. Each move, however, was encouraged by a mentor and she encouraged all of us to enlist mentors for ourselves.

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Holiday Tea Benefits Members and "Dress for Success"

EWG was pleased to hold its annual Holiday Tea and Fundraiser at the Four Seasons Hotel on December 13^th. The decorations, food, and conversation sparkled but nowhere more evident than the remarks by the organization receiving the donations, “Dress for Success” (DFS).

Jennifer McNulty, DFS Washington, DC Executive Director, provided inspirational remarks and stories of women who benefited from the 10 years that the organization has existed in the metro area. Helping women better their lives and create self sufficiency, the organization’s first goal was providing business attire, incredibly important for employment opportunities. However, as the DFS program has evolved, the “mentoring” aspect of supporting women has taken on the more important role. Seminar topics are provided to educate women on day to day topics--ranging from financial acumen, health and welfare, to job retention and advancement. Many of the women need support beyond the “suits” to inspire them to continue the tough road balancing employment and difficult life situations. Ms. McNulty also graciously acknowledged the role of Crest Cleaners in providing free dry cleaning and donation drop off for the program.

The DFS sponsor only reinforced one of EWG’s objectives, to provide opportunities for women to network. Whether for executive women, or those struggling to reenter the workforce, mentoring and networking are important elements of career success.

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Upcoming Events:

(Visit the EWG’s website for details.)

April 12 – An Evening at the Embassy of Poland – Meet the Ambassador Janusz and Hanna Reiter

May 8 - Conversation with… Karen Hughes, Under Secretary, Public Diplomacy & Public Affairs, State Dept

May: Annual Tea honoring Distinguished Presidential Rank Award Winning Women (date and location to be confirmed – we’re looking at two new locations!)

June 14: Conversation with…David Gergen, Commentator, editor, teacher, public servant, best-selling author and adviser to presidents for 30 years

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Positioning Women to Rise to SES Ranks

If you are a female member of the Senior Executive Service in the Federal government, you are part of a small, elite group—smaller, in fact, than it could or should be. As of June 30, 2006, the latest date for which statistics are available from the Office of Personnel Management, women represented just 28 percent of the 7,100 members of the Senior Executive Service. At the same time, women represented 35 percent of the so-called “feeder” grades for the SES, GS-13 through GS-15 grade levels. As of 2004, 12 percent of the SES was minority.

With a tidal wave of retirements expected among the baby boomers, especially with the large number of federal executives eligible to retire (45 percent were already eligible for regular retirement as of 2004 and 90 percent will be eligible in the next 10 years), there is no better time for Executive Women in Government to advocate for ensuring that women are given proper consideration for the many SES positions that will be coming open.

The number of women in the workforce, and in the Federal government, has increased significantly over the past few decades. In 2005, the U.S. Civilian Labor Force (CLF) participation rate for women 16 years and older was 59 percent as compared to about 43 percent in 1970. In 2005, women represented 44 percent of the permanent Federal workforce as compared to 46 percent of the CLF.

Not all federal occupations are directly comparable to the occupations categorized in the CLF. However, in 2005 about 51 percent of the relatively higher paying jobs in the CLF, i.e., jobs in management, professional, and related occupations, were held by women.

How do women reach parity in the Senior Executive Service? EWG’s Status of Women Committee identified a number of actions that can help remove the barriers that many feel still exists and to assist women aspiring to make the leap to the senior levels of government.

The Committee feels EWG’s strategy should be to:

• Raise the lack of parity issue to the attention of those policy makers who can effective positive change;
• Elicit their support for increasing the numbers of women in leadership positions, and
• Engage them in actions to help accomplish that objective.

Members of the Status of Women Committee welcomes other ideas (contact Kathy Gugulis, Chair, at kgugulis@mindspring.com). Members of the committee include: Maria Vickers, Paula Farrell, Kate Perry, Gina Nightengale, Cynthia Heath, Pamela Caudill, Vicki Simons, and Brenda Mendoza.

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Members in the News

Donna Heivilin, 2006 Recipient of TIAW’s Mandy Goetze Award (Reprint from TIAW eConnections January-February edition) - Long time TIAW member and EWG member, Donna Heivilin had no idea that she was the recipient of the 2006 Mandy Goetze Award. There was no notification prior to the 2006 Global Partnership Forum. “I was totally surprised! Then I immediately thought, what do I say and my mind went blank. The other awardees had such great-prepared acceptance speeches and I do not to this day know what I said. Whatever I said came from my heart and not my head. To be given the Mandy Goetze award in honor of a woman I admire so much, is totally awesome,” says Heivilin.

Susan Taylor, EWG Board Member and former Secretary selected for SES Position
We are pleased to report that Susan Taylor, this year's EWG Program Committee Co-Chair and former Secretary in 2005-2006, was selected for an SES position as Director of the Procurement Department for the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, effective Feb. 4. Ms. Taylor formerly was Associate Director at the Contracting Center of Excellence at the Pentagon.

Ms. Taylor has been working in federal government contracting positions for the past 21 years. She holds a BA Degree from St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana, and an MBA from the New York Institute of Technology.

Naomi Zeavin serving on the Fairfax County History Commission, U.S. Civil Rights Advisory Commission for the state of Virginia and a Reagan Appointee has been presented with the LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD, at the Fairfax County History Conference held November 11, 2006

Fairfax County Chairman Gerry Connolly read the award to all and then presented her with the plaque: “For her valiant service as an author, producer and citizen of the Commonwealth of Virginia in promoting the causes and the histories of citizens who served in Viet-Nam, those with disabilities, those of the Jewish faith, those of African -American decent and as having documented the history of the Mason District of Fairfax County with six historical videos and numerous oral history interviews and as a member of the Fairfax County History Commission, and promoter of the presentation of Fairfax County’s vast and rich history in the United States of America.”

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Welcome New Members

Vicki Allums - Defence Information Systems Agency
Elizabeth Anderson -
Lexine Arthur - Army Contracting Agency
Kathleen Bartholomew - Department of the Interior
Sheila Burke - Smithsonian Institution
Marilyn Carlson - Department Of Housing And Urban Development
Carol Cave - Consumer Product Safety Commission
Tangita Daramola - Centers for Medicare/Medicaid Services
Audrey Farley - Economic Research Service
Stacey Fitzmaurice - Transportation Security Administration
Sue Gilbertson - Office of Technology and Operations Planning
Patricia Grady - Comptroller of the Currency
J. Harden - National Institute of Health
Victoria Hartke - General Services Administration
Michele Heffner - General Services Administration
Michel Ishakian - Office of Administration
Judi Kane - Environmental Protection Agency
Yvonne Kinney - Environmental Protection Agency
Patricia Lamond - United States Agency for International
Priscilla Lewis - Department of Housing and Urban Development
Barbara Male - Office of Environmental Management
Marguerite Moccia - Administration Office of US Courts
Lenore Mullin - National Science Foundation
Joanie Newhart - Small Business Administration
Kimberly Reed - Department of the Treasury
Sue Richardson - Bureau of Land Management (WO-800)
Margaret Roberts - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Dianne Thomas - Department of Health and Human Services
Delores Thompson - Department of Interior/OIG
Letitia Toomer - USDA, NRCS-OMOF
Donna Whitaker - Environment & Natural Resources Division
Doris Wojnarowski - Department of Homeland Security
Lillian Woods - National Resource Conservation Service
Margie Yanchuk - National Science Foundation

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