Inspirational women who made things happen. A few vignettes:
I was born just before World War II, and I watched my mother adapt to the changes in the world that occurred during and after that war and the Korean War that followed. My father was away for three years in the Pacific during World War II and two years in Korea during that conflict. My mother was responsible for me and, as a commander’s wife, also for looking out for military wives that were struggling with the absence of their husbands. She became a public administrator as she served alongside my father as he led major governmental organizations.
Later, as a widow, she served as president of the residence association of a large retirement community in which she lived, always on top of the issues and always prepared to deal with challenges facing residents. She had the right stuff and reflected the female side of the greatest generation.
My wife, whom I met in high school, has been with me now for 70 years. Being with me that long should be merit a large medal in itself, but her actions over those years, raising six children and now 18 grand and great-grandchildren while I was traveling all over this country and the world carrying out engineering and public administration business deserve even more. Doing this while I was in Vietnam for two years and on temporary assignments in Europe, Saudi Arabia and Korea made it even more difficult. As I took more critical government positions, her role dealing with senior visitors, foreign and domestic and their families, greatly enhanced their visit to my stations. Balancing responsibility for presidents, governors, and politicians in general had to be balanced against all of the activities in raising a family. She was and still is filled with stamina, knowledge and, again, the right stuff.
Outside of my family, I will always hold the highest respect for the Honorable Kathleen (Katie) McGinty, a deputy special assistant to the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, and the chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Clinton’s and Gore’s go-to person for environmental issues during the Clinton administration. When I first met her, she was a 32-year-old wunderkind making things happen in the Administration and I was a 58-year-old Army brigadier general serving as Dean at West Point. She asked me to come to DC to work for her looking at the causes of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1993. In my many years with many bosses, I haven’t found a better one than Katie McGinty. She always listened, gave sound advice, and could quickly define the real problems that existed. She always backed me up and was ready to jump in when I needed her – loyal to the core. She later went on to be Secretary of Environmental Protection for Pennsylvania, Chief of Staff to the Governor, an almost successful candidate for governor of that state, a member of several boards with environmental interests, and now a senior corporate environmental leader. She has also found time to raise three daughters. Katie is a brilliant leader who continues to effectively shape the environmental milieu of this nation
Dr Lauren Alexander Augustine, PhD, is Director of the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Science, Engineering And Medicine and has been involved in solving critical problems in the science and policy fields over the last 20 years. After two years as a policy analyst in the Department of Interior she took on the direction of critical National Academies studies to include those dealing with natural disasters, climate change, CBRNE and resilience, opening that filed to intense government activity. She concurrently ran the Academies disaster round table and served as the country Director for African Science Academy Development. I saw from experience that she was sought after by the leadership of the Academies at every turn because she not only was an accomplished scientist and public administrator but also someone who would get jobs done in the complexity of national and international science. Today she is advancing the reliability and equitability of a $500 million endowment that seeks to improve the conditions on the US Gulf Coast and those who live within its shadow.
Major General Diana Holland, US Army, is the President of the Mississippi River Commission (established in 1879 to deal with the challenges of maintaining the Mississippi River.) She is also commander of the Mississippi Valley Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and was previously the commander of the Southeast Division of the Corps where she led the Corp’s response to Hurricanes Irma, Maria (Puerto Rico), Florence and Michael. General Holland brings together the talent of a distinguished leader of soldiers and an effective public administrator as she has guided major organizations in the conduct of billions of dollars of civil and military construction in the United States and abroad. She was the first female Commandant of Cadets at West Point, a position that shapes the discipline and military training of the 4400 cadets at the Academy. Her expertise as a leader and an engineer have been applied in many positions in the United States, Iraq and Afghanistan and Germany. She is always out in front and never ducks an issue that needs to be addressed.
Ms. Karen Durham Aguilera (KDA) is one of the highest-ranking members of the senior executive service in the Department of the Army where she is currently Executive Director of Army Cemeteries, to include the Arlington National Cemetery and 30 Army cemeteries across the United States. Prior to this assignment, she served as Director of Contingency Operations in the Office of Homeland Security in the headquarters of the US Army Corps of Engineers where she oversaw the Corps response to and planning for flooding and other disasters in the United States and abroad. Following Hurricane Katrina, Ms. Durham-Aguilera was selected to be the Director of Task Force Hope, responsible for the $15 billion reconstruction of the hurricane protection system for the New Orleans area, the largest recent Corps job in civil construction. This project was completed on time and on budget and brought both the Corps and KDA plaudits from around the nation and recognition by the American Society of Civil Engineers. KDA knows how to be a program manager as well as a leader and has demonstrated that in the variety of assignments she has held in Iraq and across this nation. She has been tough and determined, but always willing to listen, support and mentor those around her. She is the epitome of what a 21st century program manager should be.
Why is women’s history month important?
Unfortunately, the contributions of women over the years have been dramatically under reported and poorly understood. Women’s history month attempts to shine the light on the many roles that women have played in society for centuries and explain to the unaware what they have missed. In today’s world, it is the important story of women that should be shared with the men around them who are today working with women across a spectrum of activity in hopes they will understand the role women have played in shaping our society and developing leaders of today and tomorrow.
Is there a woman I believe embodies “providing healing, promoting hope?“
The above women, by their efforts as skilled professionals in their fields, have exemplified the accomplishments of women in present society and have helped heal the wounds suffered by women over the years that have discouraged many from pursuing their goals in life. By their successful accomplishments, these women have given hope to those who are watching them and learning from their experiences.
What steps are needed to achieve gender equality?
I spent 38 years in the US Army, and I have watched from the sidelines the transition in the seventies of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), a woman only organization to the full integration of women into all aspects of the Army. I was at West Point when the first class of women graduated in 1980 and three years later when the NAPA CEO and President graduated. I observed how the skepticism of many about the ability of these women to, under the grueling circumstances of military life, disappear. Women today in the services have been awarded high level medals of valor, have been wounded in combat and have lost their lives. They have successfully led formations at all levels and been promoted to four-star general. They have graduated from its toughest program, the Ranger Course. This advancement is taking place because leaders at all levels who are responsible for the professional development of all of their personnel are doing this with a view towards gender equality. Where inequality remains, it is a measure of the poor leadership of those in those organizations. It must be recognized and stopped
With whom would you eat dinner if you could?
Given the opportunity, I would love to sit down to dinner with either Condoleezza Rice or Angela Merkel. Both of those women have been outstanding leaders and weathered storms unlike those faced by their predecessors. Throughout their service, they were effective, appreciated (most of the time) and successful. They were also selfless leaders and humble. I would love to discuss with them how they were able to get along with some of the troglodytes they encountered and were able to move them aside to accomplish what they had set about to do.
What is a gender issue of importance to me?
Equity says it all. Given the opportunity to professionally develop, women will move ahead. When they are blocked by inequitable actions, then we have problems that need to be immediately addressed.
Dr. Gerald (Gerry) E. Galloway, Jr. is an Emeritus Research Professor of Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, where his focus is ns on disaster resilience and mitigation, sustainable infrastructure development, and water resources and energy policy and management under climate change. He retired from the University in April 2021.
He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Water Institute of the Gulf, the Advisory Board of the Center for Climate and Security, and Vice-Chair of the Military Advisory Board of CNA. From 2014 to 2021 he was a Governor of Maryland appointee to the State Coast Smart Council and from 2009 until 2019, he served as a Governor of Louisiana appointee to his Advisory Commission on Coastal Protection, Restoration and Conservation. He has led or has been a member of international committees examining water resources issues in Italy, Singapore, Mexico and China.
He joined the faculty of the University of Maryland following a 38-year career in the U.S. Army, retiring as Brigadier General and Chief Academic Officer at West Point. He served for seven years as a Presidential appointee to the Mississippi River Commission, and in 1993, he was assigned to the White House to lead the interagency study of the causes of the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1993. He holds a master’s degree in Engineering from Princeton; a master’s in Public Administration from Penn State (Capitol Campus), a master’s in Military Art and Science from the US Army Command and General Staff College and a Ph.D. in Geography (Water Resources) from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill). He has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Construction and the National Academy of Public Administration.