FORT BELVOIR, Va. –
The Defense Logistics Agency Energy Acquisition Workforce Development Team hosted a Women’s History Month Program at the McNamara Headquarters Complex on Fort Belvoir, Virginia, March 30.
A live band, Kendra and The Band, welcomed guests as they took their seats to “Celebrate Women Who Tell Their Stories,” this year’s theme.
Offering a unique perspective on domestic and political life during the American revolutionary era, Nilya Carrato, the supervisory librarian at the Fort Belvoir and Joint Base Myer-Henderson Morale, Welfare and Recreation libraries, read a letter written 257 years ago entitled “Remember the Ladies” by Abigail Adams.
“If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation,” the letter read.
Adams, the wife of former President John Adams, urged her husband and members of Congress to not forget about the women when fighting for America’s independence. Nearly 150 years before the House of Representatives voted to pass the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote, Adams’ letter was a private first step in the fight for equal rights for women.
The keynote speaker was retired Senior Procurement Executive Soraya Correa who shared her experiences from a 40-year career in government contracting. As a prior senior executive service and former chief procurement officer at the Department of Homeland Security, she was responsible for the direct oversight of all procurement operations including the work of over 1,500 procurement professionals assigned to the ten Heads of Contracting Activities providing contracting services to DHS components, organizations, and offices.
Correa started her career as a GS 4 clerk-typist and her path wasn’t a traditional one; she made a mid-level shift in career path to program management and later returned to procurement. She didn’t get her degree until late in her career.
“Life happens,” she said. Her success – despite not conforming to the typical norms – has inspired others, she added.
“The job you hold today is the interview for the job you will have tomorrow,” she told the audience.
Early in her career, she said she established a personal philosophy about her career and the jobs she wanted.
“I didn’t want the counteroffer,” she said. “If I wasn’t the first selected for a job right away, then it wasn’t meant to be.”
As her career grew, Correa learned the value of good leadership and being a good leader. People, and relationships, matter, she said.
“Leaders check in often, get to know their people, talk to them, and find out their concerns,” she said. “Always remember to tell people they are valued; it matters. People really want to know that you appreciate their work.”
Gabriella Earhardt, DLA Energy Head of the Contracting Activity, relayed a personal story of a four-year old girl who told her mom that she wanted to one day be an astronaut. Her mom said that she had to 1) study hard, 2) go to college, 3) learn a lot of science, and 4) take a physical fitness test. Hearing this, the little girl shrugged her shoulders and said, “that’s just four things.”
“We can learn from that little girl and see issues facing us as just a handful of things,” Earhardt said. “Don’t agonize over them but put them into a perspective of being able to achieve them – that nothing is impossible.”
Special thanks to the Acquisition Workforce and Development team for putting together the event.