Photo By Staff Sgt. Gerald Willis | Zoom screenshot from the 70th intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing SWORD...... read more read more
Female and Family-centric issues facing the Air Force. An always moving, extremely important target that rising leaders across ranks came together to discuss, game plan and tackle within the 70th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing.
Taking the example from the Air Combat Command SWORD ATHENA 2020 event, Master Sgt. Katie Huguenin advocated for and orchestrated the first of many 70th ISR Wing ATHENA conferences on Feb. 19, 2021, telling participants across the globe to, “Learn to love the sound of glass breaking.”
Master Sgt. Katie Huguenin, First Sergeant for U.S. Cyber Command-Air Force Element (AFELM), was hand-picked as the 70th ISR Wing’s nominee to attend ACC’s SWORD ATHENA conference last year. This year she hosted what she thought was a smaller scale conference for the 70th ISR Wing.
Virtually, 85 Airmen from every geographically separated unit came together as they workshopped and brought solutions to problems affecting all Airmen within the Wing.
These Airmen were broken into six working groups, led by six women of different AFSCs, experience, rank, and expertise representative of the vast array of Airmen currently within the 70th ISR Wing, and therefore of their issues.
“It’s my hope that we advocate for those who feel like they don’t have a voice, and make Leadership aware of the issues that keep Airmen up at night… things that they might not have even considered,” said Huguenin.
Lt Col. Christina Sheets, 94 Intelligence Squadron Commander, was driven to partner with Huguenin and lead the ATHENA conference because she also, “Takes seriously the responsibility we each have to share an oral history of our experiences with younger generations and acknowledge the paths that were paved for us.”
Sheets and Huguenin focused the conference around six key issues:
- Access to Quality and Holistic Medical Care
- Fort Meade Air Force-Centric Challenges
- Leadership Development and Talent Management
- Military Specific Challenges in a Civilian Culture
- Professional Working Mothers and Childcare
- Quality of life for Airmen and Families
Each group had three weeks to find the most pressing issues facing Airmen in their specific category and present solutions to Col. Brian Tyler, 70th ISR Wing Commander, on Feb. 19. Lt Col. Lisa Pagano-Wallace, 34th Intelligence Squadron commander shared her key motivation for leading the Fort Meade Air Force-Centric Challenges group.
“I faced some hurdles just because I’m a woman, so I feel a huge obligation to go back and do my best to try to remove those barriers for others,” said Pagano-Wallace. “Just because it was hard for me, doesn't mean that it should be hard for everyone.”
When asked what she was most proud of, Pagano-Wallace said, "I'm really excited to see Wingman Connect take-off -- I can't emphasize enough how important relationships between people are to me and I love the idea of building and making connections in order to make Airmen's lives better.”
These sentiments were echoed by Senior Master Sgt. Melissa Matthews, Leadership Development and Talent Management group lead, said, “As a young Airman, it felt as though having a mentorship group or organization devoted solely to women would be looked down upon for making women seem weak, or somehow face disapproval for not being inclusive of the majority.”
“It felt like we were supposed to stay quiet about the challenges we faced in order to prove we were cut out for a traditionally male-dominated profession. My own biases got in the way of open dialogue and forging connections with other military women. Hopefully, generations of female Airmen will benefit from an Air Force without those invisible barriers or personal biases impeding their success,” added Matthews.
The final day of the conference began with breakout sessions exploring psychological safety, led by Jason Womack, who is an instructor of Leadership Studies at Air University. Then three incredibly successful women, each a pioneer in her field discussed how they broke barriers during their mostly male-dominated careers.
Heather Wilson 24th Secretary of the United States Air Force, Barbara Barrett, 25th Secretary of the United States Air Force, and retired Lt. Gen. VeraLinn “Dash” Jamieson each devoted an hour of time to mentor and inspire Airmen wanting to make a difference.
Lt. Gen. Jamieson gave Airmen an insight into her driving passion behind serving, and how she overcame a major hurdle during her military tenure. She also discussed a variety of issues highlighting what she believed should be a driving force for leaders in the Air Force.
“It’s our responsibility, no matter what our rank is, to reach out, and pull someone up, and open doors for them. Especially as a commander, or a Colonel…it’s their only job…to work for the Airmen,” said Jamieson.
Adding that she was proud of leaders today because of their, “willingness to have these conversations, they really want to understand what [Airmen] are going through and make this [experience] so you feel valued, and empowered to make a difference in the world. That never happened when I was growing up in the Air Force, so I’m really proud of that.”
Secretary Barrett had similar sentiments to share, saying, “Every one of us has something we can learn and something we can teach each other… We have a higher and greater duty to help others, and especially women need to help other women.”
She ended by encouraging participants to think about, “How it ought to be, that should be our measure…How should it be, strive for that.”
The afternoon session included three hours of briefings followed by Q&A, which culminated with 21 LOEs for the 70th ISR Wing to incorporate into their overall strategic planning framework. Lt Col. Sheets and Master Sgt. Huguenin are excited to see the SWORD ATHENA conference occur annually, just before the annual Senior Leadership Seminar (SLS), so that leaders coming together can discuss barriers facing their Airmen, and be in a position to remove them.
As Secretary Barrett said, “The U.S. Air Force has demonstrated breakthrough capabilities; where we have been right is about how we treat each other. We need to recognize we don’t have it [completely] right yet and there’s still more to do.”
Article by Capt. Monita Alcantara
| Date Taken: | 03.11.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 03.30.2021 10:10 |
| Story ID: | 392579 |
| Location: | MARYLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 317 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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