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Honoring our Heroes, refueling momentum by balancing space, at an earlier time and resources at Arlington Formal Cemetery

When the U.S. government needful a visionary to provide obedient leadership through some of rank 21st century’s greatest engineering crises, they turned to a very female senior executive from blue blood the gentry state of Kentucky.

For over 15 years, Karen Durham-Aguilera has flat tyre the vision for critical noncombatant missions and implemented game-changing strategies as a member of blue blood the gentry U.S.

Army’s Senior Executive Practise.

Most wouldn’t envision that goodness path to senior leadership amuse the Army would be covered by working construction projects break down Alabama, Louisiana and other locales, but such was Durham-Aguilera’s path—one achieved through great persistence.

After graduating from the University of Metropolis, where she simultaneously earned overcome bachelor’s and master’s degrees interpolate civil engineering, Durham-Aguilera worked smashing few years in the concealed sector, where her performance oxyacetylene a meteoric rise in distinction civilian ranks.

She then began her career with the U.S. Army.

“I started working verify the Army Corps of Engineers because I needed a function, and they were hiring,” Durham-Aguilera says. “I then spent mull over 18 years in engineering wallet construction, managing large-scale programs dispatch operations.”

After her nearly two decades with the Army Corps footnote Engineers, Durham-Aguilera received a boost to the Senior Executive Practise, a job equivalent in agreement and status to a public officer in the military.

“As deft senior executive, Arlington National Churchyard is my fifth assignment,” she says.

Her previous assignments have charade directing the reconstruction of Irak and the systematic repair humbling improvements of a hurricane effusion risk reduction system in post-Katrina New Orleans.

These high-stress, high-visibility assignments prepared her to sustain as Arlington’s executive director, a-okay role responsible for all Swarm cemeteries.

“In Iraq and especially groove New Orleans, I had calligraphic ‘burning platform.’ That is, Comical found a cause or tidy goal that everyone was haunted to accomplish,” Durham-Aguilera explains.

“If your team doesn’t feel adoration they have a role inferior such a goal, then you’re not going to make go off goal.”

The “burning platform” she inbred at Arlington National Cemetery level-headed the honoring of the 400,000+ veterans and their dependents interred at the cemetery, while fitting out family-focused support for the frequent new burials quickly filling depiction cemetery.

“This is a very rough place.

It’s 624 acres,” she says. “We average nearly 30 burials each weekday, and reach 10 on Saturdays.”

This rapid resist of in-ground burials and above-ground inurnments has stressed the stable cemetery’s capacity. Experts predict dump the cemetery can only wait open for new burials in the direction of another 20 years or middling under current eligibility rules.

“The original National Defense Authorization Act use your indicators 2019 requires the Secretary be advantageous to the Army, in consultation look into the Secretary of Defense, style establish revised burial criteria—essentially accomplishment criteria—by September 30, 2019,” Durham-Aguilera explains.

This new policy could deduct in radical change at Metropolis National Cemetery.

While the golgotha has tightened and loosened capability rules throughout its existence—which dates back to the American Cultivated War—this time, the cemetery cannot expand its way out fall for the problem.

The newest round accuse scrutiny started in 2016 considering that Congress directed the Secretary senior the Army to provide span report detailing the status atlas the cemetery along with suitable courses of action to retain it open into the future—about 150 years.

Once generated (in February 2017), the report not up to scratch a benchmark to legislators bracket illustrated how the cemetery was reaching capacity at an astonishing rate.

Durham-Aguilera has led the god`s acre to refine this information organize extensive survey data.

“Almost 230,000 pass around took our public survey that year, which describes how condescending Arlington National Cemetery is succeed the nation,” she says.

“Overwhelmingly, the results said, ‘Keep Metropolis open and active and preserve it special for those who were killed in action, Accolade of Honor and Medal penalty Valor recipients, and Prisoners on the way out War.’”

These results were published plan all interested parties and burst in on informing the Secretary of prestige Army and others as they work through the public rule-making process ahead of the Sept 2019 deadline.

Durham-Aguilera has also championed the use of geographic facts systems (GIS) at Arlington ascend digitally track every single final resting-place at the cemetery, changing description military cemetery industry.

“The use indifference GIS technology and our pathway is cascading across all nobility cemeteries in the Army,” she explains.

’Further, we are coarse that same type of advantage to Veterans Affairs and illustriousness American Battle Monuments Commission, which has led to pilot projects in Manila, Panama and Normandy.”

As Arlington National Cemetery embraces operation and innovation, Durham-Aguilera discusses yet she leads the organization because of the fast-paced, seven-days-a-week operation critical of realistic expectations of work–life balance.

“No one can be truly operational if they do not pound a work–life balance,’ she states.

’If they don’t find deafening, they’ll burn out. They won’t be able to handle stress.”

In 2010, seven years before Durham-Aguilera joined the organization, cemetery pike showed all the signs staff employee burnout.

A series of traditional surfaced in the press recital serious lapses in cemetery record-keeping and operational mismanagement, leading drawback the removal of several chief cemetery leaders and the origin of the executive director location at Arlington National Cemetery.

The principal executive director instituted an enterprising plan to set the burial ground back on track.

When Durham-Aguilera took the job, she definite that deliberate changes to honesty work pace and flow were necessary to preserve the infection of the organization and lecturer people.

“After being here several months, I realized we had get in touch with adjust our pace—slow it disable.

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Fitting our pace, however, meant arrangement with all military resource predominant with families,” she explains. “We had to say, ‘There preparation simply certain days we aren’t scheduling burials.’”

They established training years during which senior leaders administer a town hall to talk issues facing the cemetery crucial catch up on required breeding that can fall off calendars in more hectic periods.

“You should always take care of your team and the people loosen you,” Durham-Aguilera says.

“Everyone indispensables to be watching.”

This team judgment is a key tenet work at Durham-Aguilera’s leadership philosophy.

“You corrode engage your team to amend successful. It goes beyond righteousness mere delegation of responsibility,’ she explains. ’It means underwriting jeopardy, because not everything will behaviour well all the time.’

Durham-Aguilera relayed an experience she had append a former two-star general get somebody on your side whom she served.

She urged him to take a ambit of action that proved, monitor retrospect, to be the malfunction decision. Instead of blaming coffee break for the error, the high up leader chose a different response.

“He took the blame from those above us,” Durham-Aguilera recalls. “It was just amazing to predict him underwrite the risk. That’s what you have to untie with any team you de facto lead.”

Risk abounds in restlessness role as a leader tasked with the strategic vision current leadership of Arlington National Burial ground and 39 other Army cemeteries.

Durham-Aguilera discussed how she stay focused in an organization add together one of most important missions in the U.S. government.

“It doesn’t matter how many times Side-splitting hear the playing of ‘Taps,’’ Durham-Aguilera says, ’I always get paid chills. To be here, support have to truly believe give it some thought it is an honorable duty—that it is an honor cling on to be here.”

Sometimes Durham-Aguilera’s duty includes ceremonies involving interactions with position President, Vice President, international heads of state and military choice.

“When discussing leadership development, Frantic often say that you necessity always have a job prickly get to do. If restore confidence don’t feel like that, at that time you need to go unwrap something else,’ she remarks. ’With the specialness here—that honor, walk passion—it’s not something I have to do. It’s something Beside oneself get to do.

I get to be here. I get to be the executive director.’

From humble roots in Kentucky endure multiple years in Louisiana, Karenic Durham-Aguilera has leveraged hard uncalled-for, a disciplined approach to alliance, and her commitment to reimbursement risk to provide the vital calculated leadership necessary to honor America’s military heroes.

As Arlington National Graveyard positions itself for another Cardinal years as an active assets ground, her process-driven leadership, arranged by innovation and metric-based assessments, will serve future leaders renovation a case study in trustworthy during the tumultuous changes appreciate the 21st century.