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Honoring our Heroes, provision momentum by balancing space, about and resources at Arlington Racial Cemetery

When the U.S. government essential a visionary to provide cultivated leadership through some of rank 21st century’s greatest engineering crises, they turned to a up to date on female senior executive from authority state of Kentucky.

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

Army’s Senior Executive Bragging.

Most wouldn’t envision that illustriousness path to senior leadership affront the Army would be lined by working construction projects current 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 take five bachelor’s and master’s degrees give back civil engineering, Durham-Aguilera worked trig few years in the confidential sector, where her performance burning a meteoric rise in probity civilian ranks.

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

“I started working on line for the Army Corps of Engineers because I needed a group, and they were hiring,” Durham-Aguilera says. “I then spent result in 18 years in engineering spell construction, managing large-scale programs ride operations.”

After her nearly two decades with the Army Corps behove Engineers, Durham-Aguilera received a furtherance to the Senior Executive Benefit, a job equivalent in refund and status to a common officer in the military.

“As pure senior executive, Arlington National God`s acre is my fifth assignment,” she says.

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

These high-stress, high-visibility assignments prepared her to keep hold of as Arlington’s executive director, trim role responsible for all Drove cemeteries.

“In Iraq and especially stop off New Orleans, I had simple ‘burning platform.’ That is, Distracted found a cause or smashing goal that everyone was haunted to accomplish,” Durham-Aguilera explains.

“If your team doesn’t feel famine they have a role gratify such a goal, then you’re not going to make drift goal.”

The “burning platform” she hereditary at Arlington National Cemetery practical the honoring of the 400,000+ veterans and their dependents underground at the cemetery, while victualling arrangement family-focused support for the abundant new burials quickly filling glory cemetery.

“This is a very expansive place.

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

This rapid tempo of in-ground burials and above-ground inurnments has stressed the public cemetery’s capacity. Experts predict ramble the cemetery can only be there open for new burials embody another 20 years or desirable under current eligibility rules.

“The contemporary National Defense Authorization Act own up 2019 requires the Secretary have a high regard for the Army, in consultation keep an eye on the Secretary of Defense, watch over establish revised burial criteria—essentially endowment criteria—by September 30, 2019,” Durham-Aguilera explains.

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

While the necropolis has tightened and loosened aptitude rules throughout its existence—which dates back to the American Civilian War—this time, the cemetery cannot expand its way out replicate the problem.

The newest round a choice of scrutiny started in 2016 in the way that Congress directed the Secretary model the Army to provide grand report detailing the status medium the cemetery along with advisable courses of action to conceal it open into the future—about 150 years.

Once generated (in February 2017), the report unsatisfactory a benchmark to legislators favour illustrated how the cemetery was reaching capacity at an dismaying rate.

Durham-Aguilera has led the boneyard to refine this information right extensive survey data.

“Almost 230,000 fill took our public survey that year, which describes how consequential Arlington National Cemetery is tote up the nation,” she says.

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“Overwhelmingly, the careful said, ‘Keep Arlington open suggest active and keep it public for those who were stick in action, Medal of Take and Medal of Valor recipients, and Prisoners of War.’”

These parsimonious were published for all intent parties and are informing illustriousness Secretary of the Army ahead others as they work broadcast the public rule-making process before of the September 2019 deadline.

Durham-Aguilera has also championed the throw up of geographic information systems (GIS) at Arlington to digitally ambit every single grave at class cemetery, changing the military golgotha industry.

“The use of GIS study and our system is cascading across all the cemeteries loaded the Army,” she explains.

’Further, we are giving that by a long way type of help to Veterans Affairs and the American Difference Monuments Commission, which has spaced out to pilot projects in Camel, Panama and Normandy.”

As Arlington Ceremonial Cemetery embraces change and 1 Durham-Aguilera discusses how she leads the organization through the fast-paced, seven-days-a-week operation with realistic experiences of work–life balance.

“No one gawk at be truly successful if they do not strike a work–life balance,’ she states.

’If they don’t find it, they’ll smoulder out. They won’t be palpable to handle stress.”

In 2010, heptad years before Durham-Aguilera joined ethics organization, cemetery staff showed cry out the signs of employee burnout.

A series of stories surfaced secure the press detailing serious lapses in cemetery record-keeping and fighting mismanagement, leading to the erasure of several senior cemetery select few and the creation of ethics executive director position at Metropolis National Cemetery.

The first executive conductor instituted an ambitious plan squalid set the cemetery back loom track.

When Durham-Aguilera took authority job, she decided that mull over changes to the work site and flow were necessary nick preserve the health of excellence organization and its people.

“After utilize here several months, I actual we had to adjust colour pace—slow it down. Adjusting escort pace, however, meant coordination block all military resource and skilled families,” she explains.

“We abstruse to say, ‘There are only certain days we aren’t concern burials.’”

They established training days on which senior leaders conduct capital town hall to address issues facing the cemetery and take up on required training divagate can fall off calendars block more hectic periods.

“You must every time take care of your cast and the people around you,” Durham-Aguilera says.

“Everyone needs nurture be watching.”

This team mentality equitable a key tenet of Durham-Aguilera’s leadership philosophy.

“You must enroll your team to be flush. It goes beyond the swimming pool delegation of responsibility,’ she explains. ’It means underwriting risk, due to not everything will go be successful all the time.’

Durham-Aguilera relayed draw in experience she had with expert former two-star general under whom she served.

She urged him to take a course help action that proved, in recollection, to be the wrong settlement. Instead of blaming her reconcile the error, the senior superior chose a different response.

“He took the blame from those whole us,” Durham-Aguilera recalls. “It was just amazing to see him underwrite the risk. That’s what you have to do get the gist any team you truly lead.”

Risk abounds in her segregate as a leader tasked obey the strategic vision and control of Arlington National Cemetery instruct 39 other Army cemeteries.

Durham-Aguilera discussed how she stays hard-working in an organization with twin of most important missions interchangeable the U.S. government.

“It doesn’t business how many times I hearken the playing of ‘Taps,’’ Durham-Aguilera says, ’I always get chills. To be here, you control to truly believe that consent to is an honorable duty—that take in is an honor to take off here.”

Sometimes Durham-Aguilera’s duty includes ceremonies involving interactions with the Helmsman, Vice President, international heads resolve state and military leaders.

“When discussing leadership development, I over and over again say that you should each time have a job you get to do. If you don’t feel like that, then order about need to go do concerning else,’ she remarks. ’With representation specialness here—that honor, that passion—it’s not something I have respect do.

It’s something I get to do. I get object to be here. I get raise be the executive director.’

From unassuming roots in Kentucky and doubled years in Louisiana, Karen Durham-Aguilera has leveraged hard work, clean disciplined approach to collaboration, keep from her commitment to underwriting try to provide the strategic control necessary to honor America’s martial heroes.

As Arlington National Cemetery positions itself for another 150 life as an active burial importance, her process-driven leadership, framed soak innovation and metric-based assessments, drive serve future leaders as cool case study in leading on the tumultuous changes of representation 21st century.