Who I am - words that describe me:
Friends and family would probably say that I'm a workaholic and a perfectionist. On the professional front, I would like to think of myself as being a hard worker with a drive for making a difference. I'm tenacious and have great endurance. I have a very curious and active mind. I try to cram as much as I can in one day. My mind is constantly thinking.

I love to learn, and I always welcome opportunities to learn something new, explore new places, new cultures and new things. I have a can-do attitude and enjoy the challenge of being able to do something I've never done before (like Life Sciences Outreach). If a challenge sounds exciting and has potential for personal and/or professional growth, I go for it. I know what skills I bring to a job, and I try to see how those skills can help me do the job at hand and how the "new experience" can broaden my skills and abilities.

On the lighter side, I consider myself a "people person". I like working with people, helping them grow and interacting with people. I like to inject humor when I can. In this very serious world of finances and science, being a serious person myself (most of the time), I like to put a lighter spin on things when we get too serious. I'm no joker by any means, but I like to use humor when appropriate to loosen things up and put people at ease. Thoughtful. I try to be thoughtful of other people in whatever I do. A guiding principle from my upbringing is "Do unto others as you would like done unto you".

My career challenges:
Embracing challenge and the pursuit of life-long learning are key contributors to the success I have obtained in my personal and professional life. I've overcome lots of obstacles along the way, and the path I've traveled is not a straight one.

Resources management is my forte. I started from the bottom rungs of comptrollership and worked my way up the chain through a lot of hard work and perseverance. Throughout my career, I have worked for people that always expected more of me than I thought was possible at the time. Every time, I rose to their expectation. With each challenge I took on, I expanded my experience and knowledge base. At the same time it fed my curious and active mind as well as giving more credence to my "can-do" attitude. I continue to update my knowledge base of the field of comptrollership through classes and attendance at resources conferences sponsored by the American Society of Military Comptrollers, of which I am a member. I keep abreast of things that are going on in the federal government resources management arena through friends that work for other federal agencies.

Talk about lifelong learning, if my life isn't a good example of that, I don't know what is! I often joke with my friends and family that I've been going to college just as long as I've been working and that these friends' kids, my nieces and nephews, will probably get their degree before I do. Well some of this has come to pass, but, hey, who's counting! I like to think of my goal of getting my B.S. in psychology as being in the same time line as Pearl Bailey's. She got her degree after she retired. Who knows, I may match that record. I started college some time back. After a year of full-time studies, working part time and not being able to afford much beyond rent, food and college expenses, I got tired of being a poor student so I quit. I took the civil service exam in the summer, got a job one month thereafter in the Comptroller's Office at Naval Air Station, Imperial Beach. I got promoted five months afterwards, another promotion one year thereafter and then another promotion another year after that.

Needless to say, I was doing well in my job. Shortly after getting indoctrinated into the world of work, I realized that I missed going to school so the next term I enrolled in college at night and that has been the mode I've been in over the years.

Of course, my jobs took me all over the world. Each move caused a break in school. In addition, as I started rising through the ranks I also had more responsibility and going to school was not always possible. I'm back in school again, when work permits. Who knows I may get my degree before I eventually retire, but then...who knows?

I am constantly evaluating how I can make good use of my financial and management background coupled with a degree in psychology. My initial hopes when I started college was to earn a doctorate in counseling psychology. After I finally get my B.S. I'll have to evaluate where I want to go from there with education. If I could afford to do it, I think I could be comfortable being a professional student. I love to learn. There are so many other subject matters that interest me, but, for the time being, I have to concentrate on finishing my degree and taking fun classes with the Community Adult Education Program when feasible.

My career:
In a nutshell, my whole career has been in the field of comptrollership. I started at the bottom of the field as a budget clerk and have risen through the ranks in grade and responsibility. Every job assignment has provided an opportunity for either a promotion or a broadening of my knowledge, skills and abilities.

I am a graduate of the Department of the Navy Financial Management Intern Program, where I literally performed every job at the Navy Finance Center, Treasure Island. I still credit the experience, knowledges and skills I learned during this internship to the basic knowledge I have of financial/resources management. I have built upon this knowledge, skills and abilities through assignments I've had through the years. I have had many wonderful opportunities to enhance my experience base through financial management assignments with the Navy and Army in Washington D.C.; London, England; Heidelberg, Germany; Camp Zama, Japan; Colorado and presently at NASA, Ames.

My job as financial manager for the Life Sciences Program at Ames was abolished this past January. Shortly thereafter, I was given the opportunity to work as a special assistant for the Life Sciences Outreach Program. I am having a wonderful time with this assignment. I was the outreach coordinator for the Neurolab flight in April, and I've worked as project lead for one of the teams for the Challenge Project. Currently, I'm documenting the Challenge Project from womb-to-tomb and bridging that with our outreach endeavor for STS-95. This assignment is providing me with an opportunity to be creative. There is some creativity in resources management, but there is only so much that systems and procedures allow for solving problems and issues. Outreach, on the other hand, doesn't (in my opinion) have as many roadblocks to creativity. How we deliver the messages to the public is still open to one's imagination, and "thinking out-of-the box" only enhances the possibilities.

Likes/Dislikes about career:
Some people think I'm crazy, but I actually do like my job. As a resources manager, I like putting a program together from nothing. I like pulling it all together and making some sense of numbers and tying that to the mission. The only thing that I would like to see happen is for everyone to "work smarter, not harder." With downsizing, changes in philosophy, changing technology and, last but not least, diminishing resources, I see more and more work being required of resources personnel. This means longer hours for everyone because staffing does not align itself to the demands. I would like to see more efficient systems and processes.

Influences:
It is hard to pick just one person that has impacted the way I live and the way I think today. I have always admired people like Indira Gandi and Margaret Thatcher for their strength, determination and their ability to turn things around for the better. I was living/working in London at the time that Margaret Thatcher turned the tides of the economy from a country on the brink of bankruptcy to one of recovery and stability.

I credit my parents, my mother for her strength and business savvy, my Dad for his inner strength, capability to do anything, his sense of humor and for teaching me how to cook. He was a wonderful cook which most of us kids learned from him. I also credit my sense for adventure and wanderlust to my parents.

Mr. Neal Teehee, a former boss, taught me that "all they can say is no" when it comes to determining whether to attempt competing for a job that looks bigger than I think it is. Col. George Mergner (retired) taught us resources managers at USAREUR that resources management is a family business. Jean Reeves and all my other bosses expected more of me than I thought I could give and I proved them right after all. Also, I credit my oldest sister, Marlene, who has always been there for me.

Future goals:
As you can guess, one of my goals is to complete my degree. It is important to me because at this point in my career I am doing it for myself, not for my career. I want to finish what I started.

I have a desire to work in Spain. Spain is one of my favorite countries. Most importantly, my mother's roots came from Spain, and I would like to learn more about the people, the country and to be fluent in speaking Spanish. I would also like to eventually learn other languages like Italian and Japanese.

Personal information:
I come from a big family. I have seven brothers and sisters (four and four). My Dad is deceased. I love to read, dance, travel and enjoy the simplest pleasure of being close to nature and basking in warm sunshine. I'm currently taking ballroom dance lessons, and I'm enjoying it. I write poetry and have won some awards.

On a recent trip to Europe, I went hiking with my brother and a friend. I really enjoyed that, despite the rain and fog. I would like to try to fit in some hiking into my activities in the near future. Future trips - Australia, a Club Med vacation somewhere to learn SCUBA diving and get in some beach time.