ECBC recognized for women’s workforce initiatives

Education, empowerment bridge women’s history to future

For the second straight year, the Federal Women’s Program (FWP) honored the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) at the Women’s Equality Day celebration on Aug. 21 for providing women with leadership opportunities that transcend career levels and bridge generational gaps.

ECBC won the Activity Most Supportive of FWP Goals award for implementing programs and initiatives that give women guidance on career development and long-term training as well as the opportunity to prepare for supervisor or manager roles in high visibility projects.

Last March during National Women’s History Month, ECBC sponsored a “Women in Science & Engineering” panel discussion for more than 100 employees seeking insight from senior female leaders and fellow peers pursuing various career paths within the Center.

“What it means for ECBC in accepting this award is that we’re on the right track and we’re not leaving anyone behind from a workforce diversity respect. When we embarked upon the “Women in Science & Engineering” panel, it strictly targeted some of our up-and-coming young women,” said ECBC Engineering Director Alvin D. Thornton.

The question-and-answer style discussion tapped into the occupational experience of being a female in the science and engineering realm but also covered topics from work-life balance to career development and networking.

“What that panel did was allow not only women, but people across the organization, to understand that we are a diverse workforce even though they might not even realize that we have quite a few women in a significant leadership capacity across the organization and that those possibilities do exist,” said Thornton, who accepted the award on behalf of the Center.

The engineering director called the event an “overwhelming success” in embracing workforce diversity. Since 2008 the number of women working at ECBC has increased roughly 1.3 percent. As of July 31 this year, nearly 36 percent of the 1,224 civilian employees at the Center are female, and of the 144 supervisor and team leader positions, 30 are filled by women.

Carol Eason, risk manager in the Directorate of Program Integration, is one of ECBC’s senior female leaders responsible for overseeing numerous programs that manage safety, security, environmental and surety issues. She was one of eight females nominated for the FWP Supervisor/Manager of the Year. When she first started working at the Center in 1987, however, she was one of the few women employed in lower-level positions as a safety engineer.

The shift of women into the mid- and senior-level ranks did not start happening until the late 90s, Eason recalled, when there was a change in leadership that incorporated innovative ways of operational teamwork.

“Women do really think differently and talk differently than guys, and I can see it in the meetings that I’m in. Men have a way of talking and communicating that we just don’t. And I think that we bring something to the table with the way that we communicate and see things that guys just can’t do because it’s just not part of their DNA and who they are,” she said.

“I think that brings strength to an organization when you have that kind of diversity because if everybody has groupthink and sees things that same way, I just think that makes teams and groups weak.”

Mary Wade, branch chief of BioDefense in the ECBC Research & Technology Directorate, was also nominated for Supervisor/Manager of the Year for her continued encouragement of women to further their careers through developmental assignments and long-term training.

 “As a supervisor, I try to look out for everyone on my team, but it does cross my mind that I am a female here, particularly as a manager. In a lot of the meetings I sit in, there’s a lot less women sometimes, I will admit that. So it does make you pause a little and really focus on the women in the workforce and make sure that they’re advancing as well, and that they are given opportunities for career development,” said Wade.

Wade has worked at ECBC since 2004 and has been the acting branch of chief for nearly two years. Though there are not a large number of female managers, she said she has seen the number of women in supervisory roles increase. She also added that laboratories, especially those in BioSciences, tend to have an equal number of men and women working alongside each other.

“In BioSciences, there are a number of females in the laboratory so I’ve always felt very much an equal part of that group. But I noticed in management that wasn’t necessarily the case. However, over my years here I’ve noticed the number of female managers increase and more females in higher positions such as Suzanne Milchling being the first SES (Senior Executive Service) now at ECBC,” said Wade.

“But I’ve always had female role models in the laboratory to look to and now even more so in management, which is great.”
The awards celebration recognized women and organizations throughout the Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) that best exemplify the Department of the Army FWP objective of creating a federal workforce in which women are employed at all grade levels in a fair and equal environment.

The standing-room only Women’s Equality Day ceremony also reflected how education and empowerment have been instrumental forces in shaping women’s history in America. Retired Brigadier General Clara Adams-Ender, guest speaker at the event, urged the men and women in the audience to continue their efforts of creating equal opportunities in the workforce.  

“This year’s theme of women’s education and women’s empowerment speaks very readily to the constant need to ensure that women are educated and informed and are also are empowered, which means to allow people to do things in their own way after having been given direction and the authority to act,” said Adams-Ender.

She began her career as staff nurse in the Army Nurse Corps before rising through the ranks of chief executive officer for 22,000 nurses, a brigadier general and director of personnel for the Army Surgeon General. Adams-Ender then served as the vice president for nursing at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and in 1967, she became the first female in the Army to be awarded the Expert Field Medical Badge.

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