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Betty Price |
Reaching a New Equilibrium
Betty Price
July 2008
"How can I achieve a good work-life balance?" This was the question facing MITRE's Betty Price when she first came to MITRE in 1999. Price had just joined MITRE's Center for Acquisition and Systems Analysis (CASA), a technical center devoted to providing multi-disciplinary support that includes but is not limited to acquisition, cost analysis, program management, operations research, modeling and simulation, and investment decision analysis for government sponsors. Since then, she has shown a remarkable ability to balance her responsibilities both at MITRE and elsewhere.
Before coming to MITRE, Price spent many years working in intelligence analysis for the Air Force. When she joined MITRE, however, she spent her first few years supporting government acquisition efforts. Since then, CASA's work program has expanded to include additional customers and areas of expertise. "Now I primarily support the intelligence community," she says. "Some of this work has involved acquisition, budget, financial analysis, and systems expertise, but the bulk of what I do now is related to program and project management for my customers."
Project Management and Leadership
When she first came to the company, Price was immediately assigned to support the newly established MITRE-operated IRS federally funded research and development center (now known as the Center for Enterprise Modernization and co-sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs) and one of its sponsors, the U.S. Customs Service infrastructure modernization effort. "For this project, my job was to provide leadership in structuring the program office for the Automated Commercial Environment—a multi-year, billion-dollar-plus program that replaced the Customs' systems infrastructure," she explains. "By serving as MITRE's on-site representative at the Customs' Newington [Virginia] facility, I was the focal point and integrator for MITRE support. Later, I briefly returned to the Customs project after being away for several months where I assisted in the initial program planning of a case management effort involving numerous Customs offices."
Now her work focuses more on program management for customers in the defense and intelligence arena. "Generally speaking, I manage various projects in support of my customers' missions," Price says. "This includes areas such as strategic planning related to budget requirements and allocation, as well as the alignment of mission with resources. I enjoy the people I work with—both the MITRE and government personnel—but I also enjoy the job challenges."
Not surprisingly, Price's military experience has proven invaluable to her work at MITRE. "The work I'm doing now truly draws on my intelligence analysis experience with the Air Force," she adds. "Plus, I've found that my knowledge of the defense and intelligence communities—how they work in general, what they need, and how the budgeting process works—is also very helpful."
Price admits her post-retirement situation is unique. "I am somewhat unusual as a military retiree in that I've stuck with the same company I began with after retirement," she explains. "It usually takes two or three jobs after retirement for a military person to find a good fit. I often speak to the Executive Transition Assistance Program at Bolling AFB—it's an Air Force program to assist retiring colonels as they make the transition from military to civilian life. I tell them that MITRE is a good fit for military personnel in that the values and integrity of the military are identical to those of MITRE. That cultural fit is very important."
Taking a Different Track
Once at MITRE, Price also discovered a passion for physical fitness. She became a certified personal trainer in 2001 and two years later she began volunteering to teach fitness and balance to seniors at Greenspring, a continuing care retirement community in Springfield, Virginia.
Now Price is a part-time employee at Greenspring, where she teaches a senior balance program called FallProof! and other fitness classes. "My parents moved there in 2002, and my mother fell and broke a hip in 2003. Soon after that she broke the other hip and died a few weeks later from the complications of the hip fractures. So when Greenspring asked if I would be willing to teach balance, I jumped at the chance, largely because I wanted to help other seniors avoid what had happened to my mother." Price is also a master trainer in the program and conducts a three-day competency exam to certify other fitness professionals on the East Coast who want to become instructors.
"I very much appreciate the flexibility I have at MITRE—they allow me to work 32 hours a week, so that I have one day a week to devote to my seniors," she says. "Sometimes my fitness work involves as much time as a second job, which is challenging, but MITRE has allowed me to work my schedule in such a way that, with good time management, I can do both." Clearly, Price is an expert in balance in more ways than one.
—by Kay M. Upham
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