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Donna Grubb-Hewlett

Donna Grubb-Hewlett never lets fear of the unknown keep her from doing what needs to be done. For example, when she heard others complain that there was too much violence in the media for children, Grubb-Hewlett produced a children's show for Fairfax County Virginia Public Access Radio with emphasis on sound values and various cultural themes. She had no experience in radio, but that didn't stop her—she took a radio production course to learn the ropes. Years later, after she came to MITRE, Grubb-Hewlett, whose educational background is in chemical engineering (she holds a Master's from the University of Virginia in that area) decided she needed to learn more about information technology. So she poured over books, papers, and Web sites to grasp the subject.

"That's part of my pattern—I decide that I need to learn something, and I jump in with both feet," says Grubb-Hewlett, a project leader with MITRE's Center for Enterprise Modernization (CEM). " In order to grow, you have to stretch yourself. You don't get to the next level if you haven't had some uncomfortable moments."

Those traits came in handy when Grubb-Hewlett began leading a MITRE team working with the Business Systems Modernization Office (BSMO) of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to develop ways to measure the effectiveness of the agency's efforts to modernize its operations and offer improved service. It's a task that has called upon many of Grubb-Hewlett's abilities: technical expertise, the determination to set a goal and attain it, and the ability to inspire a team.

"She has demonstrated an outstanding combination of program leadership and managerial leadership skills that have been and still are very crucial to the success of the BSM program," wrote Carlene Ileto, acting deputy director of the Customer Account Data Engine program office in BSMO, in a letter nominating Grubb-Hewlett for the Women of Color Research Sciences and Technology Award in 2003. "As a result of her success, Donna has established herself as a leader of integrity, sound judgment, and the highest ethical standards of service."

Grubb-Hewlett has made a particular mark in designing and implementing a performance measurement system to ensure that the BSMO could more effectively measure its progress toward achieving its goals. It was a task that, as Grubb-Hewlett tells it, "required a lot of collaboration, because it was not a practice that was well ingrained in the organization." Grubb-Hewlett worked with executives in the IRS to set up a model for collaboration and develop a consensus on what they wanted to measure.

Once that was done, Grubb-Hewlett helped identify the kind of information the BSMO needed to assess its progress and guided the development of new methods of collecting data and reporting key findings. These methods included alignment with several supporting organizations and the BSMO's "dashboard," a Web portal that is the primary reporting mechanism for the program and its oversight organizations

Breaking new ground in this way, as Grubb-Hewlett sees it, requires both resolve and flexibility. A successful project leader, she says, has to tune out distractions and stay focused on the destination—but also recognize that there is more than one way to get there, and that all members of a team make important contributions, however different.

"It's important to maintain an open mind," Grubb-Hewlett says. "Things are always changing, and the answers are not always what they appear to be at the outset. You've got to be willing to assess and examine everything that comes to bear and not be too narrowly focused because then you might miss some other important things."

It's that kind of undefined, challenging, and collaborative environment at MITRE that Grubb-Hewlett enjoys. She won a Women of Color award last year—partly on the recommendation of people such as CEM Vice President Mike Blom, who wrote that Grubb-Hewlett is "an ideal role model of the accomplished, committed professional we want in our Center." Grubb-Hewlett, in turn, gives much of the credit for the award to her company and colleagues.

"We have people here with a breadth of experience that one could hardly imagine," she says. "You're always learning. From my point, it's an excellent place to grow... I think this is the environment in which I have experienced the most professional inspiration."

—by W. Russell Woolard