A Career in Research, IT, and Acquisitions
Terry Reed
January 2011
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Lead information systems engineer Terry Reed has done a little bit of everything over 17 years at MITRE—and the company's collaborative culture continues to keep her engaged. |
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Terry Reed hasn't been content to fill just one role during her 17 years at MITRE. "I've gone from pure research—very technical stuff—to strictly acquisition-related projects. I've worked in software, doing real nuts-and-bolts computer science and programming, which was fun to do. I supported a process reengineering project for NASA Kennedy Space Center, which was one of my all-time favorites."
"But what I enjoy most is what I'm doing right now," says Reed, a lead information systems engineer and section leader in MITRE's Homeland Security Systems Engineering and Development Institute (HS SEDI™).
Today, Reed leads the enterprise services team within the systems engineering and acquisition department, part of the HS SEDI, the federally funded research and development center MITRE manages for the Department of Homeland Security. In this role, she works for a variety of customers across DHS primarily in the areas of program management and acquisition. Recently, she acted as a government program manager for the DHS information technology acquisition review process. Her work included oversight of all DHS IT acquisitions over $2.5 million and making recommendations to the DHS CIO on those acquisitions, ensuring the acquisitions lined up with DHS policies, processes, and initiatives. "It was an incredible challenge and a lot of fun," she says. Currently, she is supporting the reengineering of the acquisition process for a major DHS component.
"My job requires me to use my technical expertise to understand what the DHS mission is, how that mission will be accomplished both technically and programmatically, and then working with DHS program managers to help make their acquisitions a success. We help DHS achieve its goals, which is a positive and humbling experience."
Describing herself as "the queen of connect and engage," Reed says one of the most positive aspects of her work is solving problems for sponsors by mining MITRE's deep reserves of technical expertise. "I can always find the right person to address the sponsor's issues, and even if it's someone I've never met, they will usually sit down and talk."
Reed first joined MITRE in 1983, then left the company in 1996, but returned in 2006. "I missed the MITRE culture," she says. "That's really what pulled me back—the collaboration and the depth of knowledge here."
Award-Winning Work
In addition to her IT acquisitions work for DHS, Reed also represents the DHS Deputy Chief Information Security Officer on a Committee on National Security Systems working group. (The committee is a forum for discussing policy issues related to information systems containing classified information. Its membership includes representatives from 21 U.S. government departments and agencies.) The working group is developing a common set of information assurance guidance and standards for the intelligence community, Department of Defense, and civil agencies.
Reed has the distinction of being the only non-federal employee member of this panel, with full voting authority on behalf of DHS. In April 2010, for these efforts, Reed received the Exceptional Service Team Award from the DoD's Assistant Secretary of Defense for Network and Information Integration.
"This was a great honor, and my MITRE management really supported me in doing this work," she says.
She describes the working environment at MITRE as one in which employees can often apply lessons learned on previous projects to their current work—even if their responsibilities have changed over time. "What I do now draws on everything I've done in the past," Reed says.
She spent her first seven years at MITRE in research, working on advanced communications technologies, such as jam-resistant radios for the Navy, before moving on to re-engineering of technical and business processes for NASA's space shuttle program. "When you work with NASA, you become a family member there," she says. Reed describes the space shuttle work as a "huge effort requiring a lot of reach-back across MITRE for people with a variety of technical skills."
"My first briefing at the Kennedy Space Center was with Bob Crippen, who piloted the very first space shuttle," Reed recalls. "He was an idol of mine—to have the chance to meet him and brief him was amazing."
Classical Piano—and Chocolate Breaks
In her off hours, Reed devotes herself to playing classical piano. "I played as a child and then did not play again for 30 years, but returned to it after September 11 as a way to heal from those tragic events," she says. "Music is amazing, it just lifts you up."
She brings a similar enthusiasm to her work. Reed relishes the many opportunities she has to both work on technical projects and be a task leader who focuses on the big picture. She also enjoys finding creative ways to work with her clients and colleagues. Asked for an example, she recalls a particularly demanding day-long meeting of the Committee on National Security Systems working group.
"It was only 10:30 a.m. but already everyone was crabby," Reed says. "Purely by accident, I had brought in dark chocolate with almonds that day. Taking a chocolate break really helped everyone get focused."
"Sometimes we don't just bring our technical skills to the table—sometimes we bring chocolate," she says.
—by Maria S. Lee
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