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Theresa Dillon, Information Analyst in MITRE's Advanced Computing and Information Solutions Division, explaining how to perform effective searches on the web.

"Connecting people to internal experts and other resources is very rewarding."

Theresa Dillon has turned flextime into flexibility. Despite a part-time schedule, she continues to expand her skills, using experience as a corporate information sleuth to teach MITRE staff how to get the most from internal resources and the Web.

Dillon, an information analyst with the Advanced Computing and Information Solutions Division, is one of a team of researchers in Knowledge Management (KM) Services. She and her colleagues tackle questions from throughout MITRE, often burrowing deep within specialized, proprietary databases or Web-enabled resources. Need information to support a business decision or to help solve an engineering problem? Need technology forecasting or market share data? Need to find an expert within the company? Dillon might just be the one who does the digging.

Requests for information come from a centralized "InfoDesk." After receiving the initial request, Dillon queries the customer to clarify his or her needs. Then, after a first round of research, she confers with the client, considering other search options if necessary. Her extensive experience unearthing information quickly and efficiently saves both aggravation and money. (InfoDesk services are free to the client unless the queries require extensive research.)

"It's more cost effective to use my time for a search than, say, an engineer's," she notes. "I have an extensive awareness of the available resources and the ability to translate queries into the terminology and syntax that are appropriate for any given database." Moreover, her interaction with staff at all levels of the company means she knows "a lot about everything" at MITRE, which comes in handy for connecting the information dots.

Dillon's knack for gathering and sifting information recently began reaching a broader audience. As a trainer for the MITRE Institute, she developed the curriculum for and teaches the popular Project Share and "Surfing Safari" courses. The courses enable employees to get the most from their desktop resources, including the Project Share document management system, the public Web, and the corporate intranet.

A former elementary school teacher, Dillon has found she enjoys teaching adults, especially at an organization such as MITRE. "I really like being challenged by my audience. There's a lot to juggle when you're teaching here—you have to find the right balance of information and hands-on material. You need to find out what your audience already knows, and make sure you're presenting new and useful information." Apparently she's a hit with her students, since she's already earned two MITRE corporate awards for teaching excellence.

All of this achievement is especially notable given Dillon's part-time status. Although she joined MITRE as a full-time employee in 1999, the birth of her second child convinced her to make use of the company's Flexible Work Arrangements Program. Currently, she's in her Bedford office two days a week and telecommuting from home one day per week. She believes the flextime policy provides the balance that lets her be her best at both home and work.

"I get a lot of positive feedback from people who I've helped, people who said I found just the information they needed," she says. "Connecting people to internal experts and other resources is very rewarding."