Seven Army Contracting Command employees recently completed the eight-month Defense Civilian Emerging Leader Program.
Program graduates were: Mark Mohler, 413th Contracting Support Brigade, Fort Shafter, Hawaii; Christina Makhijani, ACC-New Jersey; Katie Norton, ACC-Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland; Holly Gregg, ACC-NJ; Jermaine Dunham, ACC-NJ; Kevin Graves, Mission and Installation Contracting Command-Fort Knox, Kentucky; Katie Norton, ACC-APG and Tom Phillips, ACC-Warren, Michigan.
According to the Acquisition Support Center website, the DCELP is designed to develop the next generation of innovative leaders with the technical competence to meet the future leadership needs of the Department of Defense. The program focuses on developing emerging leaders in the acquisition, financial management and human resources communities. The curriculum is targeted for emerging leaders in the grades of GS-7 through GS-11 within DOD and the intelligence communities.
According to Bob Swaney, DCELP program manager, participants who have been nominated by their components go through a panel to determine the top candidates. Next their nomination packages are forwarded to the DOD functional area managers in human resources, financial management and the acquisition communities. After review and approval, the selected individuals are then notified of their entry into the program.
"Individuals are encouraged to enroll in this program to fulfill the intent of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011 to establish a leadership development program for our DOD entry/emerging level personnel," Swaney said. "This will allow for the deliberate development of our entry/emerging leaders to begin their journey of leadership development. As our force grows older and with many of our senior civilians planning for retirement, we needed to extend the pipeline of future leaders to the grades identified in order to replace those who will eventually be promoted to take the place of the retiring force and for these young emerging leaders to step up and fill those voids."
Participants take online and in-residence courses including leadership, conflict management and team building. The in-residence portion of the class is conducted at the DOD Executive Management Training Center, Southbridge, Massachusetts.
"I enrolled in this program as a career development opportunity," said Mohler. "I also pursued the program for the networking opportunity, similar to the Army civilian education system courses, which allow you to work with people from different functional and geographic areas, but also with other agencies within the department.
"This program focuses more on people and the larger organization than the normal business operations," he added. "The program gives you an opportunity to focus on how people interact and some of the causes of conflict. It also lets you dedicate time to apply techniques you learn about in management and entrepreneurial courses. During the in-residence portion, all participants contribute to the experience and offer different perspectives to learn from. It's also a great forum to discuss internal office issues and share best practices."
According to Dunham, balancing the requirements of the program and work was hard but not difficult.
"It is very challenging but in a mental - get you out of your comfort zone - kind of way," Dunham said. "There was five to six weeks of distance learning that included readings, projects and a weekly call-in. Things where very hectic in my office the last quarter of the fiscal year and they were the most challenging months of the program."
Swaney said the DCELP experience develops a supportive environment that enhances participants' self-awareness, substantive knowledge, and skills; promotes continuous learning, reflection, and personal change and encourages participants' networking and team building.
Go to the DCELP link to learn more about the program.
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