WISBADEN, Germany – As a strategic planner for Installation Management Command Europe, Kate Obradovich thinks to the future to layout options and solutions for “what if” scenarios. Some of those plans come to fruition. Some stay in the “what if” category. And some go just as intended like her personal plan to broaden her strategic and logistics background by completing a senior service college.
Known to many as Dr. Kate, Obradovich held three master’s degrees, as well as a doctorate in policy studies, before applying for the U.S. Army’s Senior Executive Talent Management program. Through the SETM program, she earned her fourth master’s, this one in national security resourcing from The Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy, a school within the National Defense University.
A priority for IMCOM-Europe is to develop its workforce through participation in executive development programs, and Obradovich was one of two employees selected for the 2022 academic year. SETM programs are geared toward GS-14 and 15 level employees while the Enterprise Talent Management program offers options for GS-12 and 13 staff. Both SETM and ETM offer a variety of programs including education and training, project-based options, senior leader shadowing experiences and DOD-level development programs.
The Eisenhower program especially fit within her plans as a career enhancement and expanded on her background. One of the main benefits of the program, Obradovich said, was having opportunities to interact with those from all services, all career fields and experience levels, and to think at a broader level.
“What I would say to someone thinking about (applying to SETM or ETM) is, ‘Absolutely you should.’ We should all be ongoing learners, and sometimes the best place to do that is to step out of our immediate environment to really dedicate thought and time, to spending hours with folks who are also doing the same thing. You can't get that in just bits and pieces happenstance at the office.”
The background Obradovich brought to the SETM program began when she was about 12 years old, and in true strategic planning fashion, decided that by the time she was 80 there were certain things she needed to have accomplished in life. One of those things was serving her country.
She attended college on an Army ROTC scholarship, but after Operation Desert Storm, commissioned into the Army Reserves instead of the Active Component Army due to troop requirements at the time. Until the Global War on Terrorism, she completed her Reserve duty while making policy and evaluating school programs and special education for the Missouri Department of Education. After three deployments, multiple stateside mobilizations and attendance at the School of Advanced Military Studies, Obradovich moved to the Active Guard Reserve where she worked on priority programs for the Army Reserve Command.
Since then, throughout her experiences from her reserve duty to working for U.S. Africa Command, Army Cyber Command and now IMCOM-Europe, Obradovich said there is no assignment that did not benefit her later in her career.
“Absolutely every job I've had in the Army, even the ones that I did not understand and did not like, and maybe even I thought that perhaps I shouldn't have had to do, within 18 months, 24 months max, I have needed either the skills I developed during that time, the knowledge that I gained, or to tap back into the people that I worked with,” Obradovich said. “Every single time, especially in the ones that I thought were least valuable. So, as we grapple with different changes in our careers, I like to embrace them.”
Obradovich is now back at IMCOM-Europe and ready to embrace her next chapter within the organization as she continues to look toward the future.
For more information on SETM and ETM opportunities, visit https://civilians.army.mil/TalentDev.
Social Sharing