CECOM Spotlight: Kama Mountz serves as ‘right-hand person’ to DCG

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. —In a developmental detail, Kama Mountz is currently serving as the executive officer to the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command’s Deputy to the Commanding General Liz Miranda, a Tier 2 Senior Executive Service member.

Mountz has been serving in this capacity for nine months and has two more months left in this role. She will train the next person selected for this assignment during the last month.

“A detailed position allows detailees to cultivate cross-organizational networks, increase participants’ understanding of the scope and complexity of the organization they are supporting, and it contributes to their personal and professional development,” Mountz explained.

Mountz’s duties include serving as a “right-hand person” to Miranda, which involves coordinating and arranging her meetings across CECOM, keeping her on schedule, taking notes, assisting with writing projects, conducting research, and traveling with her to various engagements.

“It is extremely fast-paced and can be very intense at times,” she said. “You definitely have to have good organizational skills.”

Mountz said Miranda is involved in a wide range of duties that support the commanding general and she has enjoyed learning more about CECOM in areas like finance and facility management.

“When you are in this kind of high-tier environment, in general, you learn a lot through osmosis,” she said.

New challenges

Mountz is a foreign intelligence officer and comes from the G2. Working in a sensitive compartmented information facility, she felt like she didn’t have a chance to engage with other people in the command, so she sought out this developmental detail to get more face-to-face interaction with CECOM employees and leadership.

“I have been as an intelligence analyst for 15 years, so I am used to research, writing, organizing working groups, and multi-tasking,” she said about what prepared her for this developmental detail.

Mountz added Miranda champions employee growth by providing opportunities like this detail.

“Ms. Miranda believes that the experience that people gain from the developmental opportunity really helps, grows, and propels them; she personifies the true meaning of leadership in every single way” Mountz said.

According to Mountz, more employees should consider a developmental job assignment to learn new skills.

“It is enlightening,” she said. “It provides you with a whole new wealth of perspectives that you did not have before, and the lessons learned from the experience are definitely ones you can carry forward and transpose into future positions.”

As a guide to help those who will succeed her, Mountz has created a holistic and detailed book of standard operating procedures. This will help them with the “strong learning curve” of the developmental detail.

“This will give them a resource as they learn the job, and they can add to it as tasks change or are expanded,” she said.

Serving the nation

Born and raised in Arizona, Mountz isn’t a stranger to fast-paced, challenging jobs. Before working for the government, she had a career in the skydiving industry for 17 years, serving in many roles, including a stunt double, videographer, instructor, operations manager, and regional, national, and international judge.

“I spent the first half of my life going very fast and being challenged, and that is kind of how I operate at work; I need that stimulation and interaction,” she said. “I need to be pushed outside of my comfort zone. That is where I seem to thrive the best.”

During her career in skydiving, she worked very closely with the U.S. Army Special Forces and the U.S. Army Parachute Team, widely known as the Golden Knights. In 2008, she decided to join the Army, where she served as an All-Source and Weapons Technical Intelligence Analyst, focusing largely on biometrics, forensics, document and media exploitation. She was 36 years old.

“[In my skydiving career] I was seeing these guys deploy over and over again, and I wasn’t married, and I didn’t have children, so I figured it was my turn to give back by joining the Army. If by joining, I could keep one person with a family from deploying, then that is what I wanted to do,” she explained.

As a Soldier, she served with the 203rd Military Intelligence Battalion, headquartered on APG, and they deployed to Iraq from 2009-2010. After her deployment, she planned to join the U.S. Army Parachute Team. After making 48 jumps with the Golden Knights of her total 1,250 skydives, she was injured during the selection process. This was the last skydive she made as a result of her injuries.

After leaving the Army, she worked as a contractor in biometrics and forensics analysis at the National Ground Intelligence Center and stood up the biometrics and forensics cell at U.S.  Army Pacific. In 2015, she became a government employee. She worked for the RD&E Center’s Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate and the 20th Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives Command, both located on APG.

Mountz has been with CECOM G2 since 2022.

“The work at CECOM G2 allowed me to continue to apply some of my biometrics and forensics expertise to some of the programs I support for Program Executive Office-Intelligence, Electronic Wafare & Sensors,” she explained.

Mountz holds a bachelor’s degree in intelligence operations and studies with an emphasis on terrorism studies from American Military University and a Master’s of Science in management and leadership from Western Governors University, the latter of which Mountz completed in four months while concurrently serving on the detail to Miranda.

“I don’t sit still for very long, I always have to be doing something,” she said.

In the future, Mountz would like to go back to school to complete a Master of Business Administration or a master’s degree in human resources.

Mountz said one of her role models is her friend and mentor, a multi-time world skydiving champion and airplane crash survivor, Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld. From Brodsky-Chenfeld and her own skydiving experience, she learned more about team dynamics, communication, resiliency, and performing under high-stress situations.

“I have learned from some of the best leaders out there on what makes a good leader, so I would love to eventually be able to apply those skills and be able to step into a higher-level leadership role,” she said.

Mountz said she isn’t afraid to take on new challenges.

“I am a firm believer that I would rather try something, even if it is frightening to me, and regret trying it than regret not having tried it,” she said. “And if you are afraid of trying something, it is okay; fear is a natural emotion; just do it, do it scared.”