As a leader, I am not just a figurehead, but a driving force that propels our team’s agenda towards success. I firmly believe that the strength of our team lies in our unity, and I am committed to fostering this unity to ensure our collective success.

My guiding principle when leading a team is asking, “If I were to lead my team into a military battle, would the team stand behind me, or would I be going into battle alone?”

To foster my team, I empower them to feel confident they can execute their duties without waiting for my blessing. I provide them with the tools and resources to act. I demonstrate that I will defend their actions and NEVER share mistakes outside the team with the Agency. My goal in building and maintaining a cohesive team is to ensure trust that I have their back in any given situation.

I embrace leadership and the great responsibility that comes with it. On my current team of PASS representatives in the Western-Pacific Region, we are all equally elected and empowered to execute the duties of our position in enforcing the contract and representing employees. Embracing leadership and accepting the responsibilities that come with it means praising the work of the team’s members individually and collectively, and owning all missteps, especially my own.

As a leader, it is their obligation to:

1)      Provide a platform for representatives and members to engage in decision-making and communicate their positions, ideas, and concerns.

2)      Present timely, relevant information to the members on the organization's affairs, and what actions we are taking on their behalf.

3)      Receive, acknowledge, and accept critical feedback. Though a leader may disagree, dismissing members diminishes cohesion, and creates barriers for honest, constructive conversations and ideas, ultimately hindering collective success.

4)      Acknowledge everyone can achieve successful results through their methods. Embracing these differences leads to creativity, which is vital to innovation.

5)      A leader must accept and acknowledge that they may not be the expert when providing guidance, but this cannot be delayed because they need consensus or permission from Legal Counsel.

6)      Delegate to the Subject Matter Experts. No one human knows everything and a leader shouldn’t spread themselves too thin by getting stuck in the weeds. When a large team is responsible for a wide range of specialized programs, the overall success of the Union is impeded by a leader who is unwilling to trust their experts to dive deep into an issue.

7)      Remain flexible and open to challenge and change.

I strive to build a stronger Region IV representative team, equally empower its members from the top down, and focus on creating an environment where competing ideas and opinions are not arbitrarily dismissed.

There’s power in giving up power. So much so, there’s a book with the same title.

As a leader, I believe in empowering all who represent PASS to act autonomously in their roles. The membership duly elects all representatives, and regardless of their position in the hierarchy of the Union, the members want THEM to serve as THEIR representatives. This means that as a leader of a team of representatives, it is not my role to micromanage or interfere with the affairs of their respective facilities, regions, or workgroups. Instead, my role is to provide guidance, support, and resources to enable them to carry out their duties effectively. A Union leader is not elected because of their legal background, nor must they hold a Juris Doctorate. No Union leader wins battles by ALWAYS consulting a lawyer on every issue before taking action.

I aim to encourage and inspire our members and representatives to play an active role in achieving personal and collective success versus forcibly pulling the region down the path I see fit.

I intend to evaluate our current methods in how our region utilizes our members in working groups, meeting attendees, and developing positions and position statements. My approach to this evaluation will be thorough and consultative, involving input from all levels of the organization. I will then use this feedback to create more opportunities for members to contribute their knowledge and expertise. We have no full-time representatives outside of our Contract allowances in Region IV. In our Technical Operations Regions, there are 40. My goal is to ensure that our Regional Vice President should not be on workgroups or a bargaining team whose work could be accomplished by another member. Instead, the Regional Vice President should focus their time on managing the region's affairs and empowering our members to get in the weeds.

My view of leadership is based on service. As your RVP, I intend to serve the membership with candor, empathy, and direction.

Inclusion is more than inviting everyone to banal meetings where members can air grievances that fall on deaf ears. It means empowering members by allowing them to participate in workgroups and teams. Inclusion means more than inviting everyone to the table—they must be able to join in eating the meal.

While our organization and team aren’t the most diverse demographically, there is a lot of diversity in our ranks, especially in our members' varying jobs. Many fail to recognize Region IV consists of more than FSDO and CMO staffing. Region IV has failed to include many folks in representation and participation.

I intend to focus on engaging with and representing the employees in our Region whose specialties are often overlooked. My plan to achieve this involves reevaluating the Article 23 process to determine the best Subject Matter Expert to fill the positions and include more job series for consideration. I will advocate for the National Leadership Team to negotiate more full-time representative positions, particularly for those in underrepresented specialties. By doing so, I aim to ensure that all members of our Region, regardless of their job series, feel equally included and represented within our organization.

I am not blind to the fact that our most prominent group is ASIs, and most of our focus is on the ASI workforce, and I agree with this fact. I don’t want the ASIs to get a smaller piece of the pie; I want more for all of us. The Agency benefits when we fail to include members, and it exploits members outside of the FSDOs and CMOs more because of a lack of inclusion. The more solidarity we have, the more power we hold, and the greater our success will be.

We must act collectively and in solidarity to make the greatest impact as a Union. I know this is a trite phrase but bear with me.

As members of this Union, each of us is equally entitled to the same benefits and representation. No one is greater than the other, but we can accomplish great things together.

The only time the Union members from all lines of business formally engage with one another is at our Convention every two years. Many of our Chapters are inactive, and Region IV members infrequently attend many events. At our in-person new hire orientations in Oklahoma City, I’ve heard many Region IV employees express they don’t know many Region IV members and don’t receive invites to local meetings.

I see the same awesome people during all of the calls, chapter meetings, meet-and-greets, and conventions. You are the same people who’ve stuck with me reading this page, and I thank you for that. Like political participation, everyone’s choice of participation in the Union is different, and that’s okay. I hope to inspire all of us to find comfortable ways to make members and employees feel welcomed and included in our Union.

I want to inspire us to work towards more solidarity within our Region, our Union, and the employees we work with. Yes, this is not an easy task. I’ve engaged and networked with our siblings in the other Regions. In doing so, I’ve made lifelong friendships and learned so much about how interconnected our Lines of Business are, the similarities and differences in how the Agency treats us, and how much better the Technical Operations side is at building solidarity.

I plan to solicit advice from our Organizing Committee, Chapter Leaders, Representatives, Members at large, and our Director of Organizing to develop and execute a strategy immediately.

Effective Leadership requires effective communication. We were born with two ears and one mouth, and a leader must recognize what the membership is saying and asking for before speaking (and writing). I strive to listen to what the membership says before pontificating what I think is important.

Long, repetitive emails addressing redundant topics already covered by PASS National and Agency communications are inefficient and waste our time and resources. I intend to make communications more concise, meaningful, and relevant while maintaining flexibility to improve based on our membership’s needs.

While sharing the work PASS does for us, it is essential to understand what the Union is doing on our behalf. I recognize that we are all overloaded with information. How do we fix that?

My initial action is to return to weekly meetings with our Regional Business Agents, focused on the issues they are hearing about from you. I will avoid our current method of holding meetings two to three weeks apart, which is as effective as a newsletter. This is important for all members. For years, these meetings have focused solely on sending information down, which has detached our RVP from the realities on the ground because they aren’t taking the time to receive upward information from the boots on the ground.

To build upon these meetings, I will work with National to create a user-friendly, functional webpage where the RVP and their assistants can post the information shared at the RBA meetings and notes from those meetings, which will be accessible on the member's website.

As time-sensitive issues and topics arise, I will coordinate with the National Office staff to ensure Region IV’s messaging is clear and consistent with the position of the National Officers, ending confusion regarding the Union’s position.

I commit to speaking with you, listening to your needs, and not talking down to you. You will know where to find the answers you need and will utilize the tools available to make accessing these answers as easy as possible.

Your dues fund this union… period. As a fiduciary, I will ensure that your dues are spent wisely and with care. Travel is a necessary expense, but it can be done wisely and with consideration. When developing a budget for Region IV, I will ensure that we are planning fiscally to meet with each other with purpose and strategy.

I will consistently forecast our budget needs annually, ensuring estimates from all RBAs. I will monitor our budget usage throughout the year to ensure it is used appropriately and flexibly throughout our regions.

I will ensure the official time granted by the Agency to positions is utilized to its full extent to ensure the members aren’t paying an RVP salary when the Agency is responsible.