Courtesy Photo | Tekeyiah Richardson brings a wealth of knowledge to her new role as Joint Base...... read more read more
JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, VA. - After 32 years in federal service, Tekeyiah Richardson started the next chapter in her life and career in March 2024 as the Chief of Staff at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall.
Richardson has always worked as an Army civilian and says she absolutely loves her job.
“I began my career as a telephone operator in Germany,” she said. “Throughout my 32 years of service, I have served in various leadership roles with multiple Army Commands in support of the Soldiers, families and civilians across our nation.”
Richardson was born in Michigan but grew up in Los Angeles where her family moved when she was three. She has been married for 32 years to Bryan Richardson and they have three children and a couple grandchildren. Her husband served in the Army for 22 years before retiring 10 years ago.
Of all the moves her family made over the years, she said she enjoyed Fort Irwin, California most because they were there while their children were little, and it was close to home.
“We spent a lot of years overseas. He was deployed quite a bit, which allowed our family to remain in one place for a while. This provided a bit of continuity for the kids and allowed me to progress in my career as an Army civilian. Having a sense of community and support helped us survive the recurring periods of separation,” she said.
Learning about the Army
One of Richardson’s first duty stations was Nuernberg, Germany, where Richardson worked for 69th Signal Battalion. Many years later, she returned to Germany to work for HQs USAREUR G3 and G8. Being on the USAREUR team offered a lot of opportunity for professional development and to learn about the OCONUS environment.
“I got to learn a lot about the Army and what the Army does in terms of being a force multiplier, and the importance of also how they pre stage and pre-position to prepare for war. Learning how the Army runs overseas and then actually getting to apply that and see it in action, was a career enhancing experience” Richardson said.
From Germany, she went to San Antonio to assist in standing up the new Installation Management Command Headquarters at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas. As the Deputy Manpower Division Chief, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G8, Richardson was responsible for the Program Objective Memorandum, Total Army Analysis, and Command Plan. She stayed in IMCOM Headquarters for five years, then moved to become the Director of Resource Management, Atlantic Region.
Then in 2017, she relocated to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, where she worked as the Director Resource Management, IMCOM Directorate - Sustainment because IMCOM was transforming again.
“I had never heard of Redstone other than it was one of our garrisons under the Atlantic region,” Richardson said. “In terms of moving from a West Coast mentality to the south, I didn’t know what to expect, but it was a really great experience.”
After working a number of years as a resource management director, Richardson transitioned to the Chief, Installation Support Team where she applied her leadership acumen to execute the directorate’s organizational inspection program to ensure garrison compliance with service delivery standards, regulatory, and statutory guidance. She provided a platform to coach, teach, and mentor garrison command teams through facilitating multiple garrison leader forums to ensure mutual understanding of base operations concepts and procedures to execute roles and responsibilities in support of Army Regulation 600-20.
“It was two completely different types of work, and I enjoyed both,” she said.
From IMCOM to JBM-HH
When the opportunity to become Chief of Staff for JBM-HH came around, Richardson decided to pool all her knowledge and apply.
In her position at IMCOM, Richardson helped with the process of onboarding senior leaders and facilitated several garrison leader forums which provided a platform for garrison commanders to learn about the business side of leading.
“Here, we execute, right?” she said. “We have to do planning and programming. I’ve had a lot of opportunity to shape how we communicate and how we interact collectively, what our needs are and provide the base commander with business informed recommendations so she can properly advise the senior commander.”
She said she thinks her work as the JBM-HH Chief of Staff will be different from her work at IMCOM because she will be able to help the joint base move forward as she’s better able to define the installations requirements and configure the messaging so senior leaders understand those needs.
As the joint base Chief of Staff, she will also have a voice in developing Intergovernmental Support Agreements with community partners off the installation. She believes the more the joint base can utilize community partnerships, the better the joint base staff will be able to utilize their time and resources on internal operations.
She said IGSAs can open the door to partnerships with entities such as Arlington Public Schools.
“We can look at different techniques to explain what we do as government employees and what federal opportunities are offered here in terms of employment,” Richardson said. “Try and reach out to the younger generation and advertise and market a little bit differently so that folks know who we are as an employer. We want to become an employer of choice so that we're able to hire, build, and train our next generation of the federal workforce and leaders.”
Roles and goals
One of the things Richardson said she looks forward to is collaborating with partners and finding ways to improve how JBM-HH is marketed and how things coming up in the future can be advertised. She said she’s looking for innovative ideas that still allow the joint base to meet its mission.
“We have a huge job to do here taking care of our Soldiers and their family members, making sure we are of service to them,” she said. From what I’ve seen since I’ve been here, we have very good quality, high level folks on the team who really enjoy what they’re doing.”
Richardson prides herself on being coach, teacher and mentor for staff.
“I am a resource, and I am available to help solve the problems of the day,” she said. “But really, I’m here to empower the team and help them see themselves and what their role is, because everyone plays a vital part in delivering and providing base ops support here at the installation.”
She also works with staff and directors to make sure everyone on the joint base team has updated individual development plans and is getting the training they need to meet performance standards and objectives.
Another part of her job is making sure people understand the importance of requirements, resources, and risk. The joint base has a lot of cyclical events that happen around the same time every year, and she said getting those events on the calendar and then working through some backward planning is essential to successfully meet event objectives. Understanding requirements, resources, and risk is vitally important to delivering base operations on the installation. Analysis is critical to providing timely and accurate information through the Joint Base Commander to the Senior Commander in support of the Military Decision-Making Process.
“Let’s have our IPRs,” she said. “We’ll do some rehearsals to make sure that you understand the audience and that you’re able to have prep time to actually go through the script so your prepared to properly present the information.”
Shortly after she arrived at the joint base, Richardson spent time with members of the Department of Emergency services and got to see what a day in their life was like. It gave her a special appreciation for the JBM-HH staff who must work outside the traditional 9-5 shifts.
“As we talk about MWR, DES, the fire department and law enforcement, those folks are working around the clock,” Richardson said. “They’re working weekends, so I need to make sure I understand what they need and when, and then make sure we have enough money to get the PPE’s and all those things because that is what they need to fulfill their roles and responsibilities.”
Aside from making sure employees have what they need to successfully do their jobs, Richardson said one of the goals for her first year is to work on improvements in the onboarding process.
“We have a great onboarding process,” she said, “but I want to focus on onboarding within the directorates so that new folks coming in, and some of us who have been here for a while, understand the importance of onboarding so the employee is set up for success and that they have the tools and opportunities to learn.”
The Army offers a lot of great programs for employees, Richardson said, but sometimes people just need someone to listen to them and she said she’s here to do that.
“I have an open-door policy and I will always make time to sit down and have a conversation with you,” she said. “Yes, I have a calendar. Yes, I have meetings, but I'm here and I'm a resource, so use me as such. If I don't know about it, there's no way I can help you. We’ll make decisions together. We’ll get through things together.”
| Date Taken: | 06.17.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 06.17.2024 11:46 |
| Story ID: | 474142 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 57 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, New JBM-HH Chief of Staff brings wealth of knowledge, by Denise Caskey, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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