 Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you all so much for taking time out of your day to join us for this amazing event. I was laughing when I walked in. I told some of the team and the senior in the back. I was like, it's not church. Everyone is still sitting in the back. It's not church. But I hope that you feel comfortable enough to participate in a very important conversation today for Women's History Month. This is extremely important as we celebrate women, but not just women as we celebrate the leadership and those that support women in their accomplishments. So it is wonderful to see a diverse group of airmen, capital A in the audience today. And I am really excited for us to have the opportunity to hear from our phenomenal panelists as they share their leadership and their life experiences with us today. So again, thank you so much for joining us today on behalf of Colonel Thompson, who would love to be here. But she's currently a TDY. We're excited to have you and we're excited to celebrate and kick off our Women's History Month panel. OK, thank you. Ma'am, over to you. Thanks to you. All right, good afternoon. I'm Wendy Squasha. I'm commander of the 170th group, Nebraska Air National Guard. I'm super excited to be here today to moderate this panel. Each March, we celebrate Women's History Month as a celebration of women's contributions to history, culture, and society and have been doing so since 1981. The intent was to celebrate and recognize specific achievements women have made over the course of history in a variety of fields. This year's theme, Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories, acknowledges the pioneering women, both past and present, as important contributors to the achievement of the military services and civilian workforce. The accomplishments of women in the Department of Defense and their contributions to national security help maximize our war fighting capability. We are starting to see more women in key leadership positions and other positions of influence. We're very, very lucky to have our talented panel members here today to talk to us and represent all of us. I'll do a quick introduction of each one of them. And then when you start asking your questions, please feel free to elaborate on anything that I say. Dr. Brittany Walter is a forensic anthropologist at the Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency here at Off-It-Air Force Base. She leads archeological recovery missions around the world and analyzes skeletal remains to aid in the identification of unknown service members. Senior Master Sergeant Yaelene Neely-Vulsey currently serves as a senior enlisted leader for the Health Care Operations Squadron. She leads 156 military and civilian health care professionals across 12 clinics who provide health care for 44,000 beneficiaries. Master Sergeant Julie Lance is the Squadron Aviation Resource Management Flight Chief of the first Airborne Command Control Squadron and the functional manager for the one Charlie Zero X-2s for Air Force Global Strike Command. That is a mouthful. She manages two operating locations with over 300 air crew members flight training hours and data dealing with their aviation career as well as directly supervising seven personnel. So welcome. So how this will work today is you're here to ask questions so that we can hear their stories. So if someone would like to kick it off, we have microphones that we can pass around so that each one of you can ask your question. And if you don't kick it off with a question, I'm going to. And then we have the microphones up here. And again, please elaborate on anything about yourselves that I haven't touched on. So questions. Who's going to start? Great. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Master Sergeant Eugen. I'm with the 55th Health Care Operations Squadron. And my questions to the panel, anyone, why do you believe it's important to continue the mentorship of women and girls? So I think it's very important to continue the mentorship of women and girls, mainly because I think we represent maybe 12% of the Air Force around globally. So even when we are in these quote unquote male dominated areas, we still exist. We're still there. And it's difficult to navigate through those waters and to thrive through those waters. And I think it helps to have someone else understand the struggles that you face, whether it's motherhood, whether it's just being a woman serving in this uniform, deploying and facing the certain difficulties that we face. It's no easy feat. And so sharing that kinship with someone, I think, helps when they're going through different struggles. Thank you. When I had asked, they said, what is your reason for wanting to volunteer to do on the panel? It was just that I like to encourage women and motivate them and help us to see that we could probably be where we didn't think we could be. And at those positions, senior was saying, try to be up there. It's mostly I see a lot of men in the military. So I understand. And it can be hard, especially with females that I'll say personality, timid, shy, a little more reserved. So I just really liked first seeing that for the experience that I went through to see, oh, I can impart this wisdom or let me share this information from the youngest airman all the way up, because I had to learn a lot of things from being the shy little airman to now being able to, OK, put yourself out there. We can do this. And we have each other's back, and we can encourage each other. So that's one of the reasons I do. I am a first generation college student coming from low income household. And so it was really important for me to have women mentor me. I didn't have a good mentor until graduate school. And so it's really intimidating when you see where you want to be and you don't know how to get there. So actually having those women, you get to see that it's possible. Number one, which is really important, you get to see people like you. And then number two, they're there to support you and to get you there as well. So it's just so important for women to mentor young girls, especially when if they're in a competitive field or something like that, or a male-dominated space. That's a great question. All right, where is that microphone? I can go without a mic. Actually, you wouldn't use the mic for the cameras, please? All right, so following on that question then, what would you say are some stories of mentorship that stuck with you that you got along the way? I have to think. Well, I'm a civilian, so I'm going to talk about science a lot. And if you guys want to hear about science, I can tell you all about science. But going to conferences with these women actually going out into the field, archaeology is really male-dominant. Anthropology isn't so much. There's actually, it's mostly women. If you come to our laboratory, it's almost all women. There's like two men who are scientists. It's great. I'm just kidding. It's just nice to see is what I'm saying. It's different. But actually taking me out into the field, giving me support outside of academia as well, or class, going out for a beer and hearing about stories in the field, what to watch out for. Also, I actually deploy with active military. So I will lead a team out in the jungles of Vietnam to go dig up a helicopter from the Vietnam War. And I'm doing that with mostly men. And so that can be a little intimidating, one as a female, two as a civilian. And so to actually talk to these other women who are going out and doing this as well, it's really important. Because I assume deploying might be similar in how the environment is different. And so actually being able to talk to these women, frankly, is really important. My first six and a half years was spent on the flight line. I was an aircraft structural maintenance technician. And so I was one of maybe two or three women in a shop of 50, 60 men. And typically there was one of two places that historically you would find a female. And that was in the CTK, basically in the tool section, passing out tools, or in an orderly room, a CSS, right? So processing paperwork. And then it was, and we'll give you six months and you'll, I'm sure you'll be pregnant, and again, off of the line, right? And so I didn't see a lot of camaraderie amongst the women who were on the flight line, which kind of struck me as odd. Sometimes we can get a little caddy, right? And we like to get territorial. And so it wasn't until I was a senior airman in, in, oh, it's on Korea. And I saw the first high ranking, there was a senior master sergeant, flight chief come in and I was like, whoa, not only can we do it, not only can we make it, but we can actually get to these levels, right? And my first question to her was, how do I raise in the ranks without being a bee? And she looked at me, okay, I was a senior airman, right? But, you know, and she was like, I don't need you to be a bee, I need you to be competent. And I need you to be confident. And I need you to know what you're talking about. I need you to know how to do your job. Now, if somebody takes that as you be in a bee, right? Then that's on them. Now, you don't have to be disrespectful. You don't have to, you know, raise your voice and do all of these things, right? You don't have to come with all of that extra stuff. But as long as you know how to do your job, then you'll be fine, right? And don't kind of get confused and distracted by all of that extra stuff. And then, you know what? When you find a fellow female on the flight line, embrace her, bring her along, right? Take her for that beer and share those experiences that, again, many of us share. And so that was the best advice that she could have given me. Focus on your competence and your confidence. So there are many experiences. I will say starting off when I see that would help me is someone pouring into me. Like she said, they encourage, they just help give me the information. And then I started observing, I started watching. Like she says, a lot of sometimes some females that can be caddy in the military. But that's military. I feel like it breeds competition where, you know, we have to compete to get up there, but in a healthy way. So I've always been a girl's girl, so I always look for the females to be like, because I'm comfortable with talking with them. I'm used to, I grew up with a lot of Hispanic families where cousins, the females, were like my sisters, my friends, my best friends. So I was comfortable talking with the women. So seeing and getting together with them on deployments, hearing some of their experiences, honestly, would have been kind of rough, because there are some things that they put themselves out there that they just got themselves into some trouble. So being able to help and encourage them and seeing what resources that they can go through and help and support one another through it, that's been really an interesting experience for me to be able to just keep wanting to help and share with all those. But also there's a chief, this one chief, she just showed, like she says, show that competence and confidence, but stay humble, truly stay humble. And then one thing as I learned from my experiences of just keep growing up in the ranks is I work with a lot of air crew members. So there's a lot of, I've been in the fighter world and I've been in the heavies world. So I've seen those fighter pilots, they're like type A alphas, they're alpha males, so they're like dominant and taking care of business, which is fine and I don't mind it because then it's like, okay, let me take care of my business and you prove yourself and you show yourself by your competence, by what you're taking care of business. So being able to see a little bit of that and seeing how you can get heard by creating your facts, showing what it is that you need, your people taking care of your people and explaining that to the higher ups and when you have good leadership, they're gonna see that and they're going to take you into consideration, they know your things because you're credible. So that's some really good experiences that I know that I've seen throughout my career. Thank you. Good afternoon, I'm Captain Stephanie Taylor from the 55th OSS. Motherhood has come up a couple of times in some of your answers. I am currently 19 weeks along with my first child and I believe there are a few other women here that are expecting as well. My question for the panel is, do you have any experience or advice for women maintaining a active career as well as growing their family? Yes, excellent question. Balance isn't always 50-50, is what is the best thing that I can, I know, I know. Not only that, mommy guilt is a very real thing. And so I would say communication is probably the best thing that you can do is communicate with your partner, communicate with your child, communicate with your subordinates, with your supervisors and figure out what your boundary is, right? And try as much as you can boundaries to exert your own discipline, right? Your self-imposed boundary, try not to cross that as much as possible. Because this uniform demands a lot from us and we've learned that from basic training, service before self has been pounded into our minds. But then again, that responsibility to that child is another thing that's pulling at you. The responsibility to your airman is pulling to your work. And so just trying to figure out where you can kind of draw that line and where sometimes you might have to blur that line for the moment, cross over, and then come back to find your middle ground. It's the best thing that I can say, right? And just give yourself some grace, give your leaders some grace and just really over-communicate with what you need and have them reciprocate, right? What do they need from you and figure out what is actually an attainable expectation, right? What can you do? What can you deliver? And what are you just not gonna be able to do? Number one is possible, 100%. My daughter's gonna be one years old next month, so I'm still trying to figure out it is not 50-50. And I really like the way you put it, that blurring the line for now to reach priorities, goals, things like that. Another, I guess, piece of advice I can offer as a new mom is to communicate, oh, you already said that, but so postpartum was really difficult for me and it's difficult for a lot of women, really, really difficult. And it wasn't until I got back to work and I was talking to my supervisor about some struggles I was having that she told me she had the exact same struggles. And to be able, if I would have known that earlier, that would have helped me while I was in the thick of it. So if you can reach out to any new mom, any moms, and just sometimes you just have to let it out and hopefully they will support you and they will tell you it's just a moment in time and you'll get through it. So if postpartum, I mean, that's gonna be rough at some point whether you like it or not, but just like you said, give yourself some grace and make sure that you're talking with other women around you who are mothers. So you're gonna hear from a perspective of someone who does not have children, but I've worked with women just as I have, I'm a coworker right now, she's pregnant, but just as they're saying it's true, that communication, I truly believe that majority of us are wanting to hear to help each other, but she takes care of business. I know she isn't taking advantage of it. I see her hard work and I can see where I'm like, man, we can accommodate and work on this to be able to help her on that, only because she has been open and communicating with me and I do have grace for that and I understand because I think you moms that are military are super moms, seriously, because I always thought, oh, I'll wait till once I retire then I'll have children. I don't know what I was thinking because my body's too tired, I'm exhausted and I'm like, nope. I think my husband are okay without kiddos for now. So that's why you moms are amazing. It is a big challenge. I do see that, but there can be definitely grace, but I also know that, like she says, the military is demanding. So utilize the resources that are there. I love Airman and Family Readiness Center. When I did a special duty there, I saw all the, you get free childcare for PCSing into a place and even leaving a place and I didn't even know that was available for family members that have children. Also you get a first time basics, a first time moms. There's so many resources that the military provides that as hopefully supervisors, because I see a lot of, I love that there's males here at this event too. You can help encourage them to say, hey, go to Family Advocacy and they have new parent support systems so that way you do have these new mothers that are coming in and trying to figure out that new transition because it is challenging having a child and then still having the military and figuring that out and not get that mommy guilt. So just know that there's a lot of resources. Definitely share, talk and yes, that's exciting. Sorry. Oh, am I on here? Yeah, that communication piece is critical. I just had a conversation recently with an airman. Some of the topics that come up can be intimidating or uncomfortable to talk about, but it's important that we keep talking about those things and not just if we call them female issues, right? Not just, it doesn't necessarily have to be a female that we talk to. There's men here in the audience. Men have spouses, men have children. So we just have to keep that communication going so that those issues or stories, we can help each other. But I have a 15-year-old going on 16 and I've been in for 21 years, so yes, you can do it. Your balance will change and it will ebb and flow for sure. Congratulations to you. Yes, congratulations. I had one more thing also, is also try to find a way to fit time in for you to take care of yourself, because a lot of times we're so busy pouring into every single person and every job, whether it's at home, at work, that we give so much of ourselves and just very little for our, or so much for everyone else and so little for ourselves. And then a year comes around a lot faster than you would think. And then here comes that year mark and here comes that daunting PT test, right? And it's just, so just try to find time to fill, get yourself back into a comfortable space, is what I would say, yep. Awesome, who's next? Desiree Guerrilli, 55th Health Care Operations Squadron. So this is a difficult question and something that I've dealt with personally. Do you think for mill to mill spouses that each member is treated equally when it comes to their children? And how would you face this obstacle going forward? Okay. So I don't think, I think the expectation is that the mother stays home with the child who's sick, right? That's like usually the experience that we face. And the struggle with that, right, is that you have the husband and the spouse, right, who wants to take some time away, but their leadership is making it extremely difficult. Meanwhile, you have the mom and her leadership who's like, hey, I have responsibilities too and I have obligations too, right? And so it's, you know, difficult because we serve in our own right until that comes, right? And everyone's mission is very important and we have to be able to execute. But again, that guilt comes in and the communication has to happen, right? Whether it's, and it's difficult, right? Because so I waited until I was further along in my career before I had my one kid because I waited so long. And so both my spouse and I were higher up in our, you know, in ranks. Now the guilt is self-imposed and the urge to stay at work is self-imposed. And it's a, okay, I need you to stay this time. Well, now I need you to stay on, well, I had this really important meeting. I can't get away well, me too, right? And so then it's like, can I just give her some tell-and-all? She'll be fine, right? So communication, is it fair? No, it is not. Because a lot of our male counterparts have civilian spouses who can have the luxury. But not all, right? No. So would you like to share? No? No? I just wanna make sure I understand your question. So is it like males, females, how she says the moms will stay home more, that is, and how to make that equal in the military thing? Hmm. That's a good question. I think the military is trying and keeping in consideration because even when I hear the dads, like, because I work with a lot of men, too, and I've heard their side where it's like, the dads get forgotten sometimes. They don't get that time off like moms do, or they don't get looked after like moms do. I think military is trying to. I've seen that they up the maternity paternal leave that they give now, also for the males, thankfully. So that way dads have equal time with the baby, too, and growing and bonding on that. But that's a good question. Yeah, that's something maybe. So probably to look into everything, because honestly I don't know too much on how what the males get and don't get, but you're right, I do hear a lot more for the females than for the males. It's a culture shift, too, right? It's just a mind shift, because they get the same time now, right? And so, of course, the first thing is like, why do you need a whole 12 weeks, 18 weeks, 16 weeks? What is it now? 20 weeks for what? You didn't push nothing? You didn't get cut, nothing? But the goal is, right, so that you can bond with the kiddo, right? And this is like, okay, bonding with the Xbox. Right, is what people would think, right? And so, once again, that's a culture shift, is what we have to change our minds to allow for a dad to take, I'm not gonna say take more of an active role, I just said it out loud, but to allow that to exist in our own minds. And as a young supervisor, tech sergeant supervisor, when I would have male airmen and COs who had appointments for their kiddos, and maybe they had some issues going on with that, with said kid, and there were multiple appointments, I too would say like, where's his wife? Why can't the wife take him, right? And it's a maturity thing that comes along with that as well, right? Cause there's not an appointment that I'm okay with dad missing, right? Both parents have to be there, so that we're both on the same page. But as a young supervisor, I was not of that mind, so. So can you honor 55th Hcos? Who is your favorite historical female figure and why? Well, my favorite historical female figure goes by the name of Madeleine Millet. She birthed me, so. No, seriously, she is, and she's historical to me. She paved the way. She was the first female in our family to join the army. She retired army, so she paved the way for both my sister and I, my cousins. It opened up a whole new world for us, you know? She showed us how to serve with pride and with grace and elegance all at the same time. It's not something that my dad was able to do because, you know, he's not a woman, and he was actually the first person to say when I would go to him for advice, you know, ask your mom, your mom is really, really good at navigating those waters and massaging certain things. And so for me, yeah, that's her. Mommy, she held it down. Ooh, that's a hard one. So a little bit about myself, so I grew up Catholic, so I got a lot of information about Mother Teresa. I'm not gonna lie. She is always someone that I really looked up to and because of her faith, faith is a very big, important thing that's helped me kept strong going. And she was a hard woman, but humble. And she had a heart for people, like the less fortunate and just pouring in helping. So I really liked that about her, but what I loved is that she was gonna stick to what her goals were, to lead the church at one point, pretty much saying if the church isn't gonna allow me to do this ministry and go out in this mission that I wanna do in this field, then I don't need to be part of this organization and she's gonna start up her thing. So she had guts and she was bold, but she was humble. So I liked that. There's a good balance that I felt that I am, yeah, that I could respect on that. So the first person I thought of, and this is true. So Mildred Trotter, nobody knows who that is. It's not my mom. Mildred Trotter is the first forensic anthropologist and she worked for the DOD, whatever was back then. But she started making identifications during World War II. And so as a female anthropologist, when they were mostly males, she was also making identification of service members. I found out that she existed in middle school when I started really getting into science and things like that. And I decided I wanted to be a forensic anthropologist. And ever since then, I've always had a picture of old Mildred up on my desk or wherever I do my work. And I just have kind of always looked up to her. We look up to her at the lab too. Because she really paved the way for females and STEM and just specifically in anthropology. I'm not gonna answer that question, but who's next? All right, I'm sorry, Volsi over at the CPCS. Senior, nearly Volsi, I've been fact checking you back here quite a bit. But so have you ever experienced or seen a male subordinate maybe not extend a certain level of courtesy or respect towards a female leader? How did you or someone else handle it, from your perspective? I feel like you had a little bit more on behavior. So seeing something like a male disrespecting a female, that's what you're saying, too? A subordinate? Because my personality, they know I'm gonna probably say something, so people try to like, be crossing their T's dot in their I's a little bit when I'm around, not to be in a bad way, but they know that it's like, hey, we follow, we're against sexual harassment and all this. They know, they see what I'm enforcing the core values or the values of the Air Force. So I can't say that there's anything on top of my head that comes off like that, because I would say something if there was something blatant obviously right there, even if it's a higher ranking. If it was something I wasn't comfortable in that situation, I probably definitely would check, I would probably do one-on-one with that higher ranking individual and try to assess and figure out what was their motive or I'm sure you probably have a specific thing in mind, but I mean, if it was a blatant obvious, like sexual harassment happening in front of my eyes, it's like, no, no, no, no, or like, hey, what's going on? Just like, is everything okay sir? What's happening? But if it's something that's underline low key, then I'm like, and I'm not quite sure, but I can see that it's uncomfortable. I would definitely talk with the woman or the person one-on-one, the airman, and then I would probably definitely find out further what exactly was the higher ranking going about it. So I don't wanna misunderstand and I want them to understand to see that how it could have came off. Has there been anything that has happened to you directly when you were maybe younger that were even come across as joking that maybe wasn't so funny? It's challenging. I'm just curious. Okay, air crew world, maintenance world, security forces. I'm grateful for deployments. I love them. Deployments are fun, but I knew I have to be wise in how I carry myself and who I surround and keep myself in that environment. No one's came at me like that, but I never tried to keep myself in a way. I tried to check my surroundings. I kinda knew, I could see, don't get me wrong, you hear those people that will throw those little comments and slide things and I wish I can always say that I probably stood up for every single place, but there's a culture sometimes in certain places that I knew that there was a healthy joking and then there are sometimes around just like, man, that just doesn't sit right and I'll voice to who I can. So one specific time, I'll say like on a deployment, but it's been years ago. Yes, I never had access to that skiff back there, but I knew that they had all kinds of crazy things posted. That was their morale thing, I think they had said. It was their morale of showing videos, showing females naked and just all kinds of things that I'm like, that's just not the route I go. And a lot of people tend to know that. And like I said, I think because they know where I stand, what I keep myself and what I don't like or they'll see that I'm uncomfortable with it, I don't see that a whole lot happening somewhat to me. But if it does happen to others, then that's when I just feel like, hey, that's not okay. Yeah, that's a good question. So definitely when I worked on the flight line, so did I see males being inappropriate around females? Was it subordinate towards a leader? Was that the question before? Okay, subordinate towards a leader? Right. Male or subordinate female leader? Right. Okay, I have to change my story. All right, so in that case, the only time I saw something like that was, I was a career advisor in Ramstein and we had a younger airman. And we had F-tech and COICs, we had two, one female, one male. And for this particular airman, it seemed like for the male supervisor or F-tech and COIC, he would straighten up, he would speak appropriately with him. And then whenever he was being addressed by the female and COIC, then all of a sudden, all of that military bearing kind of fell to the wayside and it was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I need you to tighten it back up, you're still speaking to an NCO. And so we brought that to his attention after we kind of noticed it. We only had them for about a week, but by day two, it's usually you can pick up on some of those cues. That's the closest thing that I saw as far as a subordinate disrespecting a leader. Now, as a subordinate, being disrespected by a leader or in that place, have I ever felt sexually harassed or anything like that? And I don't know, now more finger question, yes. I have felt that. And it was the most uncomfortable situation I'd ever been in as a flight chief who was getting mentorship from my chief and because of his affection, I had a lot of mentorship, direct mentorship from him. And when there was enough familiarity that was established, that's where bounds started getting crossed and I started feeling very uncomfortable in that situation. And anytime I walked in the office to discuss, it didn't matter if it was manning, wards, different things like that, he'd find a reason to close the door and I could just feel the heat rising up my neck and turning red. And that was probably the worst experience I ever felt. Way worse than being on the flight line and hearing inappropriate things, even directed towards me. That was, I felt so violated without even being touched because as a military member, like how could you make me feel this way? And as my leader, the person who I trusted, that's the worst thing that I'd ever, I think it graced my hand and I was like, oh, that was the worst. And I called you crying, so you know. So I'm gonna morph your question too because I heard it how you heard it. My last deployment in Vietnam, there were a lot of women on my team for once, which was really awesome. And they were younger women, which was even more awesome. But they kind of, I don't know, they looked to me for like, kept asking me questions and mentorship and things like that. And it was a really cool experience, but so the way a team works is, we'll go out to wherever we need to go to dig up whatever we need to dig up. And leadership will comprise of me and I will kind of lead what happens scientifically and make sure the integrity of the site is good. The team leader, as an officer, will get us there and kind of take care of everything. And then there's team sergeant who kind of keeps everyone in line, make sure everything's good to go. Team sergeant was the worst. He actually ended up harassing a lot of the women on our team, these young women. And I saw it happening and I saw them not doing anything about it. And I did not let that go. I went to the DPA, DDO. I went to the debt in Vietnam and I was like, this is not okay. And for a civilian to do that, they don't, in the past, they haven't listened as much as they should. But it's changing now, which I think is really good. Because when you're out there in the middle of nowhere, you need to trust your leadership and you shouldn't be worried about things making you feel uncomfortable. You shouldn't worry about them coming up to your tent and shaking it in the middle of the night. You shouldn't worry about them drinking too much and puking on themselves. You should be able to have confidence in them, especially as a young woman, that you're safe where you are in the middle of nowhere in Vietnam. And so I thought it was really important. I supported those women and I got the support of the agency as well and things happened. And so sometimes if you see really bad things happening, it's important that you go and you talk to those subordinates or those younger women and let them know that you see them and that you want to support them. Support is huge. Thank you. That was an awesome answer. I just want to share that, because that reminded me of something. So if something does happen to women or you feel something as supervisors, please be open that your airmen can come to you or even a co-worker, women or male, either one. And there are ways, because there was an experience, I just remembered when you said something about that in the dorms, there was a dorm manager and he was hooking up with a lot of the younger females. I didn't know any of this until one of the airmen, she came and talked to me saying, hey, there's this one guy and he hooks up with all the women and I, you know, she was scared. She was scared because she knew she shouldn't have been fraternizing with him, but she got herself in that, but they weren't together anymore. But she saw that he kept doing that with other women and other females in the dorms. I didn't know the person, so I didn't know the full situation, but I did get the information. I wanted to protect her for a moment because I knew where she was coming from, understanding and letting her know, she's like, I just don't want anyone to get in trouble. I don't want to get in trouble. And I'm like, yes, but we can't have him keep doing something like that. So do something, still protecting each other. So what I could do is anonymous contact the first sergeant or who was in charge of those dorms and just let them know, hey, there is a master sergeant. I think she did let me know the person's name or there is a sergeant there that's a dorm manager. Can you please check on them or just find out and seek on your own, do your own research kind of investigation, see what's going on because there was an anonymous airman who gave this information. So I love how she said, just giving that tips of information be willing to be letting your airman hear, let's not be quick to judge and hear and understand, but also give that wisdom too because I did give the airman, I'm like, okay, you're not gonna, we're not gonna keep going on in this progression, right? And let's not hook up with other people that we're not supposed to be. The military has these regulations there for a reason and they protect us, they protect the good order and discipline, as they say. But yes, that was really good. So thanks, that was a great question. Sorry, we morphed it, sir. I think we have time for a few more. Oh, we'll come back to you. Sergeant Fokerelli again, what is your recommendation on building that culture of not only safety for women, but unacceptable behaviors without being called a be or emotional or any other name? So I would say start with you, right? So a lot of times when we have rumor mills that takes more than just the one person. So when someone comes to you to vent about a particular person and the way they're behaving, right? Don't egg it on, don't continue, don't like stamp it out right there, right? And so that way you're not allowing that to fester, allowing that to spread. And if anything, it's like, you know, we all express ourselves in different ways. And sometimes you can be angry and cry. Sometimes you can be frustrated and cry. So, you know, and that just might be that person's way of expressing themselves, right? And so just like some like to shout, some like to throw things, right? That behavior is not appropriate either, right? So I would say instead of letting things fester, stamp it out, don't be that firewall. If you have an issue, let's take it up with that person and see, hey, you know, we also have to be able to maintain our own military bearing, right? So just like yelling and cussing and, you know, flipping out, is it okay? You know, we also have to figure out how to kind of keep our emotions in check. Does that make sense? But I would say don't perpetuate a rumor is how we can help change some of that stigma. I'm still thinking, okay. So because women and males, most of the way we are is different, majority of it, you can see. It's not always, you know, we'll understand each other. I think also helping our male counterparts understand us a bit better, can help with the culture. I have to trust a little bit that my leadership, they understand and know, hey, women speak like this, feel like this, think like this. Sometimes that way they're not being so quick to judge us so I can't judge on the man saying, oh man, they're always so hard and they're rude or they're just whatever the stereotypes that we give males. I think it's important that'll help with the culture and understanding women, but also for me it's important to get to know each other. I get to know the person, they get to know me. That way they understand if they know where I'm coming from and I get to see if someone else is acting out of line or we can get, so I have to make sure I have my emotional intelligence as well. Just as males, they have their emotional talents. Some can have a rage and really strong anger and hopefully someone's coming alongside them, mentoring them and not telling them. So I'm gonna come alongside a woman and if she sees me getting crazy, she'll kind of pull me to the side hoping to be like, hey, that was a little too crazy there, that was harsh. But I think just that communication and being comfortable knowing yourself, your emotional intelligence, but also giving that education to whomever it is that you're working with because I notice that different leaderships do want different things sometimes. There are some leaderships I've had where they're like, they want someone, may I, may I, may I, may I, all the time then there's other leadership where they're like, make decisions. I don't want you to have to keep asking me for things. So you get to know your leadership and what that is, but definitely I think the culture is that, is just educating our counterparts on that. It's a good question. That is such a good question. I have just been, my mind has been, all the podcasts I listen to on women's leadership and it's really difficult because I feel like I've been beating my head up against the wall for like five years trying to make a difference kind of in my agency because most of our leadership are men even though everyone else is female. Go figure, right? So I really respect leadership in male or female. One thing that me and a couple of my colleagues have kind of started doing is we have supported each other, how do I put this? So say you're in a meeting or in some kind of setting where there's a group of people, males and females and you're talking and you get mansplained, maybe. Woman's planning does exist too, don't get me wrong guys, I get it. Well, what if your colleague were to stick up for you so it didn't seem like you were the person that was taking offense to this? What if when you said your idea that got totally glazed over and someone else repeated it and it became their idea, you say, no, wait a second, I'm pretty sure she said that, right? Or so and so had a great idea, I think we should listen to her. So kind of actively supporting just in that moment really helps and just having that trust with your colleagues, female or male, you know? Just little things like that, we're actually thinking how can I support this person that's next to me? I see what just happened and I'm not okay with that. That's just such a good question. I'm gonna be thinking about this forever. I think too, being in a situation like that, if you can be like you say in the moment, right when it happens, it's really hard sometimes, especially if you're the lowest ranking person in the room, which I was at one point, when you see, oh my gosh, you're tolerating this, but this is not okay. Just takes one person to say something because if you're uncomfortable or if the culture isn't what it should be, I guarantee you if you or someone else is feeling that way, there's gonna be someone else in the room that's feeling the exact same way and it is hard to say, hey, this isn't right, but it's also a lot worse to sit and let that happen and not say something. And hopefully you can have co-workers or colleagues, whatever, teammates that you know will support you, right? So they'll say, yeah, no, she's right. It'd be nice to have that. And so if you can build that, just kind of have that group that supports you and respect you and you respect them rather than the leader who's like, I suffered so you have to suffer or this cattiness or whatever you have going on because of competition, yeah, yeah. I wanna re-attack one more time. I think really if we have respect at the foundation of our relationships with our co-workers, that really helps. And the best way to get that is to truly meet each other where we're at, right? And understand where you're coming from. Know the person beyond their last name. Know them as Dean, as Josh, as Jacqueline, right? And know you, your family, a little closer, right? Beyond that intrusive leadership, but like a true friendship, right? So when these emotional flare-ups come, I'm not gonna reduce you to a label, right? And I think when we do that, because our family, family, family, we have these outbursts and we don't just, sometimes, right? You might just throw your hand and oh, there she goes again, right? But there's grace for that, right? And it's not, it's okay, there she goes there, but there's still an underline of respect for that person that you are still gonna hear what it is that they're saying and try to clear through the emotion behind it and okay, was there truly a point behind what it was that she was saying? So, yeah. Okay, we're gonna have one more question and then I'm gonna ask a question. All right, Captain Hunter McKinney from the 97th IS. First, I just wanna thank you all for being on the panel and for answering what, for me, has been pretty difficult question, so thank you for that and being vulnerable there. I guess I have two questions. The first is, we talked about some of the improvements with policy and culture that have been taking place over just my career, but also yours. And I wanna know from the DOD side and also the civilian side, what are some of the improvements you've seen in policy and culture of your careers that shows that we're going in the right direction and what are some, maybe, thoughts, ideas for policy or culture change that we need to make even more improvements? And then my second question is just, is there a book or a podcast or movie that you wish one of your male supervisors had consumed and understood prior to your paths crossing? So, while I think that sometimes like the supper trainings and things like that, we feel like it's, we get it all the time, it's redundant and different things like that, sexual assault is still happening, right? I think what is an improvement is the reporting is rising. And so I think we've cracked the code a little bit there. I think the intervention, we need to improve there a little bit more. It's easy to say what you would do, but when you're in the moment and the heat of it and you're in the thick of it and you're seeing something, you're like, ooh, that's a red dot, right? And everybody knows what a red dot is, right? But do you actually go, okay, well, that's something that shouldn't be happening, right? I'm seeing just something that can go wrong really fast. I can fast forward and know that this person is gonna end up crying at the bottom of their shower, right? Like, I have to intervene, but you're scared and so you don't know, right? We all know what we're supposed to do because we've been trained it, you can recite it, you can shoot up your hand and you can answer, but can you actually act? That's the scariest part of the entire thing. And so I think if we can continue to push a culture of action, then we'll get leaps and bounds and we'll be able to care for each other as wingmen and not just be reduced to a CBT or for our training. So I think that's how we can improve just a tad bit more. And then I love the book, Oh My Gosh, Dare to Lead by Brene Brown. I love that book and it's nothing about necessarily female focused at all, but it really talks about being candid as kind is one of the things that she talks about. She talks about sympathy versus empathy and how to kind of navigate as a person. But I think it's as good as a leader, right? I may not know what it is that you're going through, but I can see you as a person, I can see how it's affecting you and I can empathize with you and I can sit with you in this moment throughout this ordeal that you're facing, right? And never having gone through it. So for a male, never been pregnant, never did this, never did that, right? You could still sit there with the person. And then that candid is kind. I think it's very difficult for males to supervise females, whether it's a hair challenge, whether it's an attitude challenge, whether it's a man, are those the right color nails and is her makeup this or that? Like it's difficult, right? And so oftentimes I'll get pulled on the shoulders saying, hey, can you talk to her about this or that? I mean, that's happened in my entire career. And does this look right? And so just be honest, like, hey, ma'am, I don't think, let's look at this AFI. I don't think you're following this AFI or hey, your attitude is coming off really sharp. Like you're being dismissive, whatever that is, you don't need a third party in for that, right? And again, if you have that respect for one another, you have that trust, you should be able to make those corrections without creating like this big sit-down feedback session. Throughout my career, I have seen changes. Leadership, I will say, off it is unique. Coming here, so I've been to many bases. Coming here, I really can see so far the leadership from my commanders that have been males and such that they genuinely seem to care and are enforcing and taking care into letting us know in the squadron that this matters to them, such as like she has sexual harassment, things like that. Throughout my career, I did see that it's getting better because the culture is changing where it isn't always just about let's sexualize the females and do all these things like that. Coming to other bases, like I said, other bases I think they still have quite a bit to grow in that area, but I will say off it so far from what I'm seeing, especially in a flying squadron, it's been getting better. We take care of each other, what I've seen. Especially I like with the heavies because there's enlisted and officers together, so it's not just like, oh, these are officers, those are enlisted. Yes, it still has a little bit of that, but we are all together like working it together as one and there are a lot more males in that squadron than there are females. Yeah, so I've just seen it getting better, but I will say there are some low-key in the skeleton, some shady people still there that it's like, hmm. Okay, I can't just assume or what the case is, but I do kind of just observe, watch and talk and see and get to know them on those. So I do think that there are some things, but I'm definitely in agreement with her with as far as the sexual harassment and all these CBTs that they give us. I do wish that they would give more examples because when I hear the trends happening in the dorms, there's some airmen that just don't get educated in the information about what is considered sexual harassment. Oh, they thought they were just being a friend. They genuinely thought that they were just being nice or doing something that was okay to them because especially when you're coming in from a different culture and environment but outside of the military and now you're in the military and then you guys are in the dorms and all together, you don't have those skills in that mindset. So when I see these, every time I attend these Sark and things and I'm like, okay, but what's the real example of like, okay, you have these folks in the dorms and now you should say if someone says no one time you respect that and honor that. But I'll be honest, sometimes respecting and honoring no, just one time or no thanks. Some people are like, oh no, are you sure you don't want it? Come on, it's here, it's just this. Sometimes it can be innocent and then it gets into some crazier things of course when they say all calls involve. So I think our education could be better on examples, real examples, I know these videos, sometimes you see them and they're cheesy, some of them. So I would like to hear when they say that they've got cases that happen with the dorms of these things, of incidents that happen to actually probably if the airmen are willing to give some examples like what happened, what didn't you know, what did you know and then just probably give some better insight of education on that. Reading as far as there's so many, I would say serve to lead, I believe it's called, it's serve to lead. I don't remember who the author is, but it's a really good book that it puts us all in that mindset that we're not all just should be, I already know this, I'm here to serve already, I'm at this position, I'm in this ranking, it's what I say and that's it. You, we should be serving one another to actually get to know who our people is and what we're doing, like if I'm expecting my airmen to take care of business, yet I'm not even knowing how to do it myself or what that, I'm probably giving them unrealistic expectations. So I really like the way this book was served to lead in learning how to just take care of and serving and take care of my people better. That's a good question. You guys covered it all pretty much. I mean, great responses. I see a change, things that would have happened on deployment 10 years ago would never fly nowadays. And it's great knowing that you kind of have that support from your leadership. So that's one of the keys is that your leadership is listening and that you can go to them and tell them that these things are happening and that something will happen. Some action will be taken. So not just spouting, oh, I support you, I support you and then do nothing about it. Really important to do something about it. And just to underline or kind of a point that you guys didn't bring up is I think the key is this newer generation coming up, right? So there's a little story. So a forensic anthropologist, a man, it's kind of known to harass women at conferences and the field and it's unfortunate as an older man. And my generation kind of just dealt with it. We're like, oh, it's just so and so. Just ignore him, right? Well, it took the younger generation of these graduate students who did experience his harassment and said, no, I'm not okay with this. And with the culture shift at the same time, it was like the perfect, I don't wanna say perfect storm, but it was like the perfect mix of all these things of people are becoming more aware of this. People are doing things about them. I'm talking about like the Me Too movement, things like this. And you have a generation who's gonna be like, I'm not okay with this. And I wanna see you do something about it. So I'm gonna go to his university. I'm gonna go to his National Institute of Justice. I'm going to, that he has a grant through. I'm gonna go through all these different channels to make sure no one else has to experience this. As me and some other women around me who have dealt with his harassment say, why didn't we do that, right? It's this new generation coming up. And I just, I think it's fantastic that they are, that they're showing up for themselves or speaking up for themselves. And now we have kind of this generation who's doing something to support them. It's really important. All right, I'm gonna ask one more question. It was a pre-canned question, but I like it. 30 seconds each, okay? And then I'll close this out so that you guys can have them for your own questions. What piece of advice would you give to the next generation of female leaders? 30 seconds, go. Oh. Yep. The self-care, definitely self-care. Get to know yourself, learn, grow. And also learn from others, honestly. Self-care? Yeah, self-care. Be bold. Be humble. And be empathetic. Yeah, you took a lot of my, I'm sorry. You have been taking a lot of my things. Stop comparing yourself to others, social media, get off of it. And be brash, be confident, be out there. Because if someone doesn't like it, that's fine. Right? She's too much, right? We hear she's too much all the time. It's okay. You can be too much, all right? Love it. And don't be afraid to change the culture. First of all, I have, you just use, I'll just use this one. I'm just gonna thank all of you for being here today. That was wonderful. Thank you for your questions. Thanks for asking the hard questions and being a part of this. The panel's gonna stay around for another hour so that you can network and ask some questions that maybe you didn't get the opportunity to ask in this open forum. Thank you. Thank you so much to the three of you. Thank you for sharing your stories, your personal experiences, the hard questions. It's hard to be on a panel and be vulnerable to some of these questions and talk about some of the topics that came up. But things that I heard today, culture of change, culture of action and taking care of yourself, taking care of your airmen. I can't thank you enough. This has been a true pleasure. And I'll probably stick around too to ask a few questions. Okay.