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# Six DLA employees complete Harvard’s Senior Executive Fellows Program

By DLA Public Affairs

Five Defense Logistics Agency Headquarters employees and one from DLA Distribution recently completed the Senior Executive Fellows Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. The professional development program sharpens leadership and managerial skills of federal employees at GS-14 and GS-15 levels. 

The graduates are Edward Dawson, chief of forecasting and analytics for DLA Logistics Operations; Brian Nunnally, deputy division chief for DLA Information Operations; Haleema Rehman, senior business analyst for DLA Logistics Operations; Kari Riskedahl, business relationship manager for DLA Information Operations at DLA Land and Maritime; Juan Torres, emergency management program manager for DLA Installation Management; and Jim Stanford, chief of contingency plans for DLA Distribution (who completed the program earlier in the year).

The Senior Executive Fellows Program improves critical leadership skills. Participants learn and interact with Harvard faculty while developing professional relationships with a diverse cohort of peers from many areas of the public service sector.

“I found Senior Executive Fellows training to be invaluable in broadening my thinking and providing new frameworks to view problems,” Riskedahl said. “Learning strategic management techniques, negotiation skills, effective decision making will all help me when facing challenges and opportunities within DLA.”

Topics ranged from authentic leadership and policy development to cyber policy and U.S. politics. Dawson’s key takeaways included knowing he needs to nurture his community of employees, peers and supervisors and recognizing that teams are made up of people from numerous cultures. He also now understands change as something that requires people to give something up to gain something they haven’t had in the past.

Nunnally said he will use what he learned to ensure further success in supporting the warfighters.

“If we focus only on the failure, we lose the whole picture. The class instilled many various items during the month, but one thing I will strive to do is focus also on our successes as an organization and what we do and have done well,” he said. 

 

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LeadershipTrainingPeople and Culturesenior fellows