# Black History Month Employee Spotlight: LaToya Clayton-Bullock

/ Published Feb. 28, 2018
FORT BELVOIR, Va., 
*Editor's note: As we end the month of February honoring black history, we begin the month of March in honor of women’s history. It is fitting that we spotlight a DLA Energy employee who honors both and is doing amazing things to not only support America’s warfighters but also advance the rights of federally employed women.*

**What is your job title, and what do you do?** I serve as a senior procurement analyst in the Procurement Oversight Division. I am responsible for reviewing the contracting officer’s contracts and their corresponding contracting actions.  

If you could go back in time, what would you tell yourself about the future? For starters, you will not go to college right away nor will you become a certified public accountant. Instead, life will create several detours. You will join the Army where you will become a supply technician. It is here that you will meet your future husband and the both of you will raise a beautiful family.

Out of these many detours there will be many challenges, but you will overcome them all because you are resilient. You will turn those challenges to lessons learned and convey those lessons to all who will listen, which will open doors to a testimony unlike no other.  

You will have fears about raising your two sons as they will live in a society where being the wrong color can bring heartache, pain or death. You will worry about your two daughters as well, as they will have to work twice as hard as men to prove their worth and skillset. 

Despite this, you remain positive and optimistic. You will never sacrifice your beliefs or integrity to “fit in” as you were raised to rise above all matters whether personally or professionally. Last but not least, people will look up to you, and you will remain humble and thankful.  

**What advice would you give today’s workforce?** I would tell today’s workforce to stay true to who they are and never sell themselves short. All you have in this one life is your name, and once that’s ruined you have nothing.    

**Have you had an influential mentor in your career?** I’ve had several mentors throughout each transition and growth period of my career. However, since I’ve become an acquisition professional, Dr. Noah Mitchell, currently of Department of Defense Education Activity has been a great friend and mentor to me since 2010.  **How are you paying it forward?** I simply love helping others to become the best and most successful versions of themselves. I make every effort to educate and inform my colleagues and peers of the various challenges, successes and rewards that I’ve had throughout my career. I am a firm believer that networking is an art and the start of something wonderful. I am that one who can put you in touch with the right person. I tell everyone, do not burn the bridge. You never know when you will need someone. 

**If you could have a conversation with a civil rights activist, who would it be and why?** It would be with Ida B. Wells because she was a movement by herself.  She was instrumental in founding the National Association of Colored Women with Mary Terrell and was one of the founding members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. As part of her work with the National Equal Rights League, Wells called for President Woodrow Wilson to put an end to discriminatory hiring practices against African Americans in the federal government.  

Wells didn’t stand around and wait for anything to be given to her and she wasn’t afraid to speak about injustice. Those characteristics are admirable. I would tell her that her work for women is continuing on in huge numbers; we will not be silent.

For that reason, I joined the Federally Employed Women organization. I believed in their ideologies and became a member while at I was working at the Department of Justice in 2015.  

With the assistance of other DLA Energy woman including Shepeta Allen, Brandi Carpenter and Irene Smith, we are taking efforts to establish a chapter at DLA. I have a strong belief that the chapter will stand this year. It’s going to take time, and effort, but I am not known to stay away from a challenge.