Rodger Mingo recently retired as program manager for diversity in the work environment after forty-three years at the FAA Tech Center.

The Federal Aviation Administration’s William J. Hughes Technical Center (Atlantic City, NJ) encourages diversity by creating a model workplace for all employees.

With about half of its employees due to retire within the next three years, the center is reaching out to recruit new talent. “We need a constant supply of people coming out of colleges and universities,” says director Anne Harlan, who has led the research center since 1997. “We learn as much from the kids coming in as they learn from us.”

The FAA Technical Center is the technical arm of the agency. Its goal is to make the skies safe for the traveling public. And its mission is to create possibilities and provide solutions to meet the challenges of aviation. New air traffic control systems are developed and tested in the center’s laboratories, along with weather and communications systems. The center also does free flight and human factors research and a broad variety of safety R&D testing.

Aerospace and other engineers at all levels work at the center, along with computer scientists and support personnel.

In addition to the twenty interns currently on the books, the technical center recently brought in seven co-ops. They come from all technical areas, including computer science, information technology and aviation, mechanical, electrical, electronic, structural, human factors and systems engineering.

Interns have completed their sophomore year in college. They work during the summer and other school breaks. Some also work part time during the school year.

The center hopes to offer every successful intern and co-op student a permanent placement. “Unfortunately, that varies based on the budget,” admits Terry DiPompo, program director for the office of human capital strategies.

Federal Aviation Administration Technical Center www.tc.faa.gov Headquarters: Atlantic City, NJ Employees: 1,500 plus 1,500-1,600 contractors Budget: $190 million Mission: Aviation safety research and development

Technical Center veteran Rodger Mingo recently retired as program manager for diversity in the work environment after forty-three years at the center. Mingo worked his way up from his first job as computer room manager. That, plus his experience as chief of civil rights and manager of human resource management, gives him insight into the factors that create environments where employees are most productive.

“If you get rid of the things that shouldn’t be on people’s minds while they are at work, the effort they spend protecting themselves can now be directed toward the actual product,” he says.

A model work environment includes support for diversity and an awareness of how everyone is treated in the workplace, Mingo states. At the technical center, the head of diversity, the civil rights officer and the human resources manager lead this effort. Activities have even involved a union, the National Federation of Federal Employees. “I had the union’s permission to include their people,” Mingo says. “I’m proud to say that we never had a problem.”

Mingo became the center’s first full-time diversity officer in 1993. He created a council that included representatives from each division. The council provided a forum to discuss problems and solutions. “The council was a gathering of resources useful in solving a particular problem,” he says. The council also provided diversity training.

Over the years, the technical center has evolved in such a way that it has influenced the entire agency. “We have the reputation of starting programs and processes that the rest of the FAA often adopts,” Mingo says. Flexible working schedules, which have been available to technical center employees for years, are now FAA-wide. The FAA now also has an agency-wide diversity council in Washington, DC. Mingo was the technical center’s representative on that council, which involves the agency’s highest levels of management.

The center focuses on recruiting a pool of qualified minority candidates. “If we want to get minority populations or women, we go to the places where they are likely to be plentiful,” Mingo says. The technical center recruits at HBCUs like Florida A&M University (Tallahassee, FL) and Howard University (Washington, DC). Recruiters also visited four university campuses in Puerto Rico last year.

The center participates in the U.S. government’s Minority Serving Institutions internship program, which helps federal agencies recruit at HBCUs and at colleges with large Hispanic student representation. Tech Center recruiters also work with professional and minority associations like NSBE, IEEE, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees.

The center sponsors regular meetings with employee affinity groups for minorities, gays/lesbians, people with disabilities and women. The groups provide input for cultural awareness programs like Black History Month, as well as support for student employees. The employee groups help new hires with transportation, housing and other practical issues.

Employees may apply to two special programs that can give them a boost at the FAA. The Upward Mobility Program puts participants into developmental positions with potential for advancement. The participants rotate through different departments in the organization to find the best fit. They also get educational assistance.

Anne Harlan, director of the FAA Tech Center: “We learn as much from the kids coming in as they learn from us.”

In the Executive Potential Program, experienced employees who have demonstrated management potential find and negotiate their own assignments in the FAA or other government agencies each quarter for a year. They may work with an individual who can help them develop their leadership skills or expand their technical skills.

Technical center employees must be U.S. citizens and eligible for security clearance. The center is currently operating under heightened security.

“Diversity works from a business standpoint,” says Mingo. “Your organization rises and falls on how well your people operate, how they show initiative, how they think of themselves.”

“If you are faced with challenges, as we certainly are in the aviation business these days, the only way to get through it is by tapping into people’s varying backgrounds, ideas and ways of approaching problems,” says director Harlan. “You get better solutions this way.”

D/C