Havre de Grace, Md., is the home town of quite a few notable names, David Hasselhoff – famous in America for Knight Rider – and both Ripken Brothers, the Iron Man Cal and the journeyman baseball player Bill.
Program Executive Office – Intelligence Electronic Warfare and Sensors has its own star from Havre de Grace in Steffani McQuerrey, a procurement coordinator who came to work in the field about a decade ago immediately after graduating from Notre Dame of Maryland University.
After initially working for a non-profit administering Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity or IDIQ contracts, McQuerrey found a job at Product Director Aerostats.
“PD Aerostats really opened my eyes to another side of acquisition,” said McQuerrey, “Since previously I was working on the industry/provider side, so PD Aerostats really gave me the insight into the government processes: how the Army builds and supports its requirements, and I found more opportunities to be helpful. It was really in that position that I realized ‘This is where I want to be, this is where I want to focus my efforts.’”
A procurement coordinator, McQuerrey has spent the last decade ensuring product leads are following applicable federal regulations by reviewing documentation and agency specific regulations.
“I really just like being helpful to people,” said McQuerrey. “This job gives me the opportunity to do that day in and day out and you know, I like to connect with people while I’m doing this job. I not only get to be helpful to people, but I get to learn from people and learn about people; it’s an interesting and satisfying job.”
One of those connections is Mardel Wojciechowski, Business Management Analyst with PEO IEW&S, where McQuerrey became a team member a few years ago.
“I do look up to Mardel, she’s just spectacular as a supervisor and a mentor.” said McQuerrey. “As a woman in a professional environment, it’s nice to have a role model to see how she’s been successful in her career; every opportunity that I have to ask her for her experience and where she can share her insights into different situations, I definitely take advantage of that. She’s been more than happy to share those things with me, and she’s also been really supportive of my interests and professional growth.”
McQuerrey practices “active listening” to ensure she can be as supportive to others as Mardel is to her.
“I heard once that people tend to think that in contracting our job is to tell everyone ‘no.’” said McQuerrey. “Truly, in contracting our goal is just to help get you to the responsible yes. That’s where active listening helps: we want to support the goal and so I think it’s important for people coming into contracting to understand that it’s not our job to tell people no, we want to help people get to yes. We just need to do it the right way.
“All of our senior leadership are really supportive,” McQuerrey continued. “It’s not just about our work products, they care about us as people as well. Having a balance in the work to life ratio, I think, within the IEW&S family is emphasized: taking care of yourself, taking care of each other.”
Work-life balance has been dramatically different for many people in the military and United States over the past year, and McQuerrey has adjusted accordingly.
McQuerrey and her daughter, Abby, 11, have both been handling their business remotely.
“Being my daughter’s mom is a huge part of my identity,” said McQuerrey proudly. “She’s in the sixth grade, so this year she had to go to a new school – virtually – which was a challenge for her, but she managed to get straight A’s this quarter for the first time in years! It’s been interesting but really, I think being a parent is the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done.”
More time at home also allowed McQuerrey to pick up a violin for the first time in years. “I played the violin from elementary through high school, and when I went to college I was in a chamber orchestra, but then when I had my daughter I put it down and didn’t find a lot of time to pick that up until now.”
Now, McQuerrey has been playing tracks from the Vitamin String Quartet, a group that does covers over modern rock and pop music for the violin exclusively. Her favorite track is My Hero by the Foo Fighters.
However, working on Aberdeen has given her many experiences and one made an impression – the Team APG Greening course, which is designed to give civilian employees the opportunity to gain insight and to experience various activities, duties and responsibilities of the U.S. Soldier.
“I had the opportunity to participate in the Team APG Greening course shortly after I became a CIV employee and that was a really great learning experience. I really enjoyed that course – even though it took me away from the office for two weeks – and I would definitely recommend it for any Army Civilian once we’re safely back to in-person training.”
