>> Nathalie, you mentioned that you love leadership.
>> Yeah. >> When I look across
the organization chart of ICE
I see not a lot of women's faces in the map.
What do you think hinders women from moving up
into the leadership ranks here?
>> You know, I think often times more often than not themselves.
I have to say yes we have the ceiling,
there are challenges,
but we are in a far better place,
particularly in our agency
and I can speak to my component
where I feel like the men in leadership encourage,
and they know good talent when they see it.
Whether it's a male officer,
or as female officer,
or in our administrative rank and file,
but I think a lot of times
because many of the women in our ranks
and our mission support specialists as well,
they've got so much going on,
on their plates like speaking about your mom
and everything going on at home.
How do I possible manage?
And how do I keep those priorities straight?
And so while that's--I certainly understand that,
I live that myself.
When I take time to speak
with the deportation officers out there,
and I know the ones that are going to be the shining stars,
up and coming I talk to them about that.
It's like "you know, I really don't want to do that right now.
I've got these other priorities."
Whether it be kids, or still pursuing studies,
or my dogs.
I mean, it's one of those things
where I think it's how we deliver the incentive
to them to say
but in fact you have those tendencies
about you that make you a good employee
that you time manage well.
you would bring a lot to the organization
just by basically being who you are,
and that is the skill set
that we as women do tend to bring
in the law enforcement ranks is we're great communicators.
And I think we've talked about this
before about just the strength of bringing folks
in who speak other languages, right?
Or I can tell you I've been in many situations
where I've seen our rank and file deportation officers,
a female just really diffuse a situation much more quickly,
or perhaps more effectively than say her male counterpart at the time.
Not that his approach would be wrong,
it's just the female as a communicator
can sort of soften the situation at the time.
So when I try to encourage our females,
our women to think about moving into the ranks
I think with some coaxing
and finally they step up to the plate
but I'd certainly like to see more do that
because again I think collectively they tend
to hinder themselves
just because I don't know,
they don't think they're ready, they tend to be perfectionists.
We're never gonna be ready.
You are never gonna be ready, right?
Did you ever think you were gonna be ready
to be thrown into the positions that you're in?
But it's more that your leadership,
your mentors see that in you.
So hopefully I can continue to make that impression in this role
that I have now in headquarters as I go out
and speak to the women in our ranks
about you're ready,
just step up and take the opportunity.
>> So peaking of, Debbie,
you're one of our newest senior executives here.
Did you think twice before you sought the opportunity?
>> I certainly did.
I think that going off of what Nathalie was saying,
and in my conversations amongst colleagues
and friends women
tend to be very analytical
before they pursue a job opportunity,
a promotion or whatnot, right?
We look at all the criterias
and we want to check every single box,
and we want to be sure that we're absolutely ready
before we throw in our application.
And certainly I had those thoughts and moments
and I took a little bit of my own advice
that sometimes timing is everything as well.
I have always wanted to be a leader.
I've always wanted to be a supervisor.
That was the goal of all throughout my career.
I believe in cultivating relationships
with those who I work with in achieving
the agency's mission together.
And so although there were little doubts in my mind
in terms of am I truly ready for this,
I felt the need to pursue the opportunity
because you lose 100%
of those jobs that you don't pursue.
And ultimately it was up to agency leadership to decide
whether I was ready and not necessarily up to me.
All I can do is raise my hand and stand up,
and try my best.
And I'm so glad I did.
I feel so fortunate
to be able to occupy this position
to work for you, Tracey.
It's been very exciting so far
and I can see that this is truly a growth opportunity
for me moving forward. >> That's great.
So, Tonya, you are leading
a field investigative group.
Talk to us a little bit about your team
and what you bring as the supervisor there.
>> So I feel really blessed with my team
because before entering as a first line supervisor
I always heard horror stories
that when you first enter an office
you receive the worst group,
and you'll have all the problem children
but I didn’t have anything like that at all.
When I walked in I was like "what?
Really?" I have amazing people.
The group, it's really self-sufficient
so I don't have to worry about the small things.
I can worry about actually being a leader
and trying to do other things
outside of just management and service.
Someone that encourages and different roles
and things that a leader should do.
I think it's very important that people,
women do strive for leadership.
One thing that I think maybe prevents some of them
from doing so outside of what Debbie
and Nathalie have spoken to is
just that they don't have a lot of women
to look up to.
As we mentioned there aren't so many women
in leadership positions
and a lot of times if we don't see it,
we don't think it's possible.
And on the HSI side there are SAC offices
that may have no women in leadership positions,
there may be one and there are a lot of women.
We are not the majority in this agency,
but there are a lot of women in this agency
and I feel that there should be more in leadership roles.
So as leaders if we do see places
that may not have women in leadership positions
I feel that it's out role to try to be mentors to some people.
If we see younger women,
or just women in general in those offices
or locations reach out to them and say hey,
maybe there isn't someone here in your office
that you can relate to or you feel comfortable with.
Email me or call me anytime,
just be willing to talk.
'Cause in my office or actually in my SAC area
I’m the only woman in a leadership position.
So I feel a certain responsibility
to not just the women in my group,
but the women in the office.
So I think it's a really great opportunity
and as I mentioned I think it's very important
to have people to look up to because I’m a first line,
but I don't plan to stay a first line supervisor
for the rest of my career
so I can look at the other ladies on the panel
who have moved up the ranks which I admire
and I have someone to say hey,
they did it, I can do it as well.