An Interview with Mary Gallegos

What Is Your Job?
Director of Mid-Atlantic Engineering for Raytheon C3I Strategic Systems Business Unit.

What do you do?
I direct a lot of engineers (1500) to ensure that they perform the engineering jobs that we need them to do. I am responsible for making sure they have the skills, the technical help, and the career development help to move them from job to job, either moving up or sideways, depending on what they individually want to do. Directing means setting a course – leading, creating a vision and the strategy to implement the vision.

Why Engineering?
Engineering has challenge and opportunities. I’ve never been bored; I’m always learning something new and exciting. The more I learn about engineering, the more I learn about the environment in which we live – the physics, the mathematics that are the principles that allow us to breathe, talk, hear. Engineers harness that environment with technology.

Education
When I was a senior in high school, I was offered a full-tuition basketball scholarship to the University of Tennessee and an academic scholarship from the Future Teachers of America. But because my family couldn’t afford the rest of the costs, I took a job as a secretary at a bank in California and started going to school at night, studying mathematics and computer science.

Q. What did you like or do as a kid that led to your career?
Played basketball. I was always a straight-A student so I never had any academic problems. Sports gave me the confidence to do something with my brain – they changed me from a very shy, quiet individual to an aggressive, competitive individual. I learned how to lose, how to win, how to be a team player, how to comfort people when they’re hurt, how to be strong, how to recover from failure. I also learned discipline and physical conditioning.

Q. What books did you like to read?
As a kid I was a book addict – I read all the books I could get my hands on. My favorites were books that had to do with history in the medieval times – ones with a story, like the Count of Monte Cristo and Les Miserables. I dreamed of going to England and France

Now I like to read fantasies – books that let my mind wander – that take me out of my current environment into another world.

Q. What do you do on a typical day?
My day starts about 7:30 with getting closure on yesterday’s problems. Then I start addressing today’s problems by prioritizing my calendar of events for the day. My days are usually full of meetings that deal with issues and concerns regarding Engineering. My day ends about 6:30 or 7 in the evening, usually with reviewing and editing email and having one-on-one discussions with immediate staff.

Q. What was your most rewarding work experience?
I have to say it was when I received my patent in 'System and Method for Redirecting a Signal Using Phase Conjugation'. To me, it captured my creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. Also I have always been proud of our reconnaissance system successes during Desert Storm.

Q. What was your most challenging work experience, and what do you think you learned from this experience?
A. My most challenging work experience was learning to design radar systems. Radar systems are so complicated and require knowledge of a wide spectrum of understanding.

Q. Why do you have so many Gorilla pictures in your office?
A. Because Gorillas are very smart animals. When I think of all their attributes and apply them in a human sense, they keep me grounded as a human being.

Q. Any words of wisdom for young people?
A. Yes. As teenagers, you should recognize that the world has an infinite variety of possibilities. There are no barriers other than the ones you set. Never do anything you’ll be unhappy with.