North Alaska News

In celebration of #WomensHistoryMonth, we're featuring some standout #USCG #women who are making history here in #alaska! 

We got to know Commander Tracey Torba, commanding officer, Civil Engineering Unit Juneau, during the following brief interview:

•  How does it make you feel to serve in the USCG? 

 A: I really love my specialty within the CG and couldn’t imagine doing anything else.  I think most people would say the Civil Engineering field is a male dominated specialty, but I’ve been really fortunate to have great mentors and opportunities and have never felt that my gender has impacted my career one way or another.  Throughout my career, I’ve been given a lot of latitude in how I execute my duties within my various assignments. That said, I know not everyone has had that experience.  

•  What are some of the standout challenges that come with serving, that are more specific to being female?  

A: I think one of the biggest challenges is early motherhood and balancing military duties and personal drive to be the best in your field with the struggles, joy, and new responsibilities that come with pregnancy and having a newborn.   

•  Have you noticed any positive changes in the service since you joined with regard to equal treatment and opportunity for women?  

A: The CG has come such a long way in providing a more welcoming environment for pregnant women and new mothers in many ways, like the improved parental leave policy, nursing mother rooms becoming more of a norm (now a standard facility requirement in all new facilities!), as well as the ability for surge staffing to assist with backfilling mothers while on parental leave.

•  What are some areas where the service needs to improve? 

A: We’re really starting to see a shift in representation at the senior officer levels.  I’m only the second female ever to be in command of a Civil Engineering Unit (CEU), the last one being 20 years ago, but in the past two years we’ve had 5 female CEU XOs and CEU Cleveland will get their first ever female CO this summer.  I’m seeing more and more women at the junior level in the engineering specialties and that will continue to translate to more diversity at the senior levels as those folks promote, as long as we continue to let the quality of a member’s performance define them, and not their gender.   

•  Where are you from and how long have you served?

A: I’m originally from New Hampshire and have served almost 18 years. I graduated from the Coast Guard Academy in 2005, served a deck watch officer tour on a 270 (CGC TAMPA) and have been in the Civil Engineering specialty ever since.

•  Is there anything you'd like to say specific to serving as a woman (or as a mother/wife if applicable) that we did not touch on in the above questions?  

A: Don’t focus on labels. Focus on what you want to do with your career, where you want to go, how you plan to make that happen and what milestones you need to achieve to ensure your own success. This also includes honing your ability to learn new things, prioritize competing demands, adapt to different situations and get things done.

Original source can be found here.