Jennifer Neal

I attribute my success to my family. They've been there for me for everything, especially my husband - he's always been my biggest supporter and has been my rock for most of it. One of the people that inspired me the most is my husband's aunt, Kim. She's one of the strongest women I know, and every time I'm like, 'Man, I don't know if I can do this,' I'll just look at her example. Being a woman in the military obviously wasn't super easy, but I was fortunate to have some mentorship from some great leaders before me that showed me what a good leader would be. One of those was one of my first supervisors, Tech Sergeant Madigan, who really showed me what a leader should be.

The best advice I've received is just to go for it. If you're not afraid to fail, then it doesn't matter, and if you do fail, as long as you get back up and keep trying, failure is just a lesson in learning. That's the advice that has stuck with me the most throughout my career.

My advice to young women entering this industry is to go for it. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid if you're the loudest in a room. If you think people will doubt you, there will always be people that will, but you've got to just go for it anyway and prove them wrong. And don't be afraid to be hard - be loud if you have to be. Throughout my career, I think being doubted was the hardest challenge, or people not thinking I could achieve something just because of who I am. Having to prove people wrong is something that I've had to do a lot, but you can't let that stop you.

In my field, there's always the opportunity to meet new people and network. People don't always know what emergency management does, but sometimes when they figure it out, it's one of their worst days, and the ability to help guide people through that situation and make sure that they're going to be okay, or they know what process to take, is something that I think is a very big opportunity. There's always an opportunity to learn something new or approach a situation from a different aspect. A lot of what I do is problem solving, but sometimes we don't know what the problem is yet - we have to guess at what could happen, and I like the challenge of that. As for challenges, being doubted has been one of the hardest things I've faced - people not thinking I could achieve something just because of who I am. Having to prove people wrong is something that I've had to do a lot throughout my career.

The values most important to me in both my work and personal life are integrity, honesty, and being open with somebody. If you have an issue or a problem, just address it right away. Compassion and empathy are also crucial to me. You never know what somebody else is going through, so if you try to address any situation from an empathetic lens, it usually helps. These values guide how I approach both my professional responsibilities and my personal relationships.