Her Story
About Kaitlin
I'm in my 8th year in the corrections field, where I've dedicated my career to making a meaningful impact in my community. For the first 7 years, I worked with community supervision in probation and parole, where I was over sex offender units and spent most of my time supervising sex offenders on probation or parole. Currently, I serve as a counselor at a maximum security facility, where I work directly with inmates to help them with different things they could need. I make sure they are receiving services, attending classes that will help them be successful when released into the community, and meeting with any mental health or addiction professionals that would help them be successful. My overarching goal is making sure that the people who are incarcerated are set up for the best possibility of success when they're released back into the community. I initially went to college thinking I was going to be a doctor and was a pre-med major for my first two full years, but I realized that didn't really spark a passion in me. After talking with a best friend who was in criminal justice and her mom who had worked in a jail for years, I switched my major and graduated having no idea what I was going to do with that major. I applied to be a probation officer and I loved it. The rest was history. I just fell in love with the correctional field and doing what we could to improve our communities and give people that second chance, or third chance, or 75th chance.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Kaitlin
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to just having strong women around me in the correctional field. It is a male-dominated field, however, I've been lucky enough to have several strong-willed, hardworking, self-driven women around me. They led by example, and they took me under their wing, and they taught me everything they had to know.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Some of the best career advice that I've gotten, and it was really simple, was just whenever you're put in a new role, or a new position, or even a role that you're intimidated by, to just tackle it head on, dress the part, think the part, and, you know, kind of walk the walk and talk the talk. And even if you're not confident in yourself, it instills confidence in the people around you, and that will, in turn, pour back into yourself. And, as a leader, my mantra for the people that I supervised, I always wanted them to know that they're more important than any specific role that they have. I wanted to pour into them, because they poured into the department. So any training opportunities, any way I could stretch their abilities or push them further in their career, even if that meant they left my area of oversight, I always encourage them to do that.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My advice would be don't waver in what you think is right. Make sure that you don't let your voice be unheard. Speak up in rooms, even when it's uncomfortable. And then just focus on the task at hand. Outside opinions don't matter. Your work matters.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think our biggest challenge is just turnover. Much like with any law enforcement, we have a high turnover, just because the work is extremely hard, and it oftentimes can be a thankless job. But our biggest opportunity is you get to make long-lasting improvements to your community, whether we like it or not. People who are incarcerated or supervised on supervision of whatever type with the department, they are going to be in our communities. And we need to be there to make sure they are fit to be in the community, and we ensure that they get every opportunity to be successful.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I definitely value quality time outside of work, with family, loved ones, friends, whoever it may be. Making sure that you maintain work-life balance is important, just so that you can give 100% of yourself when you're there. I believe in being a hard worker and making sure that your work is, you are doing it always to the best of your ability. And I've always said that I'm a lifelong learner. I always want to get an opportunity to train, to learn, to further my education, whether it's going to be beneficial to my career or not. I feel like once you're a stagnant learner, you're a stagnant leader.
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