Dr. Megan Pekol-Evans, DBA, MBA

I attribute my success to maintaining balance and putting my family first, even while serving in the demanding environment of the Army. Early in my career as a first lieutenant, I worked as an aide-de-camp for a one-star general who had seven children, and he taught me a life-changing lesson. He told me to never not put my family first, because the Army will take everything from you, and then it will end and they will replace you so fast. That impacted me profoundly. From 2012 onward, I have always kept all my kids' activities on my calendar, and I make it to their events whenever possible. I coach my kids, I volunteer with my older son's scout troop, and I am becoming a den leader for my younger son's Cub Scouts. My husband and three children are my life. Everything I have done, including earning my doctorate, has been for them. I want to be able to provide a nice life for them and show my daughter, who has been with me throughout my entire Army career since I got pregnant with her at the end of college, that achievement is very achievable. I had her clicking my slides during my dissertation defense in November because I wanted her to be part of it and see what she can be one day. The Army wants to be your number one priority, but I have tried my whole career to say the hell with that, because my family will always be my number one priority.

The best career advice I ever received came from a one-star general I worked for as a first lieutenant when I was his aide-de-camp. He was in charge of all of air defense, and he had seven children with his wife, who was former active duty and homeschooled all their kids. Despite being a general officer with all the demands and deployments that came with it, he maintained a wonderful relationship with his family and always put them first. He had me run his calendar, and all the kids' activities were on it. If he could go to something, he would go. He told me directly: don't you ever not put them first, because the Army will take everything from you, and then it will end, and they will replace you so fast. That advice was so influential because here was this general officer telling me that early in my career. It reminded me that even though I already loved my family and loved being around them, I needed to actively prioritize them. From then on, I always did that, and I still do it today.

When you come into the Army as an officer, you need to balance confidence with humility. You start off as a young lieutenant, but you are already a leader. You get a lot of leadership training throughout college, but you are really learning how to be competent in both leadership and whatever branch you are in. You need to go in there, know what you know, be humble enough to know what you don't know, and be able to show that you can learn but also that you can lead as well. It can be hard because you do not want to be a joke. You are this young lieutenant in charge of people in their twenties through thirties, so you have to be able to assert that you can do this, that you are a leader, but also that you are here to be with them as a team and you are here to learn. It is an interesting balance. As you continue on, you build more competence, and the Army is very good at doing that for officers. It is an augment of going to school to learn how to do the job, but then also getting a lot of experiential knowledge by doing. You learn by doing throughout your career. Coming into the military, you want to be motivated, but you also need to recognize that you have a lot to learn, so you need to be open to learning. Be excited and confident, but acknowledge that you have a lot to learn.

One of the biggest challenges I face in my field is balancing family priorities with the demands of Army service, including deployments and long hours. At the same time, I see strong opportunities for growth through selection for higher command and leadership roles within acquisition, as well as leveraging my advanced business research and DBA background in business intelligence to pursue senior leadership or academic career paths.

The most important value to me is balance, and specifically putting family first. I am a mom of three children, and I am married to my best friend. We have been together since 2007, so we have been together a long time. He and the kids are my life. I love the Army, and I love that I got a doctorate, but everything I have really done is for them. I want to be able to provide a nice life for them. My daughter has been with me throughout my whole Army career since I got pregnant with her right at the end of college, and she is getting older now. I had her clicking my slides during my dissertation defense because I wanted her to be part of it so she can see how it goes and see what she can be one day, and see that it is very achievable. They are my number one priority and always will be. The Army is very hard to balance that with because the Army wants to be your number one priority, but what I have really tried to do my whole career is put my family first. I was taught that by a general officer early in my career, and it has stuck with me. I keep all my kids' activities on my calendar, I coach them, I volunteer with their scout troops, and I make time to be with them and put them as a priority. Just finding time to be with them and do anything they do, whether it is sports or other activities, is what matters most. We also go camping together as a family. They are my number one, and if I were to say what is most important, it is just being with them.