Her Story
About Terra
Terra Thrash serves as a business strategy and planning manager at USAA in the Member Value organization, where she is currently standing up the Enterprise Complaints Program. She joined USAA in 2010 as a mortgage processor after five and a half years of active duty in the Air Force as a security forces member and advanced through roles including senior mortgage processor and technical project manager before moving to San Antonio to take on her current position. Thrash earned a degree in criminology and criminal justice from Arizona State University and an MBA from Grand Canyon University. She holds a PMLG Project Management Certification, is a ProSci Change Practitioner, and has completed Safe Scaled Agile for Product Managers training as well as a three-month eCornell product management certification. Her strengths include program project management and bringing stakeholders together, and she attributes her success to being a workaholic who puts herself out there, takes accountability, acts as a team player, and leads as a servant leader. Outside of work, she coaches competitive cheer and owns a tumbling business teaching gymnastics to children ages three and up. During her military service, she received an Achievement Medal and an Accommodation Medal.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Terra
01What do you attribute your success to?
Other than being a workaholic, I put myself out there. I'm not afraid to fail. I take accountability if it's right, and I take accountability if it's wrong. I'm a team player, so whatever it takes for the team to succeed, that's what I'm gonna do. And I think when it comes to leadership, I'm a servant leader. I want people to be happy at the end of the day doing what it is that they do.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice that I have ever received I would say don't sell myself short. Advocate for myself. Nobody's gonna advocate for you more than you.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say that it's not, I guess it's cliche, but to never stop trying. Like, there's gonna be time where the answer is no, or and it can't you can't take the answer of being no, meaning no forever. You have to look at it as it might be a no right now, because there's a yes somewhere else for what's right now. Don't be defeated by not getting in the door that you thought that you wanted, because there's an open door somewhere else.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think the challenge is that, we move at a fast pace often, so whenever you're moving fast. Last year, giving quantity versus quality work. I'm not saying we're not doing quality work, of course we're doing quality work, but things miss when you're moving too fast too soon. And so, also, while some departments may have it down, their processes, they've been established, so they have a good work-life balance. It's hard to have a good work-life balance when you're standing up a program.
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