Posts Tagged ‘upfront’
Posted by Rebekah Lowe / Thursday, February 23rd, 2012
Gregg Helvey’s journey from Loudoun County Public Schools to the Academy Awards and beyond
By Matt Basheda
Oscar-nominated director Gregg Helvey grew up in Northern Virginia, and graduated from Loudoun Valley High School. He even took his first film class at Monroe Technology Center in Leesburg as a teenager. His master’s thesis, a short film called “Kavi,” took him all the way to the Academy Awards. But an Oscar nomination was not the conclusion of Helvey’s goal for “Kavi.” “Kavi” is the story of a young Indian boy who is enslaved, and works at a brick kiln. Helvey is now a prominent activist in the fight to end modern-day, worldwide slavery, his website for which is kavithemovie.com. Helvey sat down to talk about how this area helped his cause, why he’s glad he didn’t study film as an undergraduate, and how everyone has the power to help shape the world.
Gregg Helvey (Photo Courtesy of Gregg Helvey)
Was it challenging to try to develop as a young director in Northern Virginia, an area not known for producing film?
“I was just having fun, so when it came to making films, they were for high school projects. … I wasn’t ever really thinking about a career in film. Creative people always find ways of being creative, regardless of where they are.”
How did your film class at vo-tech [Monroe Tech Center] help you?
“It was a good opportunity to … have fun and create … and … to learn to not worry about the results but be willing to experiment.”
You majored in French and English in college. Why did you choose these majors? Was it simply because UVA didn’t have a film program at the time?
“I studied English because I just love good stories, and I wanted to become a better writer and a better storyteller. … And as far as French goes, I spent five years learning French before I went to UVA, starting at Blue Ridge Middle School [in Purcellville] all the way through Loudoun Valley High School [in Purcellville], and it really didn’t make sense to me to give it up once I got to college after … investing all of that time in it. I continued taking French … also because I love traveling and exploring other cultures and meeting people along the way. … I got to study abroad in Paris, and teach French at a boarding school in England, and … it’s opened up doors for traveling in Tunisia and Rwanda and other African countries. And I do love meeting people and … learning people’s stories; and with a second language, I can hear even more stories and explore even more parts of the world.”
How did those majors help with your filmmaking career?
“I really value a diversity of life experiences. And that’s why I’m thankful to have not studied film during undergraduate. I think different life experiences and studying things other than film is what will make films richer. … But I’m a little torn sometimes when younger people ask for advice about going to film school right after high school, because I think it’s really important to study other things and maybe do a graduate program or something for film, because that other life experience will inform what you do.”
At what point in your life did you begin to consider professional film as a potential career?
“Basically, once I took my first film analysis course at UVA, everything clicked for me. And everything just made sense. And I loved everything that I was learning, and everything came naturally for me, and it was a great fit. … The issue was that UVA didn’t have any production courses at that time, so … that summer I applied to NYU and did their summer film production workshop. But still, film didn’t seem like a realistic option after college, because unlike most professions, there’s really no clear path to get into the film business. But I guess … everything in film is unpredictable, and … it’s a risky career path. But it can be really rewarding.”
Do you have other jobs besides film?
“I do a lot of speaking engagements, and workshops, and that’s my day job, while I’m getting my next film ready. I really enjoy … being able to share my story and my journey and hopefully encourage other people who are interested not only in film production but just following their passions and their dreams to do what they have always dreamt of doing. … I will often do a screening of “Kavi” and give a talk or a workshop based around the film that can be directly related to filmmaking or it can focus on modern-day slavery and using it as an opportunity to raise awareness, and looking at ways that we can all use our gifts to serve causes bigger than ourselves.”
You grew up in Northern Virginia, but now you live in LA, and you’re involved with the film industry—pretty different from NoVA’s lifestyle. So now when you visit, what do you think of this area?
“Yeah, it’s very different from Los Angeles, but … I enjoy this area the most in the fall and in the spring, but mostly the spring because the air is, at least out in the countryside, it’s just so sweet, and obviously you don’t get that in Los Angeles. And I grew up out in the countryside on gravel roads and kind of in the middle of nowhere, and … I really like the quiet.”
Film still: Kavi at the brick kiln where he is forced to work as a modern-day slave. (Photo courtesy Gregg Helvey)
Has Northern Virginia influenced your film at all?
“I think being close to D.C. was fundamental for me because it was the … location that made it possible for me to go work … at National Geographic Traveler magazine right after I graduated at UVA. And working at the magazine was so important because it was there that the editor I was working for, he was part of a nonprofit started to help save kids forced into sex labor in Eastern Europe, and that’s how I first learned that slavery still exists. And I was, you know, shocked to learn that, and since that moment had always wanted to tell people that slavery still exists, and that partly informed my approach to filmmaking, in terms of using stories to raise awareness, to make a difference, but also to entertain and engage people in a way that can lead them to want to make changes.”
You tend to film in exotic locations, at least in relation to the American suburbs, but would you ever consider filming here, in NoVA?
“Yeah, I would consider filming in Northern Virginia, if the story calls for it. … But … there’s always got to be a reason; it always has to be motivated. And I’m sure it’s possible to find an interesting story that ties into Northern Virginia that people may not be aware of. For me, when thinking about the films that I want to make, my priority is to tell a powerful story that takes the audience on a journey emotionally, and leaves the audience better off for having seen the film, and as long as I can still do that, then it doesn’t really matter where it’s shot.”
Have you ever run into serious danger while filming [overseas]?
“I produced a film in Kenya, and we had to have armed guards with AK-47s on set, because there was a lot of expensive film equipment. … And there was one point where we were [filming] in a small village … and we found out that there were some armed bandits heading our way, so we actually had to get armed reinforcements from another village and set up a perimeter as a deterrent. … So luckily we had a great line producer who was a local, and able to make that happen really quickly.”
Do you think “Kavi” has succeeded so far as a call to action?
“I used to think that the idea of raising awareness was a cliché until I realized that I couldn’t have even made “Kavi” without someone else raising awareness and telling me that slavery still exists. … Don’t underestimate the power of awareness, because you never know how someone else will respond and how they may take action. … “Kavi” has made a concrete difference. “One in particular is Sagar Salunke, who plays Kavi. … The Indian government … made a commitment to pay for Sagar’s education for the rest of his life. So that was a huge difference for a 12-year-old boy who didn’t have the benefit of this before. “And one of the other things is that I’ve been able to partner with International Justice Mission, which is based in Northern Virginia, and they have licensed the film, and translated and dubbed the film into three more Indian languages. And so what they’re doing … is screening it for 10,000 schoolchildren and law enforcement and local government officials all across southern India. “One other thing is that [“Kavi”] was used to help pass legislation in the California Senate requiring businesses to examine their supply chains for any elements of slavery.”
What advice do you have for kids who are currently in the same situation you once were—starting a film career from scratch in the suburbs?
“In no particular order: Work hard. Be nice. Be humble. Get a job working as a production assistant on a film set. Move to Los Angeles. Study a variety of subjects. Travel and experience the world. Watch great movies. Read great scripts. Learn how you can serve others. Make lots of short films. And learn by trial and error.”
(February 2012)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
One puzzle tab at a time, Autism Society of America’s Kymberly Deloatche looks to lock down the mystery epidemic and the solutions to its controversies.
By Renee Sklarew / Photography by Seth Freeman
Toys donated from RightStart Toys and The Help Group to give to children with autism in our area.
Returning from a field trip at the Baltimore Aquarium with 120 families dealing with autism, Kymberly Deloatche is tired. In the six months since she became executive director of the Northern Virginia chapter of the Autism Society of America (ASA-NV), Deloatche, 45, has experienced baptism by fire. Formerly a youth minister in the Catholic church, she now manages the overwhelming needs of children and adults who fall into the autism spectrum. The epidemic inspires her to seek long-term solutions. What causes this puzzling condition? How can ASA-NV meet the challenges these families face every day and in the future? Deloatche understands better than most. This mother of two from Fairfax is also raising her own child with disabilities.
Why is autism such a controversial topic, and why is there so much fear about it?
People will either know somebody or have somebody in their family who has autism, because it’s growing so rapidly. The [Center for Disease Control and Prevention] reports that currently it’s one child in 150. Interestingly, there are more boys than girls. But in the military, the preliminary numbers—no one is admitting anything yet—[are] one in 88. In Fairfax, we are one in 90; in New Jersey it’s one in 97. I believe Fairfax is because people come here for our school system. New Jersey is that way, because in my opinion, it’s a very toxic environment. All the dumping grounds—I think that that’s a huge factor. It’s a complex integration of different things. From genetics, to medical, to vaccinations with the mercury, to heavy metals in our water, in our air, in our food! When I was born in 1964, we had six vaccinations, between the ages of birth to 20. Now they have 64. Just imagine the body trying to deal with that.
Why do you think there’s such a hesitation to publish these possible links?
There’s a huge spectrum. Every individual on the spectrum is different, and they manifest it differently. It’s difficult to get consensus. Actually, that’s a factor of the brilliance of the human body. I believe it is combination of the genetic and environmental. It crosses over into medical and neurological differences. For the vaccines, some people say it’s never the vaccinations. Others say it’s the vaccinations, because my child had one, and the next day he never spoke again. How can you ignore that?
Research is starting to show there is a genetic tag, the level of the toxicity in the body at that time in that individual. [The body] gets the shots, sometimes three at a time and says, “I can’t deal with that.” Particularly because it’s in the period of 12 to 24 months where there is enormous growth of brain matter. So somehow with the compilation of the vaccine with heavy metal toxins in the water, it just clicks. Or starts to fight it off. However, the body deals with it. That’s the reason it’s hard to say what causes it, because it’s too varied. There’s no way to codify that in the scientific research yet.
So you believe that vaccines have contributed to autism?
It’s very clear that vaccinations are a cause. It’s clear that our food and our water are toxic to our children. I think the military thing [supports that]. They live in environments that nobody else lives in, like New Jersey inside a toxic waste dump. Because that’s where [the government] got land. They also go to toxic countries. Military parents get tons of vaccines to go to these places. Then they have children who get the normal vaccinations. Those kids are getting the triple dose, if you will. So I think it’s no coincidence that the military population is higher.
We’ve had autism around for a long time, and it just hadn’t been diagnosed. … A lot of adults now are being diagnosed in their 20s.
It’s a struggle to get the medical community to openly discuss the subject. Are you in a position to answer these questions?
I read like everybody else reads. My position as executive director gives me access to research. And I’m talking to families, getting their stories. Any person can see there’s a real problem out there. And it must be related to these things. Otherwise, why are clear water and supplements not found in food helping these people?
There’s some confusion over the formal name of the organization and its mission.
The Autism Society of America [ASA] is a national organization that’s 40 years old. It’s dedicated to advocacy and improving the lives of people with autism. There are four local chapters in Virginia. It’s the biggest grass-roots effort for autism. Autism Speaks is different. ASA is reorganizing to give us a more unified voice, trying to make life better for families and teach people we’re not crazy moms who can’t handle our children in the grocery store. Our children have issues that are medical and neurological.
ASA National just got Congress to pass that autism is a medical condition. This is huge for our families, because it allows insurance to pay for it. Early intervention makes an enormous difference.
Is ASA responsible for the puzzle piece logo?
ASA came up with the puzzle piece to capture the mystery of it, that is we’re all in it together. We don’t know what autism is. We don’t know what causes it. We don’t know why these children are this way.
There have been legislative breakthroughs, but are there breakthroughs that improve the quality of life for people with autism?
The biggest is … applied behavioral analysis [ABA] therapies. We have an organization called Parents of Autistic Children that trains people and parents to do ABA therapy. People with autism are very ritualistic. They need routine, so they use [routines] to teach life skills. For example, to watch your video you have to: be in a room with others, or sit still, or put your clothes on in the morning. The therapist goes into the home to work with the family and the individual. Fairfax uses ABA in the classroom now.
What are your goals for ASA-NV?
Lifespan issues. The weird thing about autism is there are so many different levels of functioning. One of our board members has a son named Ian, who is beautiful. He will sit in a chair and spin thread all day long. His dad says he’s perfectly happy doing so and couldn’t care less about you, or his family. He just spins thread. He does go to school, and they use ABA therapy to get him to go through the paces in a classroom with other people with autism at his level of functioning. Ian doesn’t talk, but he has an assistive device. He can’t really communicate except for his needs to his family. But that’s what he does, and probably what he’ll always do.
But there are others that are higher functioning. Once they graduate from school in Virginia, there’s nothing available. No supports. They love working, because imagine: They graduate to the couch to watch TV. Some adults are capable of coming in here. I had a young man working on our database. He put 300 names in with one mistake. But he can’t sit longer than 10 minutes at the computer. So we told him to work for 10 minutes, and then get up to get a snack or whatever. He also had a problem seeing people in the office, so we changed the seats to face the wall. Everybody else loved it, too. The funny thing is, what’s good for people with autism in the workplace, is often great for everybody. He took our database from 60 members to 1,600 in six weeks. With accommodations in the workplace, it is possible.
How do families deal with the challenge of raising a child with autism?
Companion care services are available, although most are not trained to deal with autism. Most aren’t paid well. Siblings pay a large price. Because siblings are familiar with that child, they are often left to care for him. Parents don’t get much time together. Families feel isolated, and they’re afraid all the time. Many families have more than one child with autism.
With increased awareness, has the incidence of autism slowed down?
There’s nothing quantifiable, but the one in 150 is leveling off. Early intervention is making a difference. But I believe it’s related to the changes in vaccinations. They stopped putting thimerasol [mercury] in vaccines, although it’s still in some flu vaccinations. Parents think they can fix this, find the right treatments. But it’s mostly false hope. There is no definable cure yet. … Many are savants masked by this behavioral dysfunction. Though imagine if we could tap into parts of the brain, into what’s going on there. What could it offer us as a species?
(April 2009)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, February 19th, 2009
When Vernice Armour first joined the Marines, she was upholding a family convention. Then, she defied all customary constraints when she struck out to establish a new first for flight.
By Forrest Glenn Spencer
Photography by Seth Freeman
Vernice Armour holds the distinction of being the first black female combat pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps. She has served two tours in Iraq as a Super Cobra attack-helicopter pilot and participated in the invasion of Iraq, the battle of Fallujah, Phantom Fury and the infamous August 2004 battle in Najaf. Today, the dynamic and engaging Stafford resident is an emerging leadership coach and speaker. Armour is demonstrating through her life lessons how individuals and organizations can enable their full potential. Her clients include Booz Allen Hamilton, IBM and SAIC. She has been featured on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” CNN, National Public Radio and by Tavis Smiley.
I understand you come from a military family.
I do. My father retired out of the Army Reserve as a major. My stepdad was a Marine: three tours in Vietnam. And my grandfather, still living in Memphis, Tenn., was a Montford Point Marine.
Montford Point Marine?
Between 1942 and 1948 the Marine Corps had a separate boot camp for black Marines. They weren’t allowed to train with white Marines, so they actually opened up a new boot camp, and that was Montford Point. It’s a pretty good story. After ’48, they closed it down, and the group of Marines who went through there is known as the Montford Point Marines.
Were they your career influence?
Actually, I wanted to be a police officer who rode a horse downtown ever since I was the age of 4. When I got to college I didn’t have much money at all, whatsoever. Then I’m walking down the hall and saw this flyer, an incentive to join the women’s ROTC rifle team. I joined the team, and I had a great time. I discovered … the military can give me a strategic advantage: the discipline, the esprit decor, the uniform and order. I felt those things [could] help me. I enlisted in the Army in that next year. I was in the Reserve.
But there was an influence in being a pilot?
When I was in school and involved in Army ROTC, I went away to leadership training in the summer of ’94 to Fort Bragg, N.C., and I saw a black woman in a flight suit, and I said, Whoa! That’s awesome! I never thought of that before. When I saw her … the image planted a positive seed. I thought I would like to do that. That’s where the desire was planted.
But you went on to become a police officer.
That’s right. I took some time off from school. I started attending police academy [in] June 1996 [with the] Nashville [police department]. I kept going to school part-time. I graduated in December 1997.
And then you headed out West?
Tempe, Ariz. I went through the police academy all over again. While I was out there, the thought of being a combat pilot was with me. So I became a Marine. I went to flight school, and it’s been an awesome ride ever since.
Why the Marines Corps?
My dad was a Marine. My granddad was a Marine. I thought it would be cool to be third generation.
And the image of the woman in the flight suit never left you. You were determined to be a combat pilot?
Absolutely. It was that power. And I really call that tangibility of the possibility. It brings something out of you. That’s why role models are so important. That’s why having a mentor is so important. We have a profound impact on other people’s lives whether we know it or not.
Helicopter pilot. Must be a short list.
I knew I wanted to fly Cobras. I was determined to be No. 1 in my class. I graduated first out of my class of 12 and the highest score of the last 200 people to graduate.
What’s the time frame?
July 13, 2001.
What a year to become a combat pilot.
I was training in California on Sept. 11. At that moment, I knew I wasn’t training to train. I was going somewhere. I was being trained to save the lives of our men and women on the ground. In less than 365 days, I found myself out in the middle of the desert.
In Kuwait?
Correct.
Why are you the first black female combat pilot?
Legislation hadn’t changed until 1993. Prior to that, women could not fly into combat. Everything was different with the next war to come around: Iraq.
What type of helicopter unit was it?
Typically, there are 27 helicopters in a squadron: 18 Cobras and nine Hueys. It’s a mixed squadron.
What was your experience overseas? What can you tell me?
It was like “Groundhog Day,” but at the same time, you never knew what was going to happen. If there’s an ambush or an attack. There were different raids all the time. The climate was a thermostat turned up all the way to broil with a blow-dryer … and sand in your face.
We were on alert, like the fire fighters in their station, waiting for something to happen. We were sitting, and if the troops got into trouble we would be called out to support them. There was a lot of solitary time. There was a lot of time to get to know each other and learn about each other. I call those times my 40 days and 40 nights in the desert. It’s a personal experience. I really learned about myself out there and what I want to contribute to the world, as a person. What I want to give back.
In terms of personal experience, did you fall under fire?
All the time. Plenty of times I came back with bullet holes.
When did you leave the service?
June 1, 2007, and my last day … on active duty was Aug. 6, 2007.
Tell me about your company.
It’s VAI Consulting and Training, LLC. I help organizations develop their leadership and teamwork and diversity best practices, which helps them with their bottom-line results and goals.
How did you choose this directive?
While I was at [Headquarters] Marine Corps, I was diversity liaison officer, and I was ordered to the Pentagon every week or every other week for different meetings on best practices. I was also attending different conferences, whether it was IT, engineering or diversity because of my field, aviation.
At those conferences I was speaking, in some cases in uniform, and I found out that people wanted to know about my experience and what I had to share and the lessons learned from those experiences. I love to speak; I believe everybody has a passion, something they love itching to get out of them. And that’s a blessing. That’s what I do now: I live my blessing.
You’re not a motivational speaker, though.
I don’t call myself a motivational speaker, but people will be motivated when they leave. I consider myself a professional speaker and a leadership expert. That’s the direction I am going in, something that is more tangible and that the employee can take back to [his] desk and pursue [his] goals.
I understand you have a book in development.
The title is “FlightPlan.” It’s basically from combat zone to home: lessons learned from work and life. It’s about the success principles for work and life—the things I learned about my life were honed in combat—and how the everyday person uses [them] in his personal and work lives.
Is the book written?
It’s in proposal form right now, and we are ready to shop it around to the publishers.
What do you do to blow off steam?
I do road biking. I love jumping on the bike and hitting the W&OD Trail or Mount Vernon or the trail outside of [Reagan National Airport], going through the monuments. There’s so much to do. Virginia offers so much in heritage and culture and tradition. It’s a great place to live.
(February 2009)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, January 8th, 2009
Comptroller General David Walker observed the country’s financial ledger for years. Now, a spiraling pattern of national debt accumulation has propelled him to the helm of a rescue committee.
By Forrest Glenn Spencer / Photography by Jonathan Timmes
For nearly 10 years, David M. Walker served as the Comptroller General of the United States and head of the General Accounting Office. Under two presidents and five Congresses, he served as the nation’s top accountant who would, in layman’s terms, review America’s financial ledger, examine assets and liabilities and report on America’s fiscal affairs. What he saw in those numbers worried him, and he began to raise the warning flag and speak out that a state of fiscal irresponsibility had permeated our nation’s leadership and was endangering our financial responsibilities.
He took his concerns to Congress, then spoke before citizens, decision-makers in the private sector, anyone who could make a change and everyone who had a stake in the developing financial crisis, one he claims can be prevented if the country acts now.
Today, Walker is president and chief executive officer of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a newly formed organization with a $1 billion war chest to address concerns pertaining to our nation’s financial sustainability.
Tell us more about the Foundation.
It’s funded almost exclusively by Peter G. Peterson, who was, among other things, secretary of commerce during the Nixon administration, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, CEO of several companies, cofounder of The Blackstone Group and also the former chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations. Pete has written a number of books and has given many, many speeches about his concern of the financial future of the country. When he hit the jackpot last year—when Blackstone went public—he immediately dedicated to commit a majority of his net worth to create this foundation and alert a fight for America’s future.
What’s the theme or warning you’re telling us?
Visually, there’s a tsunami of spending that’s rapidly approaching our shores, and we still have people partying on the beach.
When you became Comptroller of the U.S., did you see that tsunami coming?
Understand this: I had a number of positions in government, one of which as public trustee of Social Security and Medicare. I have been used to looking long range for quite awhile, long before I got into that position. At the time I came into that position we had gone from large deficits to surpluses, and while we were facing long-range challenges in regards to Social Security and Medicare, it was not nearly as great nor as immediate. Plus, we had statutory budget controls in place that served to constrain elected officials from doing dumb things. Those budgetary constraints expired in 2002, and Washington has been totally out of control since then.
What are you doing to get your message out to the public?
There’s a documentary we purchased and was in theaters, “I.O.U.S.A.,” and it’s about America’s for-budget deficit savings balance of payments/trade and the biggest deficit of all: the leadership deficit. It presents a pretty clear, compelling picture [in a] non-partisan/non-ideological fashion about where we’ve been, where we are, where we’re headed and the need for the elected officials to start making tough choices in order to avoid a major economic disruption. I am one of many people who are in the film. We also have Paul Volker and Alan Greenspan, Paul O’Neill and Bob Rubin, Warren Buffett and Pete Peterson, Alice Rivlin, Sen. [Kent] Conrad, Sen. [Larry] Craig, Ron Paul, person-on-the-street interviews, historical clips, dynamite graphics. We present a very clear and compelling picture as to why we’ve got a problem and why we need to do something about it.
Are we past the point of no return? How worried should we be?
We haven’t passed the tipping point yet. But we will pass the tipping point around 2020 if we don’t get our act together. The fact [is] that we are in a $53 trillion financial hole that gets deeper $2 to $3 trillion per year, on autopilot, with a balanced budget, and unfortunately the budget deficits are getting worse, not better. I have said publicly for a long time that we need to do two big things: acknowledge that it’s not today’s deficits and today’s debts that’s the problem. The second thing is we need a capable and credible bipartisan commission to be able to make recommendations to the next president and the next Congress for an up or down vote on at least four things: statutory budget control, comprehensive social security reform, tax reform and healthcare reform.
Besides the film, in what other mediums are you getting the word out about your concerns?
We are doing a lot of things through the Internet and through traditional media. We’re funding the Fiscal Wake-Up Tour, which is going around America, and I’ve been involved with that since 2005. We have many different things underway. We’re doing some things with particular interest to young people. We’re in discussion with a number of organizations about how we can form a partnership to be able to use media and mediums of particular interest to young people and get these messages out because they are the ones who are going to get the bill, yet they are not informed or involved as they otherwise might be. It’s important so their voice can be heard.
Where’s the leadership going to come from? The White House, Congress?
We need leadership in all sectors of our economy because it’s a problem not just in government. While the executive and legislative branches are coequal branches of government, while we need leadership from both, in the final analysis the country has only one chief executive officer, and that’s the president of the United States. We’re talking about heavy lifting here. You’ve got to be able to do that. It not only makes policy sense, but the process has integrity in order to make it politically feasible and in order to sustain that success over time.
Shifting gears: I understand you work in New York City, but still reside in Northern Virginia, and that you are a “student of history”?
I live on property that used to be owned by George Washington … in the Mount Vernon area of Alexandria. We can see the river from our backyard—better in the winter than the summer—but we can walk out our backyard and walk or jog or bike along the Potomac River. I am a history buff, and my wife is a member of the DAR [Daughters of the American Revolution], and I’m a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. Our families have been in this country a long time.
What is the attraction of history for you?
I’ve always liked to read. I’ve been that way since I was I kid. I had no idea my roots went so far in the country. My wife whose mother was in genealogy for one Father’s Day present did research on my family and traced back my family well before the Revolution. I had at least three people who fought in the Revolution on my mother’s side, [who] died during the Revolution. We’re trying to do my father’s side. My family, the Walker side, came into Virginia in the 1680s.
Were they all Virginians?
No. Take my mother’s side. Of the three who fought in the Revolution, one was Delaware, one was from North Carolina, and one was from South Carolina.
Who were the Walkers? Farmers? Industrials? Government servants?
I know back through several generations. My father was the first Walker, in modern history, to graduate from college. I’m the second. His dad was a miner. On my mother’s side, her dad was a steelworker. As you go back to the Walker side, they were farmers or ministers. We’re not the rich Walkers, like Johnny Walker or Walker Bread.
But you are the first to hold a high position in federal government?
That is correct.
And you’re speaking out.
That I am.
What has history taught you?
I’ve always believed that those who don’t study history are disadvantaged because there’s a lot to be learned from history in order to do things right and not repeat the same mistakes.
(January 2009)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, January 8th, 2009
RE/MAX associate broker Jane Quill has tracked the Northern Virginia housing market’s peaks and valleys for close to 30 years. By nature, what she brings to the table of what’s been labeled an estate crisis is something most can’t: a macro perspective.
By Forrest Glenn Spencer / Photography by Seth Freeman
Jane Quill
As the nation endures a housing market wreaked by subprime foreclosures, devalued properties, a tightening credit market and lessening home construction rates, Northern Virginia, while not Teflon-coated, has certainly weathered the subprime-mortgage crisis and subsequent housing ails better than other regions. Jane Quill is the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors’ 2008 chairman of the board of directors. She is also a full-time associate broker for RE/MAX Presidential and has represented hundreds of clients. For nearly 30 years, Quill has witnessed the cyclical changes within the region’s housing market. The recent housing crisis is one that demands our attention, but—as Quill would advise—not our panic. She insists people step back and look at the data. The outlook, she’ll tell you, is not all that bad.
Based upon the numbers we have seen so far for 2008, in comparison to the nation, how does our region perform?
From a real-estate point of view, you have to look at national trends and our market, which has remained traditionally strong. We are doing better than other areas, as a market. The numbers here are better and will always remain better. When you look at this market, it remains strong because of location. People want to be near Washington for several reasons: the government, the military. Even though we suffer from the same ills, we have suffered from the subprime crisis, we cannot call it a crisis. We are still dealing with housing weakness and a bit of credit crunch, though it’s getting better. The mortgage rates may edge up a little bit, but people do have the opportunity to lock in a fixed rate that’s very low. You have to look at the larger picture.
The news likes to report the doom and gloom, but you speak differently when looking at our economy and housing market.
People are constantly being battered by negative news. It’s like anything with a self-fulfilling prophecy: If you are constantly told it’s no good, then it’s no good … You tend to believe it simply by repetition. That is what I see happening. We’re still doing very well. We have to look at the totals.
We have to look how to make our economy perform better. Realtors, I believe, are the ones who are going to make a difference because real estate is the foundation of our economy. There’s a tremendous supply of homes. What we have here is good transportation, homes close to jobs inside and outside the Beltway, and it sort of trickles down. We have wonderful mixed-use communities that have been developed over the years, which have really been a tremendous help to our area. You have the retail, offices and people living where they work.
And what’s occurring also is developers now are looking around for infill projects. We have a good rental market in our area. There’s somewhat of a vacancy rate going on right now because people are opting more to buy instead of paying rent through their lifetimes. We have to look at the overall picture. The capital markets seem to be coming around. What I see is the cap rates are adjusting a bit because investors are going to buy property, not for the thrill of it, but for the investment. I feel very positive, in spite of the fact that it’s down realistically. We have this angry consumer, but the reality is that businesses are OK, exports are booming. I think we’re edging up, we’re turning. The 2009 market will depend upon on the confidence of the consumer.
You’ve been through other downturn markets here in the D.C. region?
This is the third down track I’ve gone through since I came here in 1979. When you’ve been around long enough, you look at things differently.
What’s the immediate game plan?
As far as housing sales, we’re trying to catch up with people who have wanted to sell, people who took their homes off the market, rented them, and now like to put them back on the market. We’re trying to absorb the foreclosures. At the same time, people are putting more and more houses on the market.
In Northern Virginia, subprimes were not widespread. It’s been a problem of foreclosure hotspots, like Manassas and Daly City.
That’s right. The subprime-loan problem is going to disappear. The upper-price homes will return to the market. We have to deal with the stigma of the declining-market surcharge by the banks. You cannot take a whole area and stigmatize it and say it’s a declining market. It’s not true. Some is true, but other parts are going up. Jumbo loans are going to be improving. We are going to have to revisit this declining-market policy. We have the [Federal Housing Administration] come into the market and become stronger. That’s going to be helpful. The economy will turn around.
Who got hit in terms of foreclosures? Can you paint a portrait?
I don’t know the statistics, but for sure it seems to have been spread throughout the market. I have a neighbor whose daughter has been living in her house for 20 years, and when the market went down, her husband—a loan officer—wasn’t doing well, things slowed down, his commission was down, and they had a foreclosure. These are people who have been in their homes for years. The other group that has been hit is the speculators.
In general, throughout the nation, California has been hit hard, certain areas of Florida; in our area, certainly Loudoun and Prince William Counties have been hit more than other areas. Then you have to look at taking the foreclosures and look at the lending policies. Any place you have low subprime mortgages, they are doing very well. That goes without saying because all real estate is very local.
Over the past 18 months, Northern Virginia home values have gone down. Is that right?
Interestingly, some homes’ values have gone up, which has been astonishing. What’s been hit hard is new-home construction, which is down. But because of the decline of average sales price, affordability of homes has gone up. We have areas where people can finally buy. That’s what’s going to help. But if you cannot afford a home, don’t buy! Be responsible.
Each year, people are coming here. These people are going to need homes. We’re going through a period where the 30-year average is 1.4 million homes per year, and we’re getting down to the million-home formation. We have to be very careful, or we will not have housing.
What I see [is] we’re shaken through a little bit with projected inflation, and I expect it to improve in 2009. We’re better off in comparison to other markets. Even if you take the foreclosure rates here, it’s like 6.9 percent, or 169 per 10,000 units. You would swear the entire nation was being foreclosed by the media. When you compare Metro areas, we’re sixth in the nation for relatively low foreclosure rates. Detroit had 500 units per 10,000. We’re not doing badly … when you look at the different counties. For example, February 2008, Fairfax County went up 173 per ten thousand, up from December 2007; in Arlington, it’s .55 percent; Alexandria, .73 percent; out in Loudoun, 276 per 10,000 units; Prince William, 552 per 10,000.
So your song for 2009 is “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”?
I am optimistic. I’m a person who wakes up every morning, and I’m optimistic. You would be surprised—being optimistic helps. This has been my best year in real estate. Realtors are working hard to turn this around. We are No. 2 for best global-investment cities, behind New York City and ahead of London. In 2006, foreign investments here were 1.6 percent. In 2007, it was 11 percent. I don’t know why we’re so hard on ourselves. We have to work together. Let’s stop talking and just get it done. I want the real-estate market to go forward, which it will. I’m happy in what I’m seeing in the marketplace.
(December 2008)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, January 8th, 2009
On the cusp of one of the most storied national elections, Tim Kaine ideates his governing tactics in light of hopes for the federal administration to come
By Sarah Markel
Tim Kaine
Like the state he governs, Tim Kaine is a man of extraordinary range. A Harvard-educated lawyer with a plain-spoken style, he is as comfortable walking the Appalachian coal fields as he is mixing with the political glitterati shimmering inside the Beltway.
Recently, he took a break from hammering out transportation issues with the Winchester Chamber of Commerce to chat with Northern Virginia Magazine about his legacy and the issues that matter most to our region.
Can we start with the rainy day fund and the budget deficit?
You know, the budget deficit … is just a reality because revenues are slow. The average revenue growth in Virginia for the last 20 years has been more than seven percent, but the revenue growth in 2008 … is only going to be about 1.8 percent, and in 2009, it may not be much higher than that. I had to reduce state spending by $300 million.
We have a very rigorous performance management system, so I tried to cut spending that was of lesser value to citizens. And I think it’s fair to say that when we made those cuts … we didn’t get a lot of squawking from citizens or legislators or others because we tried to be very targeted about the way we made those cuts.
I had to go back into the proposed budget, in February, the proposed budget for the next two years, and reduce spending by another $1.4 billion. That one was tougher, obviously, but again the legislature worked with me on it.
One of the ways we were able to manage this was through the rainy day fund. When I was elected, the rainy day fund only had $460 million in it. By the end of last year, it had grown to about $1.3 billion because we’ve been having a good string of years.
The legislature agreed to do about a $400 million withdrawal as part of our strategy for dealing with revenue shortfall. So, after the withdrawal, the amount will still be nearly a billion dollars, more than twice as big when I started. Now, since the revenue picture continues to be cloudy, it could well be the case that we’ll have to consider the fund again, but for now, we’re in good shape on the balance in the fund, and we have been able to make the first two rounds of cuts in ways that I don’t think will critically impact services to citizens.
What about universal preschool? Can you talk about what’s holding that up?
Well, actually, it’s moving forward in a good way. Again, with revenues being tight there was a debate this year. I proposed a big expansion to pre-K for 4-year-olds. We were serving about one in eight Virginia 4-year-olds, and I wanted to serve a lot more. I put in a budget proposal this year to significantly expand services to at-risk 4-year-olds.
The legislature saw my original and said, ‘It’s a bad idea,’ but at the end of the day, the budget that we got approved included about a $25 million expansion in the current program.
I think the debate about whether we should do it is over. Now the debate is how quickly we can expand the program, but the legislature in a bipartisan way got on board and said, ‘You’re right, this is an important priority.’
Under a new administration, what sort of federal policies do you hope to see for Northern Virginians?
The congestion issues in Northern Virginia are so challenging and tough, and they’ve gone unaddressed for a very long time. I think that the federal government has got to do an awful lot of work in the public transit and transportation area.
I’ve been working pretty well with Secretary Harry Peters, the current secretary of transportation, on innovative financing and transportation infrastructure, so we’re working on rail to Dulles, HOT lanes on the Beltway, HOT lanes on Interstate 95 down to Fredericksburg; those are projects that we have worked on in a very cooperative way with federal transportation officials.
But Secretary Peters continues to talk about the fact that the federal transportation revenues are very tight, and that there’s going to have to be some real attention to what is the right level of infrastructure investment in the next administration, and that is probably the one thing that the federal government can do that would be most helpful to Northern Virginia.
You were one of Barack Obama’s earliest and most enthusiastic supporters. What do you think Virginians need to know about Barack Obama?
Well, you know, first, I do think Virginia is truly competitive in presidential politics for the first time in years, and the polls will show that.
I’m not sure I’ve ever dealt with anyone who has as clear a sense of who he is and as calm a demeanor in dealing with challenges. I’ve never seen him, when things are going great, really excited. I’ve never seen him despondent when things are going badly.
I’m impressed by his intelligence, but also just the degree of calm with which he approaches every challenge. I think that’s a character trait that is enormously valuable in a president.
I also think he is truly a unifying figure at a time when our nation needs it. His natural instinct to everything is just, ‘Who can I get to work together to solve this?’
We have such big challenges, the energy crisis, the economy, dealing with two wars and relations with other nations in the world, that that attitude is what the next president needs to have.
How did you feel when he started his campaign in Virginia?
Oh, ecstatic. For a Democrat to begin their campaign in Virginia is beyond my wildest dreams.
What about your legacy? What is your dream for Virginia?
Well, before I was sworn in, I adopted a set of areas in which I wanted to make significant impact: education, health care, transportation and the environment. I kind of picked some issues in each of those areas in which I wanted to make some advances.
In the environment, for example, we put about three-quarters of a billion dollars into Chesapeake Bay cleanup, and we are on a very ambitious agenda to preserve 400,000 acres of open space during my time as governor, and we’re well on the way there.
We put together an energy policy for the first time, trying to deal with climate change issues … We’ve dramatically expanded service to low-income individuals through free clinics, through Medicaid enhancements for expecting mothers, and we’ve also expanded nursing and physician education in the Commonwealth so that we can have more people, particularly in areas that are poorly served.
We also reformed the state mental health system this year in the aftermath of Virginia Tech—dramatically greater funding for community mental health services.
Are we ahead of the curve on that?
Well, I would say we caught up with the curve. We were way behind the curve.
A lot of people were very impressed with how you reacted after the Virginia Tech shooting. Can you comment on how you knew how to respond?
I learned while I was mayor of Richmond that when there are community crises—even though sometimes, I mean, what can you say?—there’s no magic way to undo the pain people feel. But when there’s a community crisis, people want to have their leader there.
The aftermath of that, working with family members of the victims to reform the state’s mental health laws, will probably be—long after I’m governor—the thing that I’ll remember the most.
(November 2008)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, January 8th, 2009
The spirits first moved John Warfield in early childhood. Today, as senior paranormal investigator of the DC Metro Area Ghost Watchers, he’s come to serve the region as resident chief specter sensor.
By Forrest Glenn Spencer Photography by Jonathan Timmes
John Warfield
For more than six years, the Washington DC Metro Area Ghost Watchers group (DCMAG) has investigated the region’s paranormal activity, ranging from ghosts, electronic voice phenomena (EVP), poltergeists and other unexplained goings-on.
John Warfield, senior investigator and chief of operations for DCMAG, recently replaced founder Al Tyas as team leader. Since 2002, their group has conducted more than 100 official investigations. Many occurrences have been debunked—but this paranormal collaborative operation has collected evidence that cannot easily be explained away.
How did you get involved with paranormal investigations?
When I was a child I experienced my own paranormal activity. I lived in Lansdowne, not too far outside of Baltimore, and we lived in a house that I believed to be haunted. The cat would inspect things that weren’t there. We constantly heard banging noises in the basement, like a hammer. When you [would] go to the top of the basement stairs it would stop, and when you [would] go back upstairs, it would start again. One night we heard a giant crash in the basement. It sounded like glass breaking everywhere. But when we went downstairs there was nothing there.
That was some of the activity in our house that was unexplainable. That was the only time I had [that] kind of experience until I joined DCMAG about a year ago.
How did you become team leader?
When I retired from the military I wanted to get back into something I was really interested in, and paranormal activity always held that, so I called DCMAG, which was run by Al, and he said he was retiring and wanted to turn the team over to somebody. With my 20 years of leadership in the military, he gave it to me.
What are some of the paranormally active places in NoVA?
There’s a place called The Christmas Attic in Alexandria that’s pretty haunted and an old movie theater there that’s haunted. There are private residence cases or other businesses known for haunting. The Carlyle House is another; it seems everything in Alexandria is haunted.
At The Christmas Attic we picked up some EVP’s, and I had my hair pulled there, which was one of the constant complaints by people there. We reviewed the EVP, and there was definitely something with us at the time.
Tell me about your team.
Constantly varies. There are five of us right now; I’m trying to pick up a few new members because it’s going into the active season again. It seems everybody has paranormal activity around Halloween. I get tons of calls then. Some are legitimate; some are nothing at all. We get about four to five calls per month.
You’re affiliated with The Atlantic Paranormal Society [TAPS], the group who produces “Ghost Hunters” on the SciFi Channel. Have you ever met TAPS leaders Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson?
I haven’t met Jason and Grant. Al is close friends with Jason and Grant. They called me in December and asked if they could do some investigations up here, and I said that wouldn’t be a problem, but apparently it conflicted with some of the things the producers wanted, so it never really happened. I’m sure we’ll meet up. They’re doing bigger and better things, and we’re doing our own thing now.
I have worked with [ghost hunter] Barry Fitzgerald from Ireland. He’s on the show at times. I’ve met him, and he’s sort me out on the things he has learned over his 15 years in paranormal research. He’s helped me out quite a bit.
Describe your investigative equipment.
We don’t have a fully equipment van like TAPS, but I think our equipment is a little bit better than theirs. We have a closed-circuit television system that’s basically a DVR and eight different cameras. We’ve got four Sony infrared cameras and four bullet cameras. They’re a little bit smaller, but they can get into the smaller rooms better than the bigger cameras. We have eight cameras we can watch on one computer monitor. We also have a digital thermometer, a Pyrometer. We got an Air Ion Counter—it measures the amount of positive and negative ions in the air—an AC-EMF and a trifield EMF detector.
Why are paranormal investigations conducted at night?
From my research and theories, most activity is going to occur at night, for the same reason only stars come out at night: The power of the sun overwhelms the energy the spirits need to manifest themselves.
What’s your professional background?
I’m retired military. I’m actually an occupational therapist on the side, and I work just enough hours to buy equipment for the team. I try to do this full time, if I can. I work two to three days a week, but I’m also in culinary arts schools. I’m not married; I’m a single parent with an 11-year-old daughter.
Your team—what do they do for a living?
Margaret is an instructor at a Northern Virginia Community College. She has a doctorate in Internet security sciences. We also have Kim, who’s a professional photographer. We have Spencer, another photographer, but he’s more into the investigations than evidence review and analysis. We had a couple of new people on the team. We have Terri, and she’s an assistant team leader. She’s working on her degree for psychology and social work.
Describe an investigative setup.
Eight cameras running eight hours, so that’s up to 64 hours’ worth of video—and that doesn’t include the handheld videos we may take. EVP’s: half-hour to an hour. One of the theories is that, for every minute of audio or video, it takes 10 minutes to review. During the investigation we’ll have one to two people sit down on the B monitor. Anything they see, they can flag. That makes it easier for us.
From what era do our area’s paranormals derive from?
Majority comes from the Civil War era. Females don’t tend to show themselves. Male entities are not afraid to appear.
Have you ever investigated a battlefield?
We’ve been asked to the Manassas Battlefield. We have to figure out how to do that in the future.
Do you get many demonic calls?
We do, actually. I’d say one or two every three months. We recently had one with a lady in her house who heard growling noises. She had an iron thrown at her head. She’s actually scared; she hasn’t called us back for us to investigate that.
You said Alexandria is very active—any interesting cases that come to mind?
In one case, we found a body in the basement. It was a Civil War soldier, his bones. We called in the police, and they reviewed it, saw no foul play and left it up to us. We called the historical society, and they took care of it. The owner knew there were bones in the basement, but she thought it was a dead dog or something.
I understand most hauntings are non-threatening.
We had one case where the couple thought they had a demonic spirit in their house. I asked what happened, and they told me they had just a baby and that, when the baby came to the house, the ghost kept turning on the gas, trying to kill them. So we did an investigation, and we found out an old lady had been killed in that house. We interviewed neighbors about her, and they told us she was a wonderful woman, very friendly. And I was thinking, Why is she trying to kill a family? That doesn’t make sense. So we ended up talking to the ghost and told her that there’s a new baby in the house and that turning on the gas is very dangerous for them. The latest we’ve heard from the family is that hasn’t happened since. One of the theories was that she was trying to help out in the cooking … with the new baby in the house. It’s just a theory, but they’ve had no problems since.
How long do you plan to continue with the investigations?
This is something I want to do the rest of my life. It is a lot of fun, and we are helping people. That’s the best part of it.
(October 2008)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, January 8th, 2009
At the helm of the Center for Excellence, president Joann DiGennaro endeavors to turn America’s heads of the class in the direction of far-reaching top achievements.
By Forrest Glenn Spencer / Photography by Seth Freeman
Joann DiGennaro
Every generation produces a group of young men and women who are the best and the brightest. Some of them are recognized for their endeavors as students who shine in such studies as mathematics, engineering and the sciences. In the competitive global market of our world, it has become essential to not only recognize these talented students, but to encourage them, to give them the proper education required to foster their greatest potential.
Here in Northern Virginia is an organization that strives to give these students the opportunities to excel. For 25 years, the Center for Excellence in Education has sought to nurture students’ budding careers of excellence and leadership. The organization was co-founded by the late Adm. Hyman George Rickover, father of the Nuclear Navy, and Joann DiGennaro, who serves as the Center’s current president.
DiGennaro’s been the guiding force in ensuring that the United States makes the necessary investments in its educational programs, that no child, no student—even the brightest of the best—is left behind, and that our nation’s technological advancements remain strong, innovative and competitive.
Who are the students you serve?
We’re the only U.S. organization left that works with the most academically achieving students in the U.S. and aboard in providing, which we jointly sponsor with MIT, for 80 students—50 from the U.S. and 30 international students; almost 2,000 alumni. We work with them from when they go through that summer program between their third and fourth years of high school, and we work with them eight to ten years at no cost to them throughout their undergraduate and graduate studies.
There were other organizations that did similar programs, but they’re all gone because the government quit funding any programs for the achieving students unless they were targeted to underrepresented populations. We have been most fortunate because our donors have been mostly from the private sector—many from corporations with sites right here in Northern Virginia, and many tied to the high-tech industry or to the [Department of Defense].
You’re an organization that has been recognized internationally.
Our program is so renowned that international countries stand in line to have their students accepted to the program. We were the first organization approached by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in China to have its high-school students to come to. We were also the first to receive high-school students from the Baltic and Balkan nations, India and Vietnam. We pride ourselves in having worked with 51 nations to date.
Tell me about the USA Biology Olympiad and Research Science Institute.
Five years ago, we began sponsoring USA Biology Olympiad. It was the only Olympiad that wasn’t sponsored in the United States. International Academic Olympiads started in Central Europe, and the U.S. had teams in all of them, except biology. We knew that certainly it was important to have a program for students throughout the nation to raise the bar of excellence in biology and to help teachers, particularly rural and urban schools, and now that program has grown over 10 percent a year. We were up to nearly 10,000 U.S. students participating this year.
It [consists of] two rounds online, and then the teams narrow it down, and we select 20 high-achieving students to come to George Mason University, where we have the national finals. Then, Team USA is selected to represent our nation at the International Olympiad. Last year we were so proud when Team USA was awarded four gold medals; even more important, we were named No. 1 team in the world for theoretical and lab scores, edging out China by five-tenths of one percent. China, India and Singapore tend to take many of the medals.
Our Research Science Institute has more awardees and winners in two prestigious high school competitions: Siemens and Intel competitions. What’s important is those awards are $100,000 scholarships, because all our students are from middle-class families—over 92 percent are attending public schools, and we have a goodly number of females in that pool.
Does our government nurture these gifted students, or seek them out?
It’s the dirty little secret that while so much is expended—federal, state and local monies for education—in the 2006 federal education budget, only less than $10 million was allocated for gifted education, which is a fraction of a penny for every dollar spent. Programs cut across the nation are cut from gifted-and-talented budgets simply because of the politics involved.
We have to continue to bring up those less advantaged students and those with less opportunities and underrepresented populations. So where do the cuts occur? To the smallest group being served, and that’s the most precocious, gifted and talented—what Johns Hopkins would say is one in 10,000 students.
That’s rather sad.
We will never have as many engineers as China and India, but we know we have to work harder and longer in this nation. The concern is—as studies show—that half to two-thirds Ph.D.s awarded in this country will be to foreign-born. We know that if the number of engineers is going down in this country, we need to work on it. Engineers are the engines of innovation.
But in this past year, the president proposed more for K-12 science-engineering education, and it was passed by both chambers of Congress—the Senate, unanimously. But when it came time to fund it, there were 12,000 earmarks and no money going to the America COMPETES (Creating Opportunities To Meaningfully Promote Excellence In Technology, Education, And Science) Act.
With gifted and talented, we know they produce more than 50 percent of the Ph.D.s in the country each year. If you’re going to work smart, it would seem you would give a little extra attention to the most achieving students, to nurture them, to push them a bit, to hold them in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers. Certainly our government is crying out for professionals in STEMs. Our companies are crying out and hiring more and more those who are not U.S. citizens.
We have a major problem now to help our nation to compete and to encourage international collaborations amongst the best scholars in the world, and we do that from a little office in Northern Virginia.
Has your advice been sought by government or the media?
It has been increasing over the last couple of years. I’ve testified before Congress. Just this past year, I wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post and have been quoted about international competitiveness in US News & World Report. I am delighted in providing information simply because I’ve given my life to talking about the importance and working with it, and I have a dedicated staff and volunteers and wonderful corporate support and some government support for our programs that I am constantly raising funds for.
Your hopes for the next president?
To the candidates this year, I would say, Let us fund the America COMPETES Act. One issue that is important and lacking in funds is substantive research that is creditable and reliable and not done by political pundits or think tanks with agendas.
How do some of the states approach gifted students?
Up and down. California was a forwarder years ago. They still have some good programs. In Virginia, we’ve got a number of the magnet schools in the nation, like Thomas Jefferson High School. People don’t realize that the federal government is not the linchpin for education in our nation. We have been unique in the world for local control. One of the predominant issues that smacks of the autonomy of states’ control is that we need standards for excellence across the board and states to come together and say, ‘We cannot dumb down our standards.’
(September 2008)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, January 8th, 2009
Having kept one of closest watches on the region’s past 12 years of business trends, WBJ publisher Alex Orfinger speaks to recent NoVa business booms—and their potential aftermath.
By Forrest Glenn Spencer / Photography by Seth Freeman
Alex Orfinger
Alex Orfinger is the publisher of the Washington Business Journal, where he started at the time of the longterm economic boom that is ongoing in our region. Orfinger, who previously served at sister publications in Dallas and Atlanta, was born in New York and holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Vassar College. He later earned his master’s in international affairs from Georgetown University, then joined the Atlanta Business Chronicle in 1991.
Returning to Washington, D.C., five years later, he has since turned the Washington Business Journal into the primary chronicler of our area’s economic growth and prosperity. Through his guidance and leadership, Alex Orfinger created one of the most respected business newspapers in the country. His story is our story.
What you have witnessed, what’s transpired, regarding the state of business in Northern Virginia?
I started at the Washington Business Journal in 1996, almost 12 years ago. When I look back, it was almost the genesis of the most recent technology boom. That’s when Northern Virginia really began to identify itself as a center for innovative technology, separate from the Pentagon that was spawning all types of startup businesses, which grew into fairly substantial technology companies, with AOL being the highlight.
But the landscape is very different than it was 12 years ago, and we are certainly looked upon throughout the country as one of the top centers for innovation and for business.
Who’s to be congratulated for that? Was it happenstance, or was it good government?
I think there was a great confluence of many factors: the changes in government procurement policies that led to a significant amount of outsourcing of businesses in the 1990s, a great environment for business created by governments and a great educational system. Greater Washington became a good place for people to come who were highly educated and highly motivated.
Who are the stars, the companies today in Northern Virginia that you are impressed by?
That’s a great question. When you look down our list of companies, I tend to look at fast-growing businesses, because it’s easier for us to look at the great, large businesses in the region, like Capital One, Lockheed Martin, Marriott—those are great companies—Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—who have workforces that number in the thousands—Booz Allen, BearingPoint.
But I think the fun companies to look at, and the companies that will make their mark down the line in terms of hiring people, are the fast-growing companies, which is anybody from an XM Satellite in D.C. to companies like Celerity, MicroStrategy, Comstock Homes in Reston, Hire-Strategy also in Reston. They have grown rather quickly the last couple of years. There is Braxis, a fast-growing company in McLean that’s making its mark in the government contracting business. Orbital Technologies has been in the news a lot.
There are dozens of companies. It’s hard for me as a publisher of a newspaper that tries to represent so many of the businesses throughout the region to point to individual companies. There are dozens and dozens of companies in the medium-sized, small-business niche that really we should be focusing on because they are the ones that will grow into the AOL’s, the MicroStrategy’s, the Booz Allens and hire a lot of people and create the wealth in the region.
What are the dangers of an economic slowdown?
Transportation, education and affordable housing would be the top three that come to mind. Transportation: Businesses are facing increased costs of getting their products and services around the region—that’s number one—and for their employees to have easy access to their offices.
It’s unfortunate that we have employees who have to commute and that we have some of the largest commutes in the nation, which is tied into the issue in creating opportunities for affordable workforce housing so people can work closer to their homes. It’s not about affordable housing for the lowest-paid employees on staff, but when you think average workers, middle managers in a company, their ability to live 30 minutes from their business, say in Arlington, it’s really a challenge.
It’s an issue we need to tackle as a region: How are we going to create transportation opportunities for our employees, or how are we going to create new places for businesses to grow and expand as close as where people are living?
Are we on a clock where we may lose the momentum unless we change?
It’s a slow-moving train. I hate using that analogy, but the forecasts are, I believe, that there will be a million more people here by 2020. We’re fortunate as a region that we are a magnet for people from all over the country and all over the world—that people want to live, work and play in greater Washington. It’s a great place to do business and to live; it’s attracting people. If we have exactly the same infrastructure now in 15 years then we may destroy that great place to live.
Political, business and civic leaders need to be aggressive and take some leadership and say, ‘We need to get certain things done. We need to get the rail to Dulles done. We need to get other transportation initiatives deep into the planning and get them done. We need to be willing to take the initiative to make these things to happen.’
When we lose an AOL, we’re still strong, as an economic region.
We do have a large, integrated, local economy that’s not dependent upon one particular industry. We do have a lot of flexibility. So when we lose these companies, it doesn’t necessarily cause a material impact.
Clearly, I think we have great pride for ourselves as a region in having some of these businesses headquartered here, but what we want is to have the lowest unemployment rate, to continue to add jobs, to be this job machine that we have been for the last 10 years where we’ve been adding jobs. Other regions across the country have been seeing slowdown in their job growth, or even negative job growth, but we have seen positive job growth.
What changes did you implement at the Business Journal back in 1996?
Back in the early ‘90s we were really a news organization that focused predominately on the real estate community. But our coverage now is much more diversified. We have award-winning technology coverage, great venture capital coverage; we continue real estate, obviously, biotechnology, federal government contracting, hospitality and retail. When you look through the pages of our paper it really does represent what the region’s businesses care about.
Number two: One of the central tenets of the Business Journal is to be a force and pull the business community together and create a community, a center for the business community to feel a part of. That wasn’t part of our initial mission. There are regional business organizations. We thought we could be one of those regional business groups. We saw ourselves as a paper for the business community. We wanted them to see their names and their pictures, names of their competitors and friends in the pages of our newspaper.
Newspapers have lost subscribers due to the Internet. How about the Business Journal?
We have seen exactly the opposite. 2007 was the fastest year of circulation growth. We grew by over three and a half percent. It was our fourth consecutive year in our paid circulation. We have seen great increases in our web operation. We saw a nearly 50-percent increase in our web traffic last year. Our parent company owns 41 papers like this around the country, and it’s the same story: three-percent growth nationally in readership.
Any recommendation to the leaders of our region?
If I were to make recommendations to our local business and government leaders it would be to make sure we continue creating and fostering the type of environment that is conducive in starting up and growing in the region, and in Northern Virginia in particular.
(June/July 2008)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, January 8th, 2009
If you think globally, and act locally, the chances are pretty good that you have already met the feather in the hat of the Women’s Foundation
By Forrest Glenn Spencer / Photography by Seth Freeman
Deborah Gandy
Who would you trust with your personal fortune? She would have to be a person with impeccable character and integrity, someone you knew gave excellent investment advice. You would recognize her deep intellect, but find her gracious during business dealings.
This is Deborah Gandy, 53, of Great Falls, the director of Citi Private Bank, where she manages clients whose wealth exceeds $25 million. Now, she’s turning her talents to chairing the Washington Area Women’s Foundation.
A single mother of two grown children, Gandy leads the region’s philanthropic causes on many national and local stages—from DC Cares to Goodwill Industries to her position as vice chair of Arlington’s Signature Theatre.
What are your roots in philanthropy?
It actually started when I was young. My mom always believed in giving back. Most of that came through the church. I am Episcopalian, and our church was very reactive in the elderly community. Things like Meals On Wheels. It was a big deal to be in the church, prepare meals, deliver meals out. So watching her do things like that made giving back start very young.
Your mom is very important influence in your life?
She believed in the importance of the tithe, which is to give 10 percent of your earnings to the church, and that you never, ever look down on anyone. She was always very kind to people. When we would go places, it didn’t matter whether it was the bellhop or the hotel manager, she always had a kind word for everyone. She would say to me, ‘Never look down on anyone, and don’t discount anyone. Everyone has a place and a value.’
What was the most meaningful time you had in your years as a community servant?
You may remember years ago, when there were African-American churches that seemed to mysteriously burn down in the Deep South. There was a mission to go to rebuild some of those churches, and I chose to go down. Places like Alabama and Mississippi that, growing up as an African-American, you always hear are very prejudicial. Plus, there were rumors that the burnings had been racially motivated. But I just knew I needed to rebuild those churches.
So I went down with 20 other members of my church.
Those two weeks were unbelievable for me, living in meager means; a military barrack with a mess hall. Everyone came together; I met some of the most wonderful people in the world.
That prejudicial image I had was gone. It was also a point in my life when I realized you can really make a difference in somebody’s life by taking action.
How did you personally first become involved with the Women’s Foundation?
In 2000, the president of the Women’s Foundation came to me when I worked at U.S. Trust. She told me about some of the things the Foundation was doing.
I was unbelievably intrigued by the powerful impact this organization was having, changing the lives of women and girls in this area. When I looked at the milestones they had achieved and their goals, it wasn’t conceivable to me that you could do that without an army of people.
What I found was a workhorse and a very lean organization. Their formula was partnering with not-for-profits who had the same goals as the Women’s Foundation.
Our focus is on women and girls who basically live below the poverty line, and doing what’s necessary to raise them up above the poverty line. We have 100 not-for-profit grantee partners that we work with in order to accomplish that mission.
Currently, you serve as the organization’s chair?
It was an easy yes. At first, it was being part of a luncheon for women in the region, giving them an update on the state of women and girls in the area, and to bring an inspirational message.
One thing in the research that is very clear, when you invest in women and girls, you really are investing in improving that community, raising that community up.
The second part of what we do is teaching philanthropy. Washington is an area of great wealth, but the shocking discovery of our 2003 research was that 30 percent of women-headed households in the region are below the poverty line. That’s one in every 10 girls living below the poverty line here. You find yourself saying, How can we be in such means and have that statistic in our area?
How is the Women’s Foundation different?
We focus and invest resources into women and girls in the community. At our 2001 luncheon, we had 250 people in the room. In 2007, we had 1,500. Ten years ago, our first grants were $30,000, and now we’re giving back over a million.
The Women’s Foundation offers the opportunity to get involved in whatever level is best for them. Philanthropy can be time and talent, where you can volunteer with a grantee partner.
Or you can write a check that says, ‘Your message has touched me.’ You can do both, which a lot of women have chosen to do.
It is a way of getting women leaders together—not just business women, but women who are philanthropic, to give back to their community.
Are there any community men involved?
Yes, we call them ‘men who get it.’ There are men who say, ‘We’re interested in giving back to the Women’s Foundation because we have daughters, and we want them to understand the importance of philanthropy.’ They understand the value of a woman’s strength.
Do you feel that the citizens of this particular region, Northern Virginians, are unusually charitable?
Absolutely. I live in Great Falls. There is significant wealth in Northern Virginia, but unfortunately there’s also poverty.
We have grantee partners in Northern Virginia with efforts directed at single women-headed households. Doorways in Arlington is a program that focuses on financial independence, teaching women to save, budget and get out of debt. Northern Virginia Family Service’s (program) Training Futures helps women in dead-end jobs. They provide job training to increase wages and give women greater confidence in their skills. It has a high success rate. A waitress making five bucks an hour, not enough to pay rent or put food on the table, went through the program and came out with a job paying $60,000 a year.
Would you say that the Women’s Foundation keeps a low regional profile?
Getting the message out is critically important to us. If there is a woman in need, we want to be there.
Poverty doesn’t know district lines. We pay attention to the Asian and Latino communities. There is a huge need in Loudoun County and parts of Fairfax and Arlington. We look for grantee partners that reach the need.
How do you believe your children to view your active involvement in philanthropy?
You’re not always sure that what you say resonates. But it’s not by word, it’s by doing. My kids saw me volunteering. They know about giving back to my church.
This year I said, You don’t need anything for Christmas. So what you were going to get, let’s give to a child in need.
I don’t get any back talk. They understand, and they do their own research for their gifts.
They get that from the home. Our generation has done a great job preparing the next generation for giving back, and the schools are helping by requiring community service.
How do you strive to strike a healthy balance with your home life and your career?
You only have that child for 18 years. That’s a short span, and it’s your responsibility to mold, craft, to do your part in raising that child by staying involved in their education, getting involved in their activities, helping them volunteer in their community.
I made a commitment to my kids that I would be at the dinner table at least three nights each week. You have to talk to them and engage them while you’re at the table.
Being a single mom, we were trying to be in many places at the same time. People asked me, ‘How do you do it?’
You just do what’s necessary for your children. Technology gives you more flexibility. Your weekends are your kids, and you can’t forget the fun. There’s no manual out there. It’s hindsight, but so far things are going well.
(May 2008)