She Boss with Kim Hanson
Megan: I am so excited about today’s Sheboss for a variety of reasons, but we are joined by Kim Hanson, who is the Deputy Director, Public and Congressional Affairs for the US Army Materiel Command. So we are here today at AMC on the arsenal. And for those of you who don’t know what AMC is, we’ll talk about that a little bit. But thank you so much for joining.
Kim: Truly a pleasure to be here. I am very excited. I have been watching these programs for quite some time, so I am very honored to be sitting in the chair today.
Megan: I love that. So, Kim and I go way back. We’re actually very dear friends, but also happen to work in the same circles here in Huntsville, so excited to be chatting with you. We could spend three hours talking with Kim just based on her decorated career; we could spend three hours talking with you about your running career, which we will talk about a little bit, but I want to be very mindful of that, so let’s just dive right in and honestly talk to us a little bit about AMC. I think a lot of people here, we’re based in the Rock City in Huntsville, and AMC has a massive presence in this town, but a lot of people may not realize how in depth AMC goes and all the aspects it touches with our nation’s military. So tell us a little bit about that.
Kim: Yeah, absolutely. So Army Materiel Command is one of four army commands, and there’s several army commands, but the technical term Army Command is unique to four of us, so it’s pretty big deal that there’s one located right here in Huntsville, Alabama. So essentially, there’s a command that deals with the war fighting. It’s all the soldiers who go out and fight. There’s a command that does recruiting and training and doctrine and policy and all of that. There’s a command that does modernization of future equipment. And then there’s US Army Materiel Command, and we handle all of the logistics and sustainment from the army. So what that really means is, if a soldier drives it flies, it shoots it wears it eats it, communicates with it. We maintain and provide it. We get it there. We contract for it. We sell all of that to our allies and partners. We have a pretty big scope of responsibility. We manage 95 installations around the globe, 23 organic industrial base depot Arsenal’s name of plant. So it’s a huge command and I am very proud of the work that this command does around the world.
Megan: And Kim, leads communication efforts for all of that. So when we think about what we- of course, She boss is all about celebrating women who do amazing things. When you also think about Public Relations and Marketing and Communications, and we do a lot of communications, and it is not an easy field. Communications can be very challenging. And when you’re doing it for AMC that employs 165,000 people, a $50 billion organization, okay, that’s kind of in the field. What does leading communication look like in that regard?
Kim: Yes, it’s a very interesting but fun challenge, and I’ll tell you, it’s the best job in the army, because they get to tell the story of the great work that our workforce does on behalf of soldiers around the world but it’s not easy. So we have an incredibly talented team of professionals here at the headquarters, and we really focus on two big things. We focus on communications of what we at the headquarters are doing, so in support of our leaders and in support of the headquarters organization, if you will. And then we have 400 communications professionals all around the globe that we provide guidance, mentorship, direction to. So one of our biggest challenges is synchronizing and nesting our messaging to make sure that we’re all speaking with one voice, to make sure that we are all communicating effectively to all of these various audiences that we have around the globe. So all of that sort of happens right here from this headquarters. So it is pretty neat, but it’s a lot of fun.
Megan: It is a lot of fun. I would imagine sort of overseeing some of that guidance, that messaging across the globe is a challenge. Does that change on a weekly basis? Is it a daily thing? What does that engagement look like?
Kim: That’s a great question. So we have some enduring messaging, right? And that’s, I don’t want to say that’s an easy part, but that gets that AMC is 62 years, as of yesterday, August, 1. For 62 years, sort of the enduring things that Army Materiel Command have done, have been lasting. So that messaging is there, but on any given day, the Army is engaged around the world in different conflicts and different activities. And so you’re right that messaging changes constantly. And so it’s not easy. We also have to keep in mind that we are part of the larger United States Army. So there’s messaging that’s coming from the Department of Defense and the Department of Army down to and through Army Materiel Command, to our folks on the ground where it’s all happening. So yeah, changes constantly.
Megan: Oh gosh, constantly. I love that. And one of the things that is very interesting about AMC, and I would imagine, I do not want to speculate, maybe a highlight of your career was the humanitarian assistance that AMC oversees, and Kim was fortunate enough to be the communications lead on Operation Warp Speed, which was responsible for deploying the vaccines in response to COVID-19, okay, so that is like, wow. I mean, talk to us about that, and I would love to hear. I am sure that there are conversations behind the scenes happening, but, like, do you just get a call? You know what I mean? Yeah, you know what I’m saying? Like, what does that look like in like, drop your bags, where this is what we’re doing for the next 90 days?
Kim: It was definitely a highlight of my career. I was very, and to this day, very honored to have that opportunity to do that. So Operation Warp Speed stood up at the government’s effort to accelerate the manufacturing development and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics, which are the treatments General Gus Perna, who was the AMC committee General at the time, had been asked to step up as the co-leader and Chief Operating Officer for Operation Warp Speed. I had served as his Public Affairs Lead, as his Communications Lead, for the previous three and a half, almost four years. By that point, and even prior to that, he had been in different positions within army materiel. So I had strong relationship with him. I had served with him for a long time. So when he got tapped to go up to Operation Warp Speed, I knew it was possible that he might pull individual people up to serve with him on that mission but he didn’t right away. So he went up in May, and it got the initiative started, and it was September when I actually got the phone call from General Gus Perna that said, we’re moving towards a much more proactive and out front communication strategy, and I need you so I dropped my bag.
Megan: I am getting goose bumps hearing that.
Kim: So the funny thing is, General Ed Daly was our current community General, General Perna had changed commands, and General Daly took over from him here at AMC, while General Perna went to focus on Operation Warp Speed. So it was a Saturday, and we were preparing General Daly for congressional hearing testimony on the hill and that next week. So I was in his office on a Saturday, preparing him for this testimony, and he said, “Have you gotten a phone call?” I said, “Sir, I’ve got a lot of phone calls; which one?” And he said, “Okay, then it means you haven’t. You would know.” He said, “General Perna is gonna call you.”
Megan: The phone call
Kim: The phone call, and that’s exactly how it happened. And so that was on a Saturday. He said, “I need you to go up on Tuesday.” And I said, “Sorry, I need a week.” And so the following week, I went up, and I was there for five months, and it was the biggest challenge in my career. It was the hardest thing I had ever done, but I feel very good about it.
Megan: Looking back. I mean, it’s easy to write, reflect. What was the biggest challenge that you faced with leading that? I mean, I can only imagine developing a strategic comms plan that reaches- what is that? Where do you even begin?
Kim: Yeah, so the biggest challenge is, I thought a lot about this. I really have. The biggest challenge is one is we were building a plane in flight, right? There was no book on how to do what we were doing as as this organization, and in terms of accelerating and delivering vaccine as we did so in the night came in five months after they had started- May, June, July, October- five months after they started, but they needed that comms strategy a month ago and there was no set. It was me. So the first challenge was catching up on five months of really intense work that had been done, constantly, getting a strategy set it in place and then starting to execute it immediately. There was no research, there was no budget. So that was, in itself a challenge, but another challenge that was maybe even more significant is there were so many outside influences external influences. It was a very political environment.
Megan: You’re constantly having to account for that.
Kim: Yeah, so it’s a very political environment, and everything was so politically charged. It did that made the communications very challenging. We were working with Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense. and they both had equities, and they both had agendas, not a negative one. The White House was leading the entire thing, and we know they have an agenda. And we, as the army are nonpartisan, apolitical. We have a mission, and we want to do our mission, and that’s the end, but we didn’t get to operate in that. We had to operate in this very politically charged environment where we had all of these external influences really shaping what we did.
Megan: That is tough. I would imagine that your ethical meter may get challenged in ways that you’re just not used to. And I’m not gonna ask the examples on that, but you’re taking and I know you, personally and professionally, you do things the right way. There is no cutting corners anything lower than the absolute best, like that and Kim has always been that way in everything that she does, but I would imagine you were challenged in ways, personally, professionally, everything where you are asked to do things that are not in line with with what you truly believe in. How do you handle that?
Kim: Yeah, that was very true, almost every day, but what I found is that others were willing to say, ‘Okay, if you’re not going to do it, I will.’ And that was okay, because then they spoke for their leaders but I had a job of protecting mine, and I had a job of protecting the image, and not just the image, but it was the entire operation itself, not one person, but I saw it as my job and General Perna told me that it was my job to be the communicator for the Operation and not to focus on the administration, either of the two departments, it’s the operation. And so that’s what I stay focused on. I stayed focused on telling the great work. And it was incredible work that was being done every day by the folks, this very small team of folks that were actually assigned to the Operation.
Megan: Wow, did they raise their hand to be part of it or were they told or volunteered, or was it a combination of the two?
Kim: It was a combination of the two. When I got on board, we had about 60ish at our height, it was maybe 100, 110 assigned to the operation, and that was our Department of Defense team. It was all the Department of Defense team at first. We did have some 17 members from Department Health and Human Services who were assigned as well. But it was a very small team. And I mean, I joke about that; we worked 17 hour days just about every day. It is really not a joke, we legitimately put in a whole lot of work, but what they did was amazing. It was an honor to be able to tell their story.
Megan: Yeah, what an amazing achievement for you, to just look back on your career, and say that was the thing you got to be a part of now. I mean, that’s historical. I mean, it will go down as something that you’ll never be able to match up with.
Kim: No, I agree. And of course, we are our own worst critics. So I look back now, and I think about all the things that we could have done differently and could have done better, but I am still incredibly proud of the work that was done.
Megan: But if that isn’t the true precipice of learning and evolution in your career, you’re going to take what you learned from that and apply it forward. But you know that way, you’re better prepared for whatever it may be.
Kim: Absolutely, I learned so much from that job. And just to be humble for a moment, I would walk down the halls every once in a while, and in fact, I actually pulled Lisa Simunaci, who is another Redstone public affairs officer that many know in the community, one of the best public affairs officers that I know; she actually is the PAO at the Garrison right now. I pulled her up and told her, I needed her with me. So, about a month in, she came up and joined on this journey, and I would walk through the halls, and I’d be like, “Lisa, pinch me; I’m not the right person. How am I this?” And she’s like, “You’re the best person for this. Keep going.” She was my own little hype crew there, and she’s a great hype.
Megan: Lisa is a great cheerleader, at least, the one that you want on your side. So I’m going to challenge you on that for a second, because you’re questioning, why me? When I first met you back in 2009, I had to look back. I was like, but I mean, you served time at the Pentagon. And when I first met you, I was like, number one, you’re tiny, you are tall, but you’re mighty, then tiny, but you are a force to be reckoned with, I recognized that within about 30 seconds of meeting you at the second recruiting brigade. Thinking about that, and thinking about a lot of women who are sitting here watching, like, ‘oh my gosh’, you think about the pandemic, and we sat home and we see this stuff happening as business professionals, and we’re like, ‘Kim is behind the scenes making that happen.’ So to say that, ‘Why am I sitting here?’ I think it was absolutely deserved. But I would love to hear a little bit about your history and how you got involved in public relations and are now able to kind of serve in a senior role here, and you’re so young and doing that. So just talk a little bit about it.
Kim: Yeah, absolutely, but first, admiration is absolutely mutual. I thought the same thing when I first met you, and look at you today. You have been an absolute trailblazer in this career, and I am so privileged to have been a part of that journey too. So I have to say that.
Megan: Thank you.
Kim: My communication journey is an interesting one. When I was in college, along the way, I ended up going Greek and joining a sorority, which I didn’t think I would ever do, but it really changed the trajectory of my life in so many positive ways. And one of those ways is it encouraged me to get involved in student activities, and I was a public relations major, frankly, because I was a maid of honor at a friend’s wedding, and I had to give the toast. I stood up and gave this toast, and someone came up to me and said, “Oh my gosh, you’re such a good speaker. You should look into communications.” So I said, “Okay, I’ll add it as a double major.” That’s where it started. I was a political science major up until that point.
Megan: You need people to recognize things for you, right?
Kim: That’s what it takes sometimes. I added the double major. And so I was a public relations major, and my sororities encouraged me to get involved in student activities. So I joined the Public Relations Student Society of America and went to one of their career fairs, and there was a lady from Army Public Affairs. I have no military background. I could not have told you the difference between a general and a private. I mean, no background at all, but I joined a session on Army Public Affairs, and it fascinated me, and so I applied for an internship, and I was very lucky to have gotten in on what’s now called the Army Fellowship Program but essentially, it’s a way for college graduates and recent graduates to join in as an Army civilian into the Army career field and 21 years later, here I am, I have had the opportunity to work at various levels of command. So I started at was called a battalion, which is commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and I went to a brigade commanded by a colonel, and then I sort of ventured my way through one star and two stars, to where I am now at a four-star headquarters command. So it’s been an amazing journey. Along the way, I have found that it has really been productive and encouraging for me to do things like this, to reach out to communicators outside of the Department of Defense bubble. So I go to Public Relations Society of America meetings, and I go to International Association Business Communicator conferences, just to make sure that I keep a pull from what’s happening in the world of communications now, outside of DoD, and that has really kept me motivated.
Megan: So perfect segue, because being heavily involved in having this decorated career of communications. You were recently were recognized as PR Week’s Woman of Distinction for 2024. I am sitting among a celebrity right here but when we think about the field of communications, Kim has, hands down, won the top distinction in honors and awards. And it’s just mind-blowing, but it’s amazing, and I love that. I also love to see that more women are being recognized for their roles and communications and having these senior level roles. She boss is nothing but celebrating women doing amazing things. So how do you feel about being a woman and being in this space and looking at the change from other women who are taking some of these senior military positions.
Kim: I absolutely am so proud of where we are as a society, and getting to see women do phenomenal things. So at that PR week event that I went to and I was nominated by a college for that, I was so overwhelmed to have been selected and honored there too. But I will say in Department of State, Liz Allen, the senior communicator for the Department of State, also female, and she was at that event, again, a phenomenal group of women who have achieved so much in their careers. So, at that event, they asked me, how has it changed for me as a woman in Army Public Affairs? And I can honestly say I have never felt that my gender has been prohibited in any way along my career. The Army has given me so many opportunities and never really looked at woman, man and that’s phenomenal. I have had phenomenal women mentors. Lyra Fry [00:19:45] is a super talented public affairs officer here on the installation, good friend of mine who has helped me along the way. And then you look in our community at women doing amazing things all the time. Our senior civilian here at Army Materiel Command, equivalent of a three-star general; she’s a female. I am involved in the running community, as you mentioned, the triathlon community here. And for the first time, maybe I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s fun for me to see the President of the Track Club, female, and the President of the Triathlon Team Rocket Tri Club, female. So we’re seeing females in this community all over the place, in leadership roles, and prevalent roles, and it’s fun to be amongst them. I hope they continue.
Megan: Yeah, they will continue, there’s no doubt about that. So speaking about your insane health habits, Kim is an ultrarunner. She does Ultra. Do you do Ultra?
Kim: I have done some 50ks. I haven’t made it up to the 100 milers like some.
Megan: It is wild, and that is actually how Kim and I met. We met through the army, of course.
Kim: But we stayed.
Megan: But we stayed friends. Kim and her husband Tim, are the ultimate team captains for the Ragnar races that we do, which are relay races throughout the country, 200 mile relay races with a team. And so many people are like, ‘Why did you do that?’ And I know we couldn’t have our phones for some pictures, but I thought there were some funny pictures, which we’ll show. But this signifies that at the end of a Ragnar race, you have all of your team members who come together, and they put their medals together to create one big picture. And it’s just this sort of camaraderie team-member thing, and it’s so much fun. And this is one of my favorite pictures.
Kim: I love that.
Megan: If you got to talk about the epitome of a team captain right here, our team is called Rockets in Your Pockets. And so Kim had an inflatable rocket outfit that she wore, which was amazing, but your leadership and influence go so far beyond what you did here at AMC, and it really does trickle down to the community in more ways than you recognize. So we are just so honored to spend some time with you today, and I am so privileged to call you my friend, and just so proud of everything that you’ve accomplished. And I think for our audience here, getting a sneak peek into what really makes AMC tick from a communication perspective, a lot of people do not get that opportunity. And then, oh, by the way it’s being run by Kim and her amazing team of women who are just kicking butt, which I love so much. Thank you for all that you do.
Kim: I have to put one more nugget in, so for the first time in my 12 years that I have been an Army Materiel Command, not only in this position but we just got in our first female Public and Congressional Affairs Director, so she is a week on board. Colonel Nicole Downs has joined our team and so you got a good female duo as director and deputy. It is amazing.
Megan: I love that; no surprise. Yeah, that is just awesome.
Kim: But thank you so much, Megan. We have had a great journey. I am so proud of you, and it is very humbling to be able to sit in this chair and talk to your community.
Megan: Alright, we will see you guys next time.