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Guest: Lily Kamikihara, Theater satellite communications ground segment manager, Pacific Command at Camp H.M. Smith, Hawaii
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GCN IT Leadership Award winners tackled overwhelming challenges with vision, a can-do spirit and a certain prowess in harnessing technology, while also managing to inspire unusual support and solutions—often in the face of heavy resistance.
Lily Kamikihara | A Quiet Authority
About the GCN IT Leadership Awards
Image: WPN photo by Hugh Gentry
Lily Kamikihara
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Moderator:
Welcome everyone to today's online question-and-answer forum featuring Lily Kamikihara, one of GCN's 2007 IT Leadership Award winners. Lily is a civilian employee of the Pacific Command at Camp H.M. Smith, Hawaii, and is theater satellite communications ground segment manager. She is responsible for a broad array of projects aimed at ensuring the provision and security of satcom for the military in the Pacific region. The Pacific Command is the largest regional command in the military, spanning the Pacific Ocean from California to India and touching 43 countries.
The second shoulder box on the right contains a link to the article GCN ran about Lily.
She will be with us from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. today, so let's the ball rolling!
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Linda Terry | Springfield, Va.: Aloha, Lily! Hawaii is a beautiful state, but with great beauty sometimes comes great risks. Hawaii has had some earthquake and volcanic activity, and there's always the threat of a tsunami. Have you been involved in any continuity of operations planning for the Pacific Commands?
Lily Kamikihara: Aloha Linda. Yes, Hawaii is a beautiful place to live and work, but like anywhere else, we do have our natural disasters. There is a group here at USPACOM that works on Continuity of Operations planning but I am not involved that.
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Tysons VA: How did you get the right staffs with the right authority to the table to hammer out the architecture behind the U.S.-Australia satellite exchange program?
Lily Kamikihara: Aloha. Good question. Networking and communications are key elements. In the very beginning of the discussions for the US-Australia SATCOM exchange agreement, everyone naturally thought US Pacific Command (USPACOM) should be the lead but, after much discussion, we realize this involved national assets and should be handled by U.S. Strategic Command. USSTRATCOM is the designated command to manage space resources. Of course, USPACOM remains actively involved.
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Michael Austin, Texas: What lessons did you learn, to accomplish what you did, when it seems you really didn't have direct staff or authority?
Lily Kamikihara: Aloha Michael. I learned that it is very important to prioritize, be persistent, and build relationships. There's a lot of work that needs to be done, but you need to know what is important for our country and stand your ground. Even though, at times, I was one of the few action officers backing a certain solution, my rationale was sound so my bosses supported me in high level forums. To ensure my rationale was sound I ensured our service components and other staff members here were also involved. It's important to get views from all angles.
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Washington D.C.: Hello Ms. Kamikihara: How do you provide backup bandwidth in the event of outages caused by physical events, such as cyclones, other natural disasters or human activity of various kinds (including attacks)? And how often do you run simulations of possible simultaneous physical failures or destruction/denial of ground stations?
Lily Kamikihara: Aloha Washington DC. I am not involved in providing the backup bandwidth. Another group does planning for this Continuity of Operations. For critical systems they have installed backup bandwidth. During our exercises, we sometimes simulate that a communication facility is down.
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Joab, Laurel: what problems has the Pacific Command had in electromagnetic interference and radio frequency interference? And what work have you done on this problem?
Lily Kamikihara: Aloha. We do have problems with EMI and RFI. Our current operations staff handle current events of EMI or RFI. My job in the SATCOM Plans and Programs shop is to ensure our new satellite communication systems can mitigate these as much as possible, such as having geolocation capability.
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Dave J: What's the best way to gain enough experience to qualify for IT jobs while still building Fed time for retirement? Are certifications (Cisco/Microsoft/etc...) enough?
Lily Kamikihara: Aloha Dave. Not sure if I can help you. I work in Satellite Communications area which there are no, per se, certificates. When we recruit, we are looking for someone with experience. Many of the candidates had only an ssociate degree but they had a lot of experience and showed initiative. Also, because we are a higher headquarters, good communications skills (oral, writing, team-building) are very key.
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Denver, CO:
Good afternoon,
First, I congratulate you on some noteworthy achievements! This is a credit to your initiative, as well as to the people in your organization who supported your efforts.
It appears that you would have been involved in policy decisions, as well as from a technical perspective. Did you need additional funding; and assuming the answer is yes, how did you acquire the resources?
Lily Kamikihara:
Aloha Denver. Thank you. You're right. I have great bosses and co-workers who took the time and effort to nominate me for this prestigious award. I'm still in shock.
Of course, we need funding. All the Satellite Communications (SATCOM) programs are national programs so the respective program managers are responsible for acquiring funds. If required, I will propose a top level message to be sent to support additional funding or reclama funding cuts. In addition, there are some avenues for us to acquire funding if it's solely to meet a Pacific theater SATCOM issue.
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Peg LeClair Colorado:
Ms. Kamikihara,
What is the single largest issue you face in your position?
Congratulations on your IT Leadership Award!
Lily Kamikihara: Aloha Peg. The single largest issue I face is manpower. We recently lost two positions due to funding cuts but gained more work. Unfortunately, this happening in both public and private industry. So prioritization of work is important.
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Moderator:
This concludes today's online forum. Thanks to all who participated, and a special thank you and congratulations again to Lily for her award-winning work.
The transcript for this forum, as well as all other GCN forums, is available at http://www.gcn.com/forum/.
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