Dede Domingos was the first interagency Administrative Officer. She worked for the Lakeview BLM District and the Fremont-Winema National Forests from 1998 through March of 2005. Dede's over 31 years of diversified federal service makes her a valued asset in her present job.

She first started her career as a GS-2 fire lookout for the Wenatchee National Forest in 1967 as method of paying her way through college as. She worked on the Kaibab National Forest in fire support and also marked timber there. In 1976 she went to Alaska to be part of their fire organization and worked her way up to the Chief Division of Support Services for the Alaska Fire Service in 1989. In 1991 she became Chief of the Branch of Field and Office Services for the Alaska State Office. In 1994 she accepted a detail back to the Alaska Fires Service for 6 months as the Acting Associate Manager. She took her present position in 1998. She will retire in 2005.

Dede never has had a mentor but admits that things would have been much easier if someone had encouraged her to have one. She has been a mentor to many employees throughout her career. Dede thinks people tend to have a false image of mentoring, viewing it as a structured process, when, in her case, it tends to be very informal - akin to on-the-job training or developing an Individual Development Plan. Many times, instead of employees asking Dede to mentor them, Dede is the one who initiates the mentoring process, approaching employees and offering her assistance to help them reach their goals. Goals may be career or personal in nature.

In Dede's words: Simply put, mentoring is nurturing, listening to employees, understanding their needs, the needs of the organization and figuring out how to make it all come together. I am a good sounding board. I have always tried to be objective and yet really assess the needs of the whole person when mentoring.

Being a supervisor has never been about power to me, but encouraging employees to reach their potential through their skills and abilities. It is also about modeling conduct and behavior. In mentoring, I have had to acknowledge my own short-comings and move on, knowing that there are employees with skills superior to mine. These people become the model for that skill.

Mentoring is recognizing an opportunity to assist and coach and then doing it."