TSA Human Capital:
Careers with a Mission E
very day, an average of two million people pass through America’s commercial airports. That’s a lot of passengers to keep safe. Did you ever wonder what it takes to build the skilled workforce to make it all happen?
Just ask Elizabeth Buchanan, Deputy Assistant Administrator of Human Capital for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). “Essentially,” she says, “we support those who keep the traveling public safe.”
TSA, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, has the lead in securing our nation’s transportation systems. The Office of Human Capital, which Ms. Buchanan helps run, is charged with responsibility for recruiting, hiring, training, and supporting the more than 62,000 TSA professionals who take their mission to heart. According to Ms. Buchanan, everyone who works in the Office of Human Capital knows what’s at stake. “We feel very strongly that our principal mission is to support the front-line people in TSA – the Transportation Security Officers, the Federal Air Marshals, the inspectors, and all the people who really protect the American population in the transportation sector. Our goal is to provide the best possible security and service to the traveling public.”
TSA’s Critical Mission A lawyer by trade, Elizabeth Buchanan spent more than twenty years with the Department of Defense before joining TSA in 2003. She felt a profound calling to the agency, which was founded shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001. “The people who came together to form TSA did so largely for very patriotic reasons. And there’s a deep-felt attachment to the mission.”
As a new Federal agency with vital and time-critical objectives,
TSA avoided much of the “not invented here” rigidity that has become the hallmark complaint of many government critics. “From the beginning, TSA attracted people from very diverse backgrounds,” Ms. Buchanan notes. “As a result, there’s great diversity of perspectives. You have a lot of possible solutions to any particular problem. It’s a very pragmatic, open kind of organization to work in.” Ms. Buchanan believes that diversity is critical to the mission in other ways as well. “We have a workforce that looks like the American population. Our diversity lends us more credibility, and we have more sensitivity. It gives us the ability to do our mission in a way that will be understood and supported by the American population.”
Elizabeth Buchanan, Deputy Assistant Administrator of Human Capital for TSA, impacts the agency’s critical mission through leadership and innovation.
Work-Life Balance Attracting Top Talent Close to 40 percent of TSA’s employees are women, a fact Ms. Buchanan points out with pride. Her involvement and interest in hiring women is helping shape TSA’s future.
“As we develop jobs, we’re trying to develop them in a way that’s family friendly, that demonstrates an understanding of the fact that people have lives, that they think about work-life balance. We are intent on creating an environment where people want to come to work.” Ms. Buchanan says there is plenty of room at TSA for women, even at the top. “There are executive positions throughout the organization, and we look for men and women with the kind of career experiences that will help us continue to build this relatively new organization.” Noting that the agency is “very entrepreneurial,” she encourages other women to seriously consider a professional career with TSA. “We strive to give everybody opportunities to work in different areas, opportunities to try different tasks, opportunities to stretch themselves.” Acknowledging that security threats will always be a challenge, Ms. Buchanan remains confident in the opportunities offered by her agency. “The absolute ability of someone coming into this organization to try to make things better and do things in new and creative ways is phenomenal. For anyone who’s really innovative, and who really wants an opportunity to do things differently, this is a perfect place to work.” For more information about the Transportation Security Executive Service (TSES) positions, please call HRAccess Executive Resources at 1-877-872-7991, or email us at
TSES@tsa-hraccess.com. For more information about other positions at TSA, visit
https://tsajobs.tsa.dhs.gov or call 1-877-872-7990.
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