DiversityInc - May 2010

THE
VALUE OF
WOMEN SPECIAL REPORT
HISTORY

HERE’S WHAT DIVERSITYINC CEO LUKE VISCONTI HAS TO SAY: “Cynthia Miller was my last boss when I was on active duty in the Navy. She’s the most adept people leader I’ve ever met. In 45 days, she completely turned around an office that her predecessor had thoroughly beaten down. She did it because her goodness was undeniable.

You could not remain negative in her domain, and she is one of the most genuine people I’ve ever met. She is a tireless advocate for the underrepresented and has shaped my understanding of true leadership, loyalty and character.”

Cynthia

HER STORY Miller
WHY WE LOVE HER
As one of the first Black
women to achieve leadership
success in the U.S. Navy,
she has demonstrated
extraordinary courage,
perseverance, intelligence
and patriotism. She made a
major difference in making
both the Navy and the
National Security Agency
more inclusive, paving the way
for women, Blacks, Latinos,
Asians and American Indians
to move into
leadership roles.

Ididn’t intentionally set out to have a career in the military and subse- quently in the intelligence community. Even though two of my uncles erved in World War II and my brother and one sister enlisted into the military out of high school, I was not motivated to follow in their footsteps.

I made up my mind in kindergarten that I was going to college; I had to go to college to have a better life than that of my parents. When I started college, I wanted to be a psychiatrist, business professional or special-education teacher. My best friend in college always wanted to join the Navy and convinced me to go talk with the Navy Recruitment Officer Training Corps (NROTC) recruiter. I wasn’t at all interested; however, the recruiter convinced us to go (under no obligation) to the six-week summer training program in Newport, R.I. The program was very challenging on all fronts: physical fitness, very little diversity by way of gender and ethnicity, a lot of profanity and an extremely rigorous academic curriculum.