Jefferson Lab photo/Aileen Devlin
HR Division Partner recalls own search for the perfect career fit and its impact on her current role
Human Resources Division Partner Stephanie White takes her job responsibilities seriously. She’s proud to support and guide staff members at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in matters concerning human resources.
She says her current position isn’t that much different from her high school dream of a career in law enforcement.
“My job requires me to stay up to date with various policy, law and regulation changes, and I get to help people in order to make the lab a great place to work,” she says.
White is one of the lab’s four HR division partners. She is responsible for providing guidance primarily to her colleagues in the divisions she is partnered with: Engineering, Facilities Management & Logistics, Communications Office, and Research and Technology Partnerships Office.
She provides support via many different services. However, her focus areas include divisional recruitment, coaching/development, performance management, employee relations, inclusion and engagement to include driving other HR programs and policies. Ultimately, Stephanie’s goal is to develop a deep sense of the Division's mission objectives to best serve employees and adhere to policies and processes.
“I’m there to work as a partner and a team member to help scientists, engineers and all employees do their jobs. I’m not there to tell them what to do; I’m there to guide and support,” she explains.
HR oversight, support and community quality
“I like structure and processes,” White says. “It is sometimes said that adhering firmly to the structure or processes is kind of bad and that you have to have some flexibility. I see it broader than that. Ultimately, my interest is in helping the community be a better community.”
Structure, White believes, enables stronger communities.
“The way I see it, success, in general, is about relationships that you build,” White explains. “Community is about people and having a better life through the relationships you build. As your community grows and becomes stronger, it’s expected life will become better in some form or fashion. I think the underlying part is having that structure in place—like a foundation for a house. You have to have a strong inner structure for the house to withstand storms.”
White, who has a master’s degree from Florida Tech in human resources management, admits that she also has a creative side.
“When I was growing up, I enjoyed all things artistic,” she says. “So, I did a lot of artistic things like drawing, painting, a little bit of fashion designing. I did a lot of creative things.”
When she discovered Marvel comics as a pre-teen, she found characters that embodied the spirit of the protective role she envisioned herself playing in her community.
“I’m a big Marvel fan,” White says. As a child, she regularly watched TV shows like Wonder Woman and the Incredible Hulk. “When you’re eight years old, that was the highlight of your life.”
Knowing she wanted to have a career that would allow her to support her community, White dialed-in her career path more during her high school years.
“It’s funny, because when I got to high school, I had this passion guiding me more toward law enforcement,” she says. “I wanted to be a law enforcer and even applied to the Federal Bureau of Investigation early in my career.”
Using structure and process to define a career path
The move from interest in law enforcement to interest in human resources was spurred by White’s part-time college job.
As an undergraduate student at Norfolk State University, White declared business administration as her major, with a focus on business management. Yet, just as critical to her education as her business courses was her job as the assistant manager at a Pizza Hut.
“Pizza Hut was controlled and operated by Pepsico,” White explains. “At that time, I was thinking I would grow my management career within Pepsico or within a similar company.
“One of the great things about Pizza Hut is that they did a thorough job at taking their managers through comprehensive training, which typically lasted several weeks. You would spend one of your weeks focused on human resources, and every day was a different focus—performance evaluation, business and inventory, managing people, and growth of the business. From there, I grew to have more interest in HR. There’s a core element of HR that helps me fulfill my drive to help people.”
Reincorporating art using structure and processes
White values her role in creating strong communities—both through her work at the lab and also through her community volunteer work, which has included leadership roles with the Buckroe Civic Association, where she served as president, and eight years of service as a board member for Thomas Nelson Community College (which was recently renamed Virginia Peninsula Community College).
While White says that she has maintained a healthy focus on work in her career and volunteer roles, she also believes that it’s important to nurture goals for life outside of work. For White, her backyard has become her inspiration. In her free time, she has been creating a backyard “Margaritaville-style” oasis using her long-honed artistic skills.
“I moved into a new home about two years ago, and I had a vision of making my backyard space feel more like a tropical getaway using vibrant colors and tropical décor,” White explains. “I looked for Adirondack chairs that would fit my vision and couldn’t find any, so I took out my paint brushes, laid out a minimal, but eye-catching design, and my vision became a reality. My backyard space is still a work-in-process, but it’s slowly transforming into my Caribbean getaway.”
As for the community White helps to create at the lab, she says she is thrilled to be a part of it.
“This is probably the best place I’ve ever worked,” she raves. “Everyone here shows that they care not only about the mission of Jefferson Lab, but also about each other.”
By Carrie Rogers