Teresa is a true pioneer in the area of customer service and customer experience.  Consumer issues were ingrained in her from her college years and throughout her 40+ years of federal service. She paved the way to address consumer issues from the days of GSA’s  Consumer Information Center to the Federal Consumer Information Center to the Federal Citizen Information Center (FCIC). Teresa’s career spanned seven Presidents. That alone is a  testament to Teresa having the ability to work across the aisle and help political leaders understand the importance and needs of consumers. She built a customer-centric culture focused on her passion for consumers and improving service to them.  

 

Under Teresa’s leadership, more than 2 billion citizens were reached through multiple  channels. She embraced emerging technologies. In fact, she was one of the first leaders in GSA to lead the development of a website for consumers.  She championed the delivery of information and services to the Hispanic community by establishing GobiernoUSA.gov and expanded access to information by establishing service channels that included telephone, email and web chat in English and Spanish.   She established policies that enabled federal agencies to use social media through federal friendly terms of service agreements very early in the social media lifespan. Teresa was an expert at marketing the government’s channels to the citizens through public service campaigns that increased awareness to hundreds of thousands of people.  Under her leadership, a relationship with Dear Abby was nurtured and still exists today. Many topics of importance have been addressed through the Dear Abby column, reaching many with advice and information about topics including financial advice, mental health awareness, and women’s health.

 

In addition to Teresa’s notable focus and evangelism for customer service, she cared deeply about her employees. She recognized the importance of a positive, engaged workforce and the results this has on improving the delivery of service to citizens. She fostered a collaborative, engaged and productive work environment that many have described as a “family.” Her teams loved her. She was known for her thoughtful and caring ways, giving her staff stars during the holidays and publicly recognizing their contributions throughout the year through awards, recognition in staff meetings, and encouraging new ideas and solutions to improving citizen services.

 

Teresa built an extraordinarily successful program that helped millions of people live better lives. She brought together an array of U.S. government information and services and made them easily accessible to the American public through the web, toll-free telephone, email, web chat, social media and print publications.  

 

Teresa taught the people she worked with how to create a culture of family in the workforce and create a culture of passion for citizen services.  She always told her team, “it’s not hard, it just takes time.” Teresa embodied a character of persistence. She taught her teams to never shy away from a challenge.   

 

Teresa received several awards throughout her federal career, most notably a Fed 100 award and a two time recipient of a Presidential Rank Award.