Four Qs with Joey Gonzales
Welcome to Four Qs, where we sit down with active members of our community.
This month, Globally sat down with Joey Gonzales-Baugh, a former field artillery officer in the United States Army who is now a Climatebase Fellow, a Globally Public Policy New Voices Fellow, a YPFP member, and a member of EaGLE’s third cohort.
How did you encounter Globally?
As a military veteran, I'm constantly on the look for ways to continue developing my leadership skills. I subscribed to the YPFP newsletter to stay abreast of events in my area and saw the advertisement for Public Policy New Voices and thought, "hey, I should apply to this" and put together my application. After getting into the PPNV Fellowship, I saw the tremendous value of the Globally network in having high-level dialogue about international relations, policy, and national security that kept me engaged.
In fact, I was so satisfied with the Globally programming that I applied and was selected for one of the EaGLE Cohorts in 2022, which I absolutely adored. I've come to really value the connections I have built within both of these Globally programs and am actively using some leadership lessons from them as I launch my own startup.
Joey Gonzales-Baugh.
How do you feel you have changed, personally and professionally, after joining Globally communities and programs?
The biggest way Globally programming has helped me is by helping me step into the person I want to become, overcoming the imposter syndrome I felt as I landed in DC and started building a new reputation for myself after leaving the Army. In particular, spending time with the EaGLE community has helped me value the experience I had in the military and see it as foundational in who I am becoming as well as embraceable as a catalyst to serving others. While I'm quite confident as a person, I don't know that I would be stepping into a founder role had I not reset my own perspective about my background through the dialogues and interactions with my peers in these programs. They really helped me see the truth behind who I was and how I can leverage that as a strength.
What are the biggest challenges you see in your space of influence, and how has the community helped you?
Gosh, this question is actually helping me break out of my current workflow. For the past year, I've been working on a personal business idea to bring reuse into the mainstream at events as a way to reduce waste while having fun. Only recently have I started to gain traction as I assembled a project team within the Climatebase Fellowship to help advance my research into the market and ways to bring this idea to life - it is much easier to build something when you have partners that you trust alongside you. My research team has disbanded now that our fellowship is over, but a few of us are continuing to search for event and venue managers to talk with to continue to add color to our research and identify the best solution to meet the shortage in the market.
For us, the biggest challenge is building meaningful relationships in a sector (events, hospitality, and entertainment) that is pretty closed and tight-knit. I suppose I've kept my head down for too long doing the research and preparing for the phase we are currently in, though I think it's time to begin tapping back into the network I've built within PPNV and EaGLE to see if there are any policy folks in sustainability, circularity, and waste management that can help me advance my own initiative to curb waste at events.
What would you suggest to someone who is starting a career in public service?
I cannot say that I have the answer for this, but I can offer some advice that has never led me astray: it is always a good idea to invest in people. I've always been willing to offer my time, talent, and resources to those around me in need, which always comes back in spades. I was invited back to Georgetown to serve as a room manager for a leadership and communications culmination event called the Executive Challenge. In my room, I was lucky to sit with two entrepreneurs, a CEO of a huge US industry group, and the leader of the entrepreneurship initiative, which is just serendipity at its finest considering that I'm trying to launch my own business. At the end of the day, I mentioned how lucky I was to spend time with such successful and talented folks. One of the founders responded, "I can point to just about every key positive inflection point in my life and find a common denominator: someone was kind enough to lend me their knowledge and experience to effectively navigate a challenge."
Public servants are a caste all of their own as individuals that have made a decision to serve the Nation, whether that happens nationally or subnationally. For that reason, they are always on stage. As a former military officer, I believed that I never left my uniform and was always a representative of my unit, the Army, and the United States. That meant that I was always on call to help and to serve. Those that are trying to build a career in public service would do well for themselves by always being willing to give of themselves, even when it may not be the most convenient thing to do. You'll build a positive reputation for yourself and may even inspire others to a career of selfless service.
