Deb Marchand’s trailblazing assignment at NNSA

Administrator Jill Hruby leads over 60,000 people at NNSA and throughout the labs, plants and sites of the nuclear security enterprise. For 18 months, Deb Marchand was at her side during a tense and complicated time for the nation. This was the first time an executive assistant from Sandia had served on an off-site extended duty assignment, and Deb went on to receive a Silver Award from NNSA for her service.

In June 2022, Deb stepped into the Forrestal Building in Washington, D.C., for her first day as Hruby’s senior executive assistant at NNSA.

She didn’t have a computer or calendar access yet, but an urgent challenge already awaited her.

The war in Ukraine started several months earlier, and a man stood in the office, demanding to speak to Hruby about a classified document regarding the besieged country. Hruby wasn’t there.

One of Deb’s new coworkers said, “Oh yeah, she’s in the situation room at the White House.”

Deb sprang into action. With years of experience as a senior executive assistant at Sandia, she was no stranger to working in high-pressure situations.

“I knew what to ask him; I knew what Jill would want to know if she was there,” Deb said. She called the situation room, pulled Hruby out of the meeting and set up a SCIF, which stands for Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. That was her first 10 minutes on the job at NNSA.

As the week progressed, Deb began strategically organizing Hruby’s calendar. She set up a cadence of meetings and planned how they could quickly pivot to respond to the White House, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and other urgent requests.

“I put all my skills to use to make her calendar dynamic,” Deb said. “Of course, it never worked out that way. As much as we tried to plan, I would turn on the news each morning and start making mental adjustments. I could tell by the tone of the coverage how current events would impact her day.”

Going into the assignment, Deb thought she knew what the job would entail. She had been an executive assistant and senior executive assistant to three lab directors, one executive vice president, three vice presidents and one director during her 36-year career at Sandia.

“I couldn’t have been more wrong,” Deb said. “The most surprising thing was what the job really entailed versus what I had thought it would be and how much a hamburger cost in D.C. — $25 plus!”

She expected the type of work Hruby does as NNSA’s leader and the nation’s expert on nuclear deterrence and security. More surprising was the amount of international travel for diplomacy and the heavy load of congressional affairs work.

“That’s a whole lot of work for someone who is that busy,” Deb said. “The pace was pretty numbing.”

Planning and preparation

Deb joined a small team supporting Hruby each day: a military liaison, Chief of Staff Steve Ho and some writers. They discussed her upcoming meetings and what she needed to know to be prepared.

“We put briefing materials together for her meetings, including the history and frequency of the meetings, what was discussed last time, the type of meeting — informational or decisional — and data to help inform decision-making,” Deb said. “When people would send over an 80-page slide deck for a meeting the next morning, we would put together bullet points and prepare her as much as we could. It’s not an easy thing to do.”

Every job has its surprises, and Deb embraced them. “When you go on assignment, the job description should really say ‘other duties as assigned,’” Deb said. “One day, I’d get her some water, tea and cold medicine. Another day, it was getting her over to the White House and Pentagon and everything in between. You don’t even ask; you just do it. There’s no such thing as ‘That’s not my job’ in a small office.”

Beyond the day-to-day of calendaring, planning, preparing for the next day and crisis management, Deb and the team ensured Hruby’s vision stayed front and center.

“We needed to cast this clear and concise net of what her goals and expectations were,” Deb said. “A four-year time period is not a long time to change major organizational thinking.”

One way Deb did this was by listening with intent. When she sat in on conversations, she would know when something was going to become actionable. Proactively, she would follow up with the appropriate people, schedule meetings and plan out next steps.

Service to the nation

Shortly before Deb returned to Sandia, Hruby and the team held a going-away party and presented Deb with the NNSA Distinguished Service Silver Award for exemplary and dedicated service. The award said: “In recognition of your exemplary, dedicated service to the National Nuclear Security Administration as a trusted member of the Administrator’s team. Your superb support to the Administrator, management skills, professionalism and grace under pressure have ensured smooth, organized Front Office operations. Your commitment to excellence has furthered NNSA’s critical missions to deliver the nuclear stockpile, counter threats of nuclear terrorism and proliferation, and power the nuclear Navy.”

“I wasn’t expecting it; I cried,” Deb said. “I had only seen them given out for technical work, not administrative. To be honored at that level was huge, knowing they recognized that administrative work is just as important as technical work. It was the proudest moment of my career.”

Back at Sandia, Deb works as a quality assurance specialist, assisting the Sandia board of managers’ missions committee, handling logistics for the nuclear deterrence advisory board and working on a new pilot project, the Nuclear Deterrence Assignee Academy, to help others considering an off-site assignment.

“I appreciate Sandia and my husband, also a Sandia employee, for their support,” Deb said. “It was an amazing experience to see things from the customer perspective. It gave me that much more depth in how I’m able to anticipate needs. Because I know what’s going on behind the scenes, I can read the room better. It’s an opportunity I wouldn’t have changed for the world.”

She hopes to inspire other administrative professionals and let them know that through their expertise and skills, they have an important impact on the Labs and the nation.