White House Fellow

The past year in a lieutenant colonel’s life featured presidential meetings and a NASA shuttle crew’s traditional post-launch beans-and-cornbread meal. But Lt. Col. Rob Lyman only needed five words to sum up each memorable experience as a White House Fellow:
“Who gets to do that?”
 “Through the course of my year, that’s what I keep coming back to: who gets to do that?” asked Colonel Lyman, now with the strategy division in the Office of the Deputy Chief Management Officer in Washington after completing his year in the White House Fellows program, where he worked in the U.S. Department of Transportation.
During his tour of duty as a fellow, Colonel Lyman worked with Deputy Secretary of Transportation John D. Porcari on a department-wide cybersecurity strategic plan and the Next-Generation Air Traffic Control System. The colonel was part of a delegation that negotiated an open-skies agreement with Japan. He also sat in on cabinet-level meetings with Mr. Porcari and Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and heard speakers ranging from Fortune 500 CEOs and national-level journalists to U.S. congressmen and Supreme Court justices.
While Colonel Lyman was comfortable dealing with senior military leaders, he soon realized he was in a different world in the transportation department.
“It was kind of invigorating because you’re suddenly thrust into this world where you’re surrounded by very senior people, with a cabinet secretary right down the hall and a deputy secretary 10 steps from my office,” he said. “The running joke is there are a lot of important people who work in Washington and you’re not one of them. But as a fellow, sometimes you get spoiled. You have to stay humble and remember your role as a public servant.”
President Lyndon B. Johnson created the fellows program in 1964 to foster leadership and public service by providing individuals with mentorship from senior government leaders and offering first-hand experience working with the federal government and participating in national affairs.
Fellows spend a year working full-time with senior White House staff, cabinet secretaries and other top-ranking government officials. They also participate in roundtable discussions in a speakers program that brings in both civic and political leaders.
Fellows’ responsibilities vary, depending on their assignments, but can involve leading interagency meetings to drafting speeches for cabinet secretaries. The director of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships makes assignment decisions, based on input from agency officials after interviews during placement week. After their tenure, fellows are expected to be more experienced in public policy and decision-making and apply what they learned to contribute to their own communities and professions and become the nation’s future leaders.
Alumni of the program’s 45-year history include former Secretary of State Colin Powell, retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark and three current commanders of major Air Force commands: Air Mobility Command’s Gen. Raymond E. Johns Jr., Air Education and Training Command’s Lt. Gen. Edward A. Rice Jr., and Global Strike Command’s Lt. Gen. Frank G. Klotz.
Former fellows like Colonel Lyman and Lt. Col. Bobbi Doorenbos talk fondly of the network that develops through their experience.  Colonel Doorenbos served her fellows tour in 2007 in the Department of Agriculture as a special assistant to the secretary. She landed her current position as special adviser in the Office of the Vice President for Defense and Intelligence, Exclusive Secretariat, when one of her classmates left the job.
Fellows can always call on alumni for advice or guidance. But Colonel Lyman benefitted from a former fellow’s mentorship before he was selected. While he was still commanding the 96th Communications Squadron at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. Col. Bruce McClintock, the 96th Air Base Wing commander at Eglin, arranged mock interviews with local civic leaders to prepare Colonel Lyman for the selection board.
This preparation was particularly helpful as Colonel Lyman and his wife, Nancy, were concurrently experiencing a major lifestyle change. Their daughter Ava was born two weeks before the selection week in Washington.
“I came into fellows weekend feeling a little frazzled with my attention divided, not feeling I was 100 percent prepared, but still kind of on this high from Ava being born,” he said. “Then, selection weekend was a whirlwind, I think because it was kind of the mindset I had coming in, but also it’s just a whirlwind on its own. It’s designed to be that way, where you have all of these great people with the crazy questions and great interviews.”
Two members of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships asked questions that completely surprised Colonel Lyman, who had expected certain types of questions from a famous news anchor and a retired four-star general.
The colonel’s new baby played a starring role in his interview with one of America’s most recognizable news voices.
“With Tom Brokaw, he’s the one you really expect some pointed questions from — a professional journalist,” Colonel Lyman said. “Our whole time, we ended up talking about what it was like to have daughters. We talked about what it was like to have to figure out how to be a dad. Again, who gets to do that?”
Another famous name on the selection board surprised Colonel Lyman with his question. The colonel had prepared to discuss Afghanistan and Iraq, U.S.-Iran relations, national security or some other important current issue with General Clark. However, the former Supreme Allied Commander Europe asked him about quantum tunneling.
The general wanted to see how applicants would react to an unexpected question, but he also believed everyone should know something about science, Colonel Lyman said. Fortunately, the colonel had learned enough in his undergraduate work in engineering to answer the question.
“Some people just said, ‘I don’t know,’” Colonel Lyman said. “Some people knew a little bit, so they had a conversation about it, and maybe some just faked their way through it. I was probably a combination of the last two. I looked it up on Wikipedia afterward to see if I was right, and I was pretty close. I went up to General Clark the night of our last dinner and asked him, ‘Really, quantum tunneling?’”
Fifteen years ago, retired Brig. Gen. Bob Edmonds had similar experiences during his White House Fellows tour. Then a lieutenant colonel and an F-15 Eagle pilot from the 95th Fighter Squadron at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., he met with a panel that included actress Mary Steenburgen, astronaut Sally Ride and Olympian Edwin Moses and was selected as a special assistant to Phil Lader, head of the Small Business Administration under President Bill Clinton. He was part of the first White House delegation to visit post-normalized Vietnam and worked on the administration’s 100 enterprise and empowerment zones for small businesses.
“I think the program provides a window into Washington for fellows to see how it operates,” General Edmonds said. “It opened to me a broader perspective of how the executive and legislative branches work together to run the country. You find out as a White House Fellow on this side of the Potomac how people view issues and solve problems in different ways in a coordinated Washington environment.”
Providing this type of access to the nation’s decision-making process is the core of the White House Fellows Program, said retired Gen. Lloyd “Fig” Newton, another member of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships, which selects the fellows each year. General Newton is a retired four-star general, an F-4D Phantom pilot with 269 combat missions, and was the first African-American member of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds air demonstration team. But one experience missing from his career was the one provided for Colonel Lyman.
“Some of the folks on our commission have been fellows in years past,” General Newton said. “Unfortunately, I am not one and wish I had this experience. What we’re looking for are those citizens from across U.S. society who have had some unique achievements and experiences at this early point of their careers. We’re looking for what you and I have heard in the military as a whole person. We want those people we think have already had extraordinary experiences in their professional lives they can bring to the table to spend a year doing this and go out from here to really be energized with the experience to provide service to their communities, the nation and mankind.”
Military fellows like Colonel Lyman benefit from the expertise of their classmates in fields such as business, education, law and medicine. Colonel Lyman and an Army officer in last year’s class also shared their military expertise in what he called “Military 101,” especially on events like an overnight trip on the USS Truman.
“I think military officers bring a great perspective to share with the program that’s very unique, especially considering the rest of our class didn’t have military experience,” Colonel Lyman said. “We felt a responsibility to share that with them. I certainly encourage Airmen to apply because I think we bring a great perspective and experience, both as military officers and as Airmen.”
Other highlights during Colonel Lyman’s tour were a trip with Secretary LaHood to Creech Air Force Base, Nev., for a remotely-powered aircraft operations tour that featured the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper. The fellows learned about the space launch mission at Patrick Air Force Base, Fla., and enjoyed the traditional beans and cornbread with NASA members after a successful shuttle launch. The fellows class also had meetings with the president and vice president and an overnight trip on the USS Truman aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean.
But he learned the most from watching leaders like the transportation secretary and deputy secretary while they discussed policy and made decisions. His experience as a fellow prepared Colonel Lyman not only for his current position, but also to move forward to the next level of leadership in his career.
“I think leadership in the Air Force gave me the confidence to deal with very senior people in a professional manner,” he said. “This was a unique opportunity to serve at the junction where policy and politics meet, which as a military officer, you don’t get to see often. We work so many policy issues without seeing the politics of implementing them, so it was interesting to work at this level and see that. Doing this has given me a better vision of what’s possible and how to move policy issues forward toward implementation and the challenges of leadership at the highest national level. The challenge for me will be to apply those lessons in leadership scenarios presented to me through my Air Force service. Hopefully, I’ll be able to apply those lessons to be a more effective leader.”
During the year between Colonel Lyman’s squadron command and his current assignment as a group commander, the fellows program put him in a position to meet with and observe policy-makers in action. As a White House Fellow, he got to do that.