Q. You recently became the first woman to attain the rank of general in the Hawaii Air National Guard. Has it sunk in yet?

A: I'm really too busy to think about it much, but it's pretty cool. I have through my career had a lot of support. I'm often times surprised. For instance when I made colonel and was the first woman colonel in the Hawaii Air National Guard, I had a lot of women come out of the woodwork and congratulate me. It was really nice to see that. So I became more aware at that level that there were a lot of people watching and that my promotion sent out messages that said this is an organization that is open to contributions from men and women both.

Q. Your background is in education and curriculum development. What made you decide to pursue a dual career in the Hawai'i Air National Guard?

A. My husband was stationed in Hawai'i in the Air Force, and later was recruited into the Hawaii Air National Guard. I was studying and working at the University of Hawai'i. He was enjoying the Guard, and said, "Kathy, you might find this an interesting thing to do." When he was off in Korea, I went in and talked to his boss. I was hired as public affairs officer (PAO) and went away to six weeks of officer's training in Tennessee.

Q. How did you work your way up through the ranks?

A. I changed career fields. I was the PAO for about a year or year and a half at headquarters. But all the guys that had any fun were down in the squadron. Those were the guys that wore the combat boots and shot the guns. It was more interesting. So I cross trained into communications. It's a technical field, and I had third year calculus in college which let me in. It was one of the best things I did, changing from a support position — the public affairs career field — to sort of boots-on-the-ground where-the-rubber-meets-the-road type thing.

Q. How would you compare your leadership roles in the Air National Guard and the Curriculum Research & Development Group? Do the two complement each other?

A. Actually, the Hawaii Air National Guard is not as strictly military as you might think. For one thing, a lot of us are part-timers, so we're there because we want to be. Nobody's a conscript. Nobody has to be there. So the kind of leadership that you need to make that work has to be collaborative. And you don't bark orders at people. That's sort of a myth. The Hawaii Air Guard is much more of a cooperative work team.

Q. What are some of the things that influenced your leadership style?

A. I am the oldest girl in a family of nine kids, so I learned early on that coercion and persuasion go hand in hand. My leadership style is really very collaborative and invitational. I've seen the sort of selfish leadership that doesn't work well. Rank has its privilege, but you never take it. You're saying, "My time is more important than yours is," and it isn't. Everybody's time is important, everybody's contribution is important. So it has to be an invitational and a very supportive and collaborative leadership to work.

Q. Did your military training help you develop your leadership skills?

A. The Air Force is pretty cutting edge in terms of studying leadership and followership, and looking at business practices and how they can be applied to the Air Force and to military organizations. There is that authoritative hierarchy, but the leadership is not without the followershp. You somehow have to get people to follow you. The leadership goes with the position, but you also have personal leadership, and if you don't use both of those, then you're not going to be effective.

Q. What happens when cooperation and collaboration don't work?

A. Every now and then you have to say, "Because I said so," and that ultimately is your job. And that's probably the most difficult thing because you work so closely with, say, senior NCOs (non-commissioned officers) and the senior masters who do all the work and carry out the mandate. You have to get "buy in" from them for anything you do and you have to rely on them, especially part-timers like me. You have to rely on them to tell you what needs to be done in some cases and what the best course of action would be for your organization.