Kerrie Ingraham

Kerrie Ingraham

“I have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, so that means that I do my job the way that works best for me. When onboarding other admins, I always encourage them to find their own way of accomplishing their tasks.”

When Kerrie Ingraham started at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), she was immediately impressed by the welcoming environment that she encountered. Within her first year, she’d already discovered ways to participate in the Lab’s culture of guidance and mentorship.

“Despite this being one of the largest organizations I’ve ever worked for, LLNL provides a lot of resources for new employees to connect and be supported,” she said. “No matter who you are, there’s an employee resource group or a special-interest networking group where you’ll feel at home, so I always encourage new employees to explore those options.”

Before coming to LLNL, Ingraham grew up working at Girl Scouts camps and started her career at universities, so mentorship and teaching are important to her.

When Ingraham joined LLNL, the Lab’s culture of mentorship helped ease her orientation process. Like many new employees, Ingraham was paired off with an unofficial onboarding mentor to help her navigate the journey.

“From the day I started, I felt like I had multiple people that I could look to for guidance,” she said. “When you make the effort to teach people how to do things and allow them the opportunity to ask questions, they’re able to work more confidently.”

Now Ingraham makes the effort to pay it forward when she’s onboarding new employees.

As an administrative specialist who supports Weapons and Complex Integration and Weapon Physics and Design missions, Ingraham makes sure that new admins feel well oriented to their roles. An important part of that is realizing that everyone has a different learning style and way of doing things.

“I have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, so that means that I do my job the way that works best for me. When onboarding other admins, I always encourage them to find their own way of accomplishing their tasks.”

To Ingraham, this is how she contributes to the Lab’s mission.

“Admins play integral roles in helping the Lab accomplish the important work that we do here,” she said. “So my goal in mentoring new admins is to make sure they’re confident in the skills they need to do their job.”