McCombs Alumni Network News

Christina Clayton, BBA ’02, is the 2009 Rising Star award recipient and will be honored at the McCombs Hall of Fame reception in November. After working on Capitol Hill as a legislative and policy assistant for Texas Congresswoman Kay Granger, she earned her MBA from the University of Oxford Said Business School. Clayton is now an associate with Booz Allen Hamilton, working with the Department of Defense, in the Air Force acquisitions and procurements division.

How did your educational experience change you?
Going to business school, even at the undergraduate level, gives you a set of tools and skills that you can really use in a number of different ways. At the time, I think I was probably like a lot of people are in college, and was not sure exactly what I wanted to be when I “grew up.” Business school gives you a very marketable and practical set of skills that you can leverage in a variety of fields.

So when you figure out what it is you want to do, you have some qualifications that have some teeth and a bit of rigor. I didn’t go into a traditional business field straight out of undergrad, but the analytical and writing skills I developed were applicable to my first job.

What took you to DC?
I did an internship in Texas Governor Rick Perry’s office part-time during my senior year. I was a pretty low level intern, but compared to friends who were working retail, it felt like I was doing some pretty neat things.

One of my mentors in Governor Perry’s office had worked in DC, and I started talking to her about working on Capitol Hill. I applied for and received summer internships with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and Congresswoman Kay Granger. And after I completed my internship with Congresswoman Granger, she offered me a fulltime position.

Describe what you do for Booz Allen and the Department of Defense.
I do business consulting for the federal government. It’s actually a really good fit for me to use my business background but also my interest in working for the government. It’s very similar to what a commercial consultant does—we just do it with the government rather than a private company.

I work on the organization and strategy team supporting Air Force contracting. The work I do includes business process reengineering, organizational design and strategic planning. I also work on setting up performance measures and addressing some of their human capital issues.

What’s the most challenging part of your job?
The work that the Air Force contracting community is responsible for is incredibly complex and always changing. The workforce is really strained due to contingency operations, which has to do with people that are deployed, either in a combat or non-combat zone. Just the fact that they’re deployed and having to do their work in a different environment. Promotions, leadership—all those operations that support the larger mission have to continue.

The work that they have to do because we’re at war has changed everything for the organization over the last seven or eight years. So we help them adjust to some of those evolving priorities. And even now with a new administration, there are changes being pushed down that you have to adapt to. It’s constantly having to adjust to the external environment, and as I’m sure you can imagine, with a large government organization, those changes can be challenging.

What principles have guided your career?
I genuinely enjoy learning new things. I try to stretch myself to work on things outside of my comfort zone. I learn well in environments where I am surrounded by people and teams who challenge and inspire me—this has been the case in my education and work experiences. Additionally, I try to make time for mentoring, because I feel like I’ve had a lot of people along the way who did that for me.

You’ve been very active in the DC community. Can you talk about some of your volunteer work?
I work with COMPASS, a non-profit that teams consultants from top business schools to provide strategic consulting services to local non-profit organizations. Through them, I helped lead the Wesley Housing Development Corporation in reorganizing their board of directors and establishing standard operating procedures to run the organization more efficiently.

I also volunteered with the Arlington Academy of Hope, a non-profit in Virginia that works with rural communities in Uganda. An article ran in the Washington Post about them, and suddenly they were overwhelmed with volunteers. Our group went in and did some strategic planning work with them to figure out what their mission and core competencies would be.

What does it mean to you to earn the Rising Star Award from McCombs?
I feel very humbled—it’s quite an honor. I’m so proud to say, all the time, that I went to The University of Texas and the McCombs School of Business. They both have such outstanding reputations. So to get recognized is extremely flattering.