by Karen Brune Mathis
Managing Editor
Retired U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Marsha J. Evans knows leadership and where it needs to be.
“You have to be out where the work is getting done, talking to people,” she said. “You have to understand what is happening with people at every level.”
Evans, who goes by Marty, has a resume full of leadership titles, including one as the first woman to command a U.S. naval station.
She commanded Naval Station Treasure Island in San Francisco during her 30-year career.
Then there were her roles as CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA and the American Red Cross, as well as her job as acting commissioner of the LPGA, the Ladies Professional Golf Association.
Evans, who has moved to the Jacksonville area, is the keynote speaker at two events.
Evans will speak at the “Women, Words and Wisdom” 2011 Speaker Series at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Theatre Jacksonville, after a reception that starts at 5:30 p.m. Cost is $40 per person.
Her speech is called “Be the best you can be: Action steps for leaders to take charge and make things happen.”
The series benefits the Women’s Center of Jacksonville’s “Expanded Horizons Literacy Program for Women.” Evans is the second of three speakers in the series. For information, visit www.womenscenterofjax.org.
Evans also will be the keynote speaker at the 42nd annual EVE Awards luncheon on June 3 at the Hyatt Downtown. The Florida Times-Union sponsors the awards, which are presented to Jacksonville-area women who contribute to the community in the fields of education, volunteer service and employment.
Next Tuesday’s date, March 22, resonates with Evans. It’s the date of the City’s First Election in which voters will cast ballots for mayor, City Council seats and for sheriff, property appraiser and tax collector.
If a candidate does not receive a majority of votes, the top two vote-getters in each race will be on the ballot in the May 17 General Election.
“If you become an elected leader, you get whatever comes down the path,” said Evans, referring to unexpected and often defining events.
Evans, who was stationed in Japan during her career, said that while leaders need to have a plan, there are times when enormous challenges present themselves, such as last week’s earthquake and tsunami.
The devastation in Japan and global effects of the disaster continue to unfold.
“Sometimes, you don’t know what life is going to throw at you,” said Evans.
“You don’t know what your challenges will be. They might be what you think they are, but they might take some twists and turns and you find yourself in one of those life-defining challenges, and are you going to rise to the challenge?”
Evans wants to share a message of hope and a message of potential.
“The message is you have to have a plan if you are going to be the best you can be,” she said. That plan should be “how you maximize your own personal potential.”
Her biography shows that she has reached the top often.
Evans joined the Navy as a 20-year-old college senior. Over the ensuing decades, she distinguished herself as one of only a handful of women to reach the rank of rear admiral.
In addition to serving around the world, she commanded the Treasure Island station and also held top positions at the Navy Recruiting Command. She retired in 1998 as a rear admiral.
In January 1998, she took over the leadership of Girl Scouts of the USA.
From August 2002 through December 2005, Evans served as the 13th president and CEO of the American Red Cross.
From July 2009 to January 2010, she was the acting commissioner of the LPGA.
Along the way, she also has served as a director of Office Depot, Weight Watchers International and the U.S. Naval Academy Foundation, among other organizations.
She also has many honors and honorary degrees, as well as an undergraduate degree in diplomacy and world affairs and a master’s degree in law and diplomacy.
She also studied at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., and the National War College in Washington, D.C.
Evans and her husband, Jerry, also a Navy veteran, are buying a home in Marsh Landing, moving here from the Washington, D.C., metro area. They’ve owned a condo in Jacksonville Beach for several years.
Unlike many other military retirees in the area, they were never stationed in Jacksonville. Their introduction was a golf tournament that her husband played here in 1994 while they were living in California.
“My husband fell in love with the area, the golf, the ambiance, so he was the one who first identified the area,” she said.
After the part-time residency, they made the move.
“About three or four months ago, we said, ‘why don’t we just live here full time?’” she said.
Evans said she joined the Navy during the spring of her senior year in college.
“It was totally on a whim. The last thing on my mind was joining the Navy,” she said.
She saw a newspaper photo of a Navy woman and it sparked her interest. She thought she would serve two years and then return to pursue graduate school.
It turned out the Navy put her through graduate school and she served in Tokyo, London, Germany and other areas.
“I had a charmed life in the Navy,” she said.
Evans was at Treasure Island when the San Francisco earthquake hit in 1989, so she knows about leading during a disaster.
“The challenge of it all is you are thrust into these settings where you just couldn’t imagine it before,” said Evans.
“You have to trust your instincts. You have to trust and work with the people around you. As a leader, you have to get people to do things they never imagined they could do,” she said.
“People happily rise to the occasion more often than not.”
Evans also notes that those who are leading and working through a disaster also are worried about their own families.
“It’s a great stressor when you have to be a leader when you have the same concerns, but you have to put them aside and spring into action and do the job you are trained to do,” said Evans.
After a disaster, “you have to take care of the caretakers and take care of those who have been the leaders,” she said.
While the post-disaster analysis of what worked and what didn’t can be tough on those who’ve been in the trenches, it’s necessary.
“That is how you prepare yourself and the organization on how you do a better job,” she said.
“If we answer that question, then we will be better prepared next time.”
356-2466