Millicent Guadilla Lucero, BINT ’13, manages facilities in Mexico City.
THREE YOUNG WENTWORTH ALUMNI were recently selected for a rare and prestigious international career opportunity, accepting positions abroad with the U.S. Department of State.
Class of 2013 graduates Millicent Guadilla Lucero, BINT; Jason Miller, BFPM; and Kristen Benjamin, BFPM, are all in the midst of two-year terms where they live in their nations’ embassies, manage operations, and attend events while networking with key dignitaries. The roles also provide the chance to represent the U.S. government while assuming profound day-to-day responsibilities at a young age.
“I have learned so much in seven months,” says Benjamin, “and have been given the opportunity to learn about new cultures and people.”
For all three alumni, the embassy serves as the nerve center for their respective country’s diplomatic relations, a complex containing office space and living quarters for the chief of mission, staff, and other agencies.
Benjamin is currently stationed in Abuja, Nigeria, where she manages the residential side of the facilities program as deputy facility manager, which includes 18 residences with more than 150 units and 650 people working for the U.S. government. Her role as deputy facility manager also calls for the supervision of 80 locally employed staff, as well as management of the main embassy compound when the facility manager is absent.
Miller—who, like Benjamin, began his work with the State Department in 2016—currently calls Windhoek, Namibia, home. Miller attended federally funded classes to learn German (Namibia was once a German colony) and now works as a foreign service facility manager, overseeing the operations and maintenance of all U.S. mission facilities in the country, including the embassy, various government agency buildings, and mission staff residences.
“[It is] a chance to serve the United States through a job you enjoy,” Miller says. “You are able to travel the world and meet people from completely different cultures. It’s an amazing opportunity that is hard to pass up.”
Families of State Department employees are eligible for free housing and education while overseas, a benefit undoubtedly on Miller’s mind, as he and his wife recently welcomed a baby boy. Employees also have access to diplomatic immunity and vacations in between terms, as well as cooks and child-care providers.
Lucero works as a projects and support facility manager in Mexico City, where she manages the operations, maintenance, and projects for office spaces and residential properties within the large embassy. She previously oversaw the maintenance of more than 400 residences. When her term concludes at the end of 2017, she will be off to Lomé, Togo, in West Africa.
Lucero, Benjamin, and Miller all speak highly of Wentworth’s facility management classes, which provided the “confidence, knowledge, and experience necessary to thrive and adapt to challenges in the field,” according to Miller.
“Wentworth is heavily involved with the Boston Chapter of the International Facilities Management Associations, so we were able to make contacts early within the industry,” adds Lucero.
— Greg Abazorius
