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News | Dec. 1, 2021

Total Force director reflects on his tenure as his departure nears

By Tonya Johnson DCMA Public Affairs

As a Defense Contract Management Agency senior leader, Michael Beaupre has always been concerned about taking care of the agency’s workforce, who support warfighters around the world. As he prepares to depart his role as the director of the Total Force Directorate on Dec. 2, Beaupre reflected on his tenure with the agency.

He came to DCMA in October 2019 after serving as the administrator of the Defense Logistics Agency’s Human Resources Services at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Beaupre’s next assignment will be at the Defense Contract Audit Agency at Fort Belvoir where he will serve as the assistant director of Human Capital and Resource Management. Kathy Butera-Fanney will serve as DCMA’s interim Total Force director.

“I’m super excited to be taking on a new challenge, as I will be combining what I believe to be my expertise, which is human resources, with what I believe I know enough to be dangerous, which is resource management as a finance comptroller,” Beaupre said.

“They say you are never too old to learn, and I will have an opportunity to prove that as I will have to become Financial Management Level 3 certified to serve as the comptroller for DCAA,” he continued. “Given all that, I am truly sad to be leaving the great people within Total Force. They are ‘quiet professionals’ who continue to support all the military and civilian professionals across the agency.”

Beaupre and his staff accomplished much during his tenure, to include the combining of Military and civilian human resource personnel with the Combat Support Center to form the Total Force Directorate.

“There were no challenges when we combined these offices,” said Beaupre. “We have great leadership in our Military Personal Division, which is led by Ms. Judy Miles and (Air Force) Col. Jefferson “DB” DeBerry, as well as within our Combat Support Center, which is led by Mr. Ryan Kivett and Ms. Diann Hawkes. They have ensured we have fully integrated our military personnel, our operational contract support, and our deployable workforce into Total Force and DCMA business processes.”

There were other highlights during Beaupre’s tenure. One highlight is the development and implementation of the Leadership Development Program. Total Force staff also implemented a new Learning Management System, which streamlined mandatory and agency technical training. The agency created a DCMA Management Council and DCMA CARES Council. In addition, Total Force personnel worked to develop competency models for all DCMA job series in support of the agency’s Strategic Goal 5, which is to enhance and strengthen the skills, readiness and effectiveness of the total workforce.

“We worked closely with the components and technical experts on continued improvement of our training programs, which led to the highest DAWIA (Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act) certification rate within the Fourth Estate,” he said.

Beaupre noted that his Total Force staff has always been committed to serving the agency workforce.

“Everything we do within DCMA involves people,” he said. “Total Force is responsible for taking care of employees, both military and civilian across the agency. We are responsible for hiring, benefits, diversity, training, awards, and all administrative actions. Total Force is focused on ensuring we have the right people in the right place to perform DCMA’s mission sets. We are focused on improving time to hire and the quality of hires in order to do just that. Without Total Force, there would not be employees to perform the great work we do as an agency on a daily basis in support of the warfighter.”

In his final days with the agency, Beaupre hopes his legacy will be the creation of DCMA’s Leadership Development Program.

“Developing leaders is important to me, and I’ve been doing it since I was a non-commissioned officer in the Army,” he said. “It also reminded me that as leaders, sometimes we need to take a look at ourselves in the mirror and apply what we are preaching. We can never stop developing as leaders, and I believe my supervisors helped me develop into a better leader during my time here.”