When Kathleen Jolivette first joined The Boeing Company in the early 2000s, she had little in common with her fellow interns. By the time she arrived at Boeing, Jolivette had spent eight years in the U.S. Army, already started a family, and obtained her undergraduate degree. “I was in my late 30s.” says Jolivette. “I always joked about being the oldest.”
But being the oldest intern wasn’t always a laughing matter. “I used to worry because my peers who were my age were far ahead of me at the company,” she recalls. “I would get frustrated and think, what could I have been or done by now if I had just started earlier?”
It’s not a question Jolivette asks herself any longer. Today, Jolivette is in charge of Boeing’s Mesa, Ariz., facility, where she oversees 4,000-plus employees and is responsible for the company’s Apache and Little Bird helicopter programs. It’s a crucial role, but getting there has been anything but a straight and easy path for Jolivette, the winner of this year’s Professional of the Year Award.
For Jolivette, moving from a youth spent on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota to a highly successful career at one of the world’s largest and most sophisticated companies is a story of persistence and hard work, qualities she says she learned by watching her mother. “Her work ethic was unreal,” Jolivette says about her mom, who worked as a nurse’s assistant. “I don’t remember a day when she missed work — she would have to be really sick. She raised my siblings and me as a single mom, and she always talked about furthering and improving myself.”
Jolivette took that advice to heart and joined the U.S. Army directly after high school. It was a transformative experience, not only because she was stationed in both Germany and St. Louis — moves that broadened her perceptions of the world dramatically — but also because it taught her how to be a leader. “In the military you find that leaders lead first through humility and also by example,” she says. “That applies to me today. During the COVID-19 pandemic, our essential workers come in to build aircraft every day. That’s not something I would ask of them if I wasn’t also willing to do it myself.”
Jolivette’s leadership tutorial continued after she joined Boeing. For four years she served as the chief of staff to the president and CEO of Boeing’s Defense, Space, and Security business. It was a job that required traveling around the world and working closely with other high-level company executives. “I got to see how business strategies were developed and executed, different leadership styles, talent development, and what it takes to run a business, all of which is directly related to the work I do today,” she says.
Throughout her career Jolivette has been committed to helping other Native people pursue careers in STEM. Not only is she a member of AISES, Jolivette also donates time and money to the Native American Heritage Association and served as the executive sponsor of the Boeing Native American Network business resource group. Since taking on her position in Mesa, Jolivette has actively sought out opportunities to engage with local tribes, including getting Native students excited about careers in STEM.
Through mentoring, volunteering, and financial support, Jolivette has a pretty simple mission. “It’s all about how can you make it easier for young people to be successful,” she says. “Not everyone needs to struggle and find their path the hard way.” Part of making things easier for young students is simply making them aware of what’s possible. As a young kid growing up on a reservation, Jolivette says she really had no clue about how to tap the resources necessary for college or the business world.
All those things can be learned, particularly when there are mentors and organizations willing to help. But one thing Jolivette says needs to come from within each aspiring student is a vision for what they want to do and the persistence required to achieve it. “There’s always a temptation to work for a while and then say you’ll go back to college later, especially if you have small kids,” she says. “But the payoff for finishing school is much greater than you can imagine. You have to stay focused and do it no matter how hard it seems.”
