Department of Homeland Security Alum is Next Viewpoints Speaker
Carolyn Quinn now owns Dug In Farms in White Stone
Making a complete about-face, Carolyn Quinn went from living on Capitol Hill and working for the Department of Homeland Security to living on Dug In Farms in White Stone and running a produce and farm market at the end of her driveway.
Quinn will be RWC’s next Viewpoints Speaker on May 7 and will talk about what it’s like to serve the country in the founding moments of a new government agency.
“I was working in the Senate (for former U.S. Senator John Warner) when 9/11 occurred,” Quinn said. “I left shortly afterward to join the newly established Department of Homeland Security.”
DHS was initially formed by bringing 22 different agencies together, but Quinn worked for a brand new agency within Homeland Security – The Office of Science and Technology, whose mission was to find the best technologies in the country to combat threats to the homeland.
“Our office had 40 people and we were in the basement of an old building,” Quinn said. “We had no letterhead, no pencils.… Half of the challenge was finding desks and computers.”
After one and a half years with DHS as a political appointee under George W. Bush, Quinn left to start her own consulting company for small businesses that wanted to work with Homeland Security or the Department of Defense. But she had found her Northern Neck farm, so she commuted back and forth to D.C. a few times per week until she decided she wanted to be here full time instead.
“I was introduced to the area by a friend who worked with the Senate Armed Services Committee,” she said. “I always wanted to live in a rural environment with a slower pace of life. I couldn’t believe that you could find this very isolated place on the water and this close to a major city.”
RWC’s Viewpoints series features experts on a wide range of topics of current interest. These free presentations begin at 11 a.m. and are held on the first Monday of the month through June 4 in the Chesapeake Center Auditorium on RWC’s campus, 132 Lancaster Dr., Irvington.
Reservations for the May 7 event begin April 23 by calling RWC at 438-4000. Attendees are invited to remain after the presentations for a complimentary lunch. Reservations open for each speaker two weeks prior to the event. RWC maintains a waiting list and honors reservations in the order received. Separate reservations must be made for each speaking event in the Viewpoints series.
This year’s line-up includes an all-female cast. The last speaker of the year on June 4 is Dr. Cheryl Brown Davis, a music educator.