Quanita Johnson-Benjamin

Quanita Johnson-Benjamin was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1972, her family moved to Oakland, California where most of them still reside today. Quanita attended public schools in Oakland and continued on to UC Berkeley. Her career began in customer service 30 years ago and has gradually evolved to include payroll, HR, and her current Protective Services administrative role. She began her career at Matthew Bender (a Law Book Publishing company) as a receptionist and was later promoted to Accounts Payable and Receivables. From there she moved on to ETS (Educational Testing Service), where she held the position of administrator for CAHSEE exam and CA State exam correction process. She and her team corrected tests, loaded scores, and mailed results to the different schools and parents. At ETS she received experience in payroll, HR, and office management working for the Western Field Office. In 2007, Quanita had the privilege of becoming an employee of Berkeley Lab, where she began her career in the Facilities Dept. as an Administrative Assistant III. In 2010, she moved to the OCFO and became a Travel Expense Report Processor/ Administrative Assistant. In 2014, she says she found her calling with the Protective Services Dept.—a position that perfectly matches her passion for helping and caring for others. Her current goal is to continue learning as much as possible from the subject matter experts with whom she works. After learning as much as possible, she plans to advance into a management position.

1. What inspires you to work in STEM?

I want to give back. If I can assist in someone's life being changed for the positive, that makes life worth living.

2. What excites you about your work at the Energy Department/Berkeley Lab?

I'm proud to work with a group of people whose mission is to make other peoples’ lives better or to make improvements to OUR great United States of America.

3. How can our country engage more women, girls, and other underrepresented groups in STEM?

Have more mentor programs to engage young ladies. Have meeting sessions with young women to see what interests them.

4. Do you have tips you would recommend for someone looking to enter your field of work?

In addition to the basic knowledge and duties I’ve learned at the lab to complete my job, I recommend the following five tips that I practice to maximize my effectiveness on the job: 1. TRULY be a ‘people person.’ Genuinely wanting to help others and make a difference always helps in this position. Loving people and being a people person makes this a fun job. 2. Know your manager’s expectations and understand how your work will affect the staff or departments you support. When coming into a new department it's very important to understand how your work affects others and what's required of you; this makes it easier to work with most people. 3. Always update your skills. With limited time during the day, you can make the most of your time by searching for seminars, Youtube instructional videos, and new training programs. Even if you don’t ever apply the newly gained knowledge you will have learned something new—possibly even how to present to others. 4. Set challenging personal goals. Don’t be afraid of hard work and set challenging, yet achievable, goals for yourself to best complete them. For example, standard practice in the Travel Dept. (OCFO) was to audit and process expense reports for payment within 5-7 business days. My goal was to process expense reports at a faster pace without compromising the integrity of my work or the lab’s policy. As a result, before I left the Travel Dept., properly submitted expense reports were being processed on a one-day turnaround schedule utilizing various Six Sigma rules, lab travel policy, and communication sessions with my supervisor. Setting challenging goals forced me to work harder and find creative ways to reinvent my position, as well as myself. 5. Always be willing to help others. Resist the ‘it’s not in my job title’ mentality, as you never know when you’ll need someone to assist you.

5. When you have free time, what are your hobbies?

I have two hobbies: spending time with my family, and learning new things. My first love is spending time with my family. We share our daily experiences, we eat, and we laugh. My family is my biggest support system and fan club. I know no matter what obstacles I face in life, I can ALWAYS count on them. I love to spend time with my peers/mentors. I'm always looking to learn new things or find ways to better my life. I like to listen and learn how people of all walks of life handle everyday situations, which sometimes offers me a different perspective I may not have thought of.