WCI’s Calhoun Honored With Award Ahead Of Retirement
Deb Calhoun tells the story of America’s rivers and why they matter.
Calhoun, senior vice president of Waterways Council, Inc. (WCI), has spent decades telling that story on Capitol Hill, to national and local news media and to business and government officials. She does so to help ensure that the inland waterways industry’s importance to the economy is clear to those who approve the funding and policies that allow it to be maintained and improved.
That work is why, just ahead of her retirement at the end of the year, the Seamen’s Church Institute (SCI) has chosen her as the winner of its Distinguished Service Award. The award will be presented at the River Bell Awards Luncheon on December 10 at the Paducah-McCracken County Convention and Expo Center in Paducah, Ky.
“It was such a surprise, a shock, really,” Calhoun said of learning she would receive the award. “I never expected it, and I truly am so honored and humbled by it. It will really cap off the end of my career to celebrate with all of my colleagues, friends and family, just a great way to end it all.”
Calhoun said her career in the industry has been a labor of love, but it’s also one she didn’t initially plan on.
After college, Calhoun was a reporter in Baltimore, Md., covering the crime and education beats and writing headlines. From there, she went on to work in university relations for nearby Towson University. She believed the best opportunities for her career were in Washington, D.C., though, so she jumped at the chance to become assistant manager of communications and membership for an aerospace industry association. She later took a role as manager of communications as part of a job in the telecommunications industry.
Her transition to working in the maritime space was courtesy of a former boss in the aerospace field, who was once in the Navy with Joe Farrell, then president of The American Waterways Operators (AWO).
Calhoun said she’ll never forget that interview, walking in in her navy blue suit and carrying her briefcase full of papers detailing her experience.
“Joe said, ‘Yeah, yeah, put all of that away. What I want to know is what is your favorite hobby, and what do you like to do?’” she said.
He knew she had the communications skillset and that he could teach her about the industry. What he wanted to know was how well she could fit in with the AWO team.
Calhoun quickly showed her abilities, and when she had her two sons, now 31 and 28, she decided to use those talents to become a consultant to the maritime industry, offering her more schedule flexibility. AWO was one of her clients, along with the salvage industry, international shipbuilders and ocean-going shippers. It was in that role she was introduced to Waterways Work!, a predecessor of WCI. She worked closely with Dennis Kirwin, executive director of the organization during a campaign that highlighted the needs of the Corps of Engineers for full and efficient funding so that the country could get back to building locks and dams in a shorter period of time.
“That became such a success,” she said, crediting mentors like Berdon Lawrence. Eventually, Waterways Work! merged with the Association for the Development of Inland Navigation in America’s Ohio Valley, DINAMO, a Pittsburgh regional organization led by Barry Palmer that focused on locks and dams in that region. The new organization became WCI, and those involved asked Calhoun to come work for them full time.
That means Calhoun has been part of WCI since its beginning.
“It’s been quite a ride,” she said.
It didn’t take long for the industry to “get into her blood,” Calhoun said.
“It’s an industry that is extremely warm,” she said. “They, metaphorically, wrap their arms around you and bring you in, teach you things you don’t know.”
As a woman in a male-dominated industry, she also found her colleagues to be helpful, respectful and appreciative for what she could bring to the table, assisting the maritime industry in becoming more visible and for funding efforts to be more effective.
“I will never forget all the help I had along the way,” Calhoun said.
The key to WCI’s success has been what she sees as a “three-legged stool” approach involving government relations, stakeholder involvement and communications and media relations.
“You need all three to communicate the value of this industry and to urge investment from those who can make it, whether that be on Capitol Hill, in the White House or at OMB (the Office of Management and Budget).”
One of the initiatives Calhoun was instrumental in starting was lock and dam and towboat tours for those who might never have seen them before, including members of the news media who seldom wrote about the maritime industry. They were able to climb up into the wheelhouse, walk through the engineroom and even eat a delicious bite or two from the cooks.
“You can’t get that kind of education by sitting and reading a book or talking to people,” she said. “You have to see it up close and personal.”
She was able to use those tours to communicate the value of the system overall, how it helps the American economy to compete, its benefits to the environment over other modes of transportation and how it feeds and fuels the world.
Calhoun also has been involved in telling the industry’s story during difficult times, such as in 2012, when there were fears the Mississippi River might have to close to navigation traffic because of low water. Calhoun’s advocacy communicated the importance of removing rock pinnacles at Thebes, Ill., preventing similar concerns in that reach of the river in future years. She spoke to media outlets across the world, including the New York Times and major television networks.
“We didn’t waste that crisis, and it gave us all an opportunity to talk about what our economy would look like if we didn’t have these inland waterways,” Calhoun said.
Since then, she said, she has focused on continuing “speaking from the heart,” including emphasizing the importance of river infrastructure construction and maintenance and funding for dredging.
A major ongoing WCI effort is aimed at stopping the slide of construction project delays for large Corps of Engineers projects, such as the Kentucky Lock Addition Project.
“We well understand these are world-class projects, but it should not take 30 years in the United States of America to build a lock project,” she said. “We have become frustrated by that.”
Instead, WCI would like to see a seven- to 10-year timeframe for such projects. As a result, WCI is urging the creation of an Inland Waterways Program office within Corps Headquarters to be a point of contact for all Corps districts and divisions. The initiative has been passed in the House version of the Water Resources Development Act, but the Senate has yet to pass its own version, leading up to the lame-duck session of Congress.
Additionally, WCI remains concerned in the lapse of appointment of members to the Inland Waterways Users Board, which hasn’t met in nearly 700 days. The board is a critical way that industry interacts with the Corps of Engineers and Congress to advance priority projects, she said.
While Calhoun will be stepping back from the forefront of these issues following her retirement December 31, she said she is not going far. She and her husband, Rick, plan to remain in their home in Paducah, Ky., where Calhoun serves on the boards of the River Discovery Center and the Port of Paducah Propeller Club. She said she also plans to do some consulting, but said she is looking forward to having time to travel with Rick and make dinners from scratch for her family.
Nick Boykin will succeed her as WCI’s new director of communications and membership.
“I feel really grateful that I’m turning over the keys to the car to someone I know will be a great driver,” Calhoun said.
She also plans to continue encouraging others within the industry to tell their stories, and she explains the importance of that.
“We’ve always said, if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu,” Calhoun said. “It’s always better to tell the story from your perspective because others will tell your story, and it might not be what you want to convey.”
