UMBC Mic'd Up
UMBC Mic'd Up
The Art of Building a Legacy | UMBC Stories of Success
Ever wonder what could happen when you decide to pursue something not for money, prestige, or advancement, but for the pure love of learning and sharing? Whenever passion drives you to make the world a better place than you found it, magic happens. Lives change. Communities form. Purpose drives you forward, a purpose to do better in a world that needs you.
This was the catalyst for graduate student, Donald Drummer, of the UMBC Entrepreneurship, Innovation, & Leadership graduate program, to come out of this retirement and pursue advanced education. He wants to leave a legacy behind for his loved ones. He's embarking on an entrepreneurial venture with the potential to change the future for his loved ones.
Tune in to hear his story as he shares insights from his many years leading teams both in the civilian and military worlds and his dreams of innovating life-changing technologies and resources.
"I'm retired with a lot of gas left in the tank. So I enjoy studying and learning new ways to give back." - Donald Drummer
Learn more about UMBC's Entrepreneurship, Innovation, & Leadership graduate program.
Welcome to UMBC's Mic'd Up podcast. My name is Dennise Cardona from the Office of Professional Programs here at UMBC. Today, I want to welcome a very special guest on to the show, Mr. Donald Drummer. He is a current student in the Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Leadership graduate program at UMBC. Welcome, Donald.
Donald Drummer:Thank you very much. Glad to be here.
Dennise Cardona:Could you tell us a little bit about yourself in terms of your educational journey to get to UMBC? And maybe what brought you there?
Donald Drummer:Yes. So I'll I'll start with educational and professional for that matter. My educational journey. I have an undergrad from the University of Texas at Austin BBA. And I have an MBA from Kansas State University, and then a master of Strategic Studies from the US Army War College. So to make that make sense, I actually served in the military. for 30 years, I retired, I was an officer. And then I went to the federal government, as a civilian as a Senior Executive Service member. And I started my journey with the Transportation Security Administration, as Deputy Director of the TSA workforce at JFK, john F. Kennedy Airport. And then I moved to become the director of the airport at Newark, and I had four airports, had Newark, Trenton, Atlantic City and Newcastle and Delaware. And then I moved to Washington, DC area, National Capital Region, I live in National Harbor, and became the Assistant Administrator for the Office of security capabilities, translated as the Deputy Chief Technology Officer for TSA. So after six years of counterterrorism operations, I decided to move to the Federal Aviation Administration. And I became the director of the aviation logistics organization, which was a totally different lane. I had a 6.4 million square foot lease portfolio around the country, and have about $7.2 billion in personal property assets, and a fleet of vehicles around the country. And then I retired. And I was asking myself, what's the best use of your time and talent and I spoke to one of my sons are married, by the way. I have a son that's a Catholic priests and pastor in Atlanta, Georgia. his twin brother is married to an attorney and lives in Chicago, and he's executive director of a think tank. And then I have a daughter here, who just started to work for the federal government. She was an anti money laundering and banking at first. And now she works for the federal government. And I asked my son in Chicago, I said, You know, I want to help underserved kids. That's where I think I need to move. And he said that if you want to serve underserved kids, the best thing you can do is teach them about economic opportunities, and teach them to get in the economic game. To be successful. That's what this country is made of. So I said, Okay, let me look around. And well, let me back up, I got interested in renewable energy because of him, because his think tank is affiliated with the green New Deal. Not quite, but partially, and they are contributors to what's going on now. And I went to hear him speak. And I heard a number of distinguished speakers. And he was he was also in the lineup, and I had a passion for solar energy. So I found a lane utility scale solar energy, which is solar farming, and micro grid, solar energy, where you can use smaller pockets of the energy where you might not have to get on the grid. And I got connected with a developer. And with that developer, I found that they were great technicians, but needed some work on the business side. So I said, Let me find a program that will help me understand the best way to do business because I know in small businesses, people go out of business in the first year, then five, then 10. And I said, I don't want to be a part of that process. And I'm a champion of structure, process and efficiency. So I searched the internet, looked around and found the UMBC program. I didn't want a program where I would be online. I wanted a program where I could spend time with students. And since I had a career behind me, I said, What a great opportunity to engage with young people 20s 30s and 40s and 50s, for that matter, and see what they're learning and see what professors are teaching, and then apply my experience and knowledge to that as a filter. And I have to tell you, it's been an awesome experience. And what drew me to the UMBC program was the fact that it Call entrepreneurship, innovation and leadership. It's not just about conducting business. It's also about being creative. And it's about leading your organization, and people and communicating. So it just, it just fit perfectly when I looked at the curriculum, but then I got a bonus. Once I joined the program, I realized that every single one of my instructors and I've completed I will complete at the end of this semester, seven of the 11 courses. Every single one of them is an entrepreneur, with experience, and knowledge. And every single one of them don't have to be here teaching. They're adjunct professors, they're giving back. And that just moved me. Because I've always, I've learned quickly, you know, I live on the other end of DC. But in Baltimore, there is a significant footprint of underserved community members. And every single one of my professors has a link to serving society above and beyond what they do in their entrepreneurial journey. And then the sacrifice of teaching at night, above and beyond what they're doing just mean so much. So I get the best of all worlds of UMBC, and it's been something special.
Dennise Cardona:My goodness, that is just an amazing story. And I'm really inspired by it. First of all, I'm a graduate student in one of our UMBC professional programs as well, the Learning and Performance Technology graduate program. And one of the things that I love most, and you touched upon this was that collaboration with other peers, be that they're 20, 30, 40, and I'm in my 50s. And it's not really your traditional graduate student, but I am gaining so much knowledge and just looking at life through such a different lens, being able to see it through the lenses of somebody young, the millennials see the up and coming, then the ones who have a 30 40 year old who have been in the world a little bit. And now they have this experience that is just so rich, and we're all able to share it with each other. And that's such a powerful thing when you can come together with a group of people and experience that camaraderie and that spirit of wanting to do better in the world. And by doing that by learning and grasping what other people have been through. And when you take that and you mix that up together of magic wants, doesn't it?
Donald Drummer:Absolutely, absolutely. And they've really opened up my aperture and the way I see things, I spent a lot of time you know, lead people in manage operations for a number of years, I've built teams, solve problems, or lead the effort in solving problems, and we delivered results. And coming to this program, I'm finally there are some other creative ways to approach that. And it feels good to sit in class and listen and sit in class, but be participate in class and listen to some of the information shared by the professors. And the lights come on. It's like, yep, they're absolutely right. And I have to, I have to really constrain myself not to engage and allow the other students to absorb and receive a lot of it. However, there's a large percentage and a huge percentage that I gain above and beyond what I already knew. And mixing and matching what I know, with what I'm learning is going to be tremendous for me.
Dennise Cardona:Yeah, and you've touched on the word Listen, that is such a skill that is it is so powerful to learn that skill to actually listen. Because a lot of people and myself included I, I've struggled with that in the past where I haven't listened to the, to the extent where if I did, I would gain so much more knowledge and experience by just taking the time to listen in and actively ask questions based on that listening. And so that's a really powerful thing to be able to do. And I, I really enjoyed hearing you say, and I had to hold myself back because it's so true, right? We, we want to participate we want to but it's really important to give other people that chance to maybe listen and absorb and voice what they've learned through their perspective. And then we gain from doing that.
Donald Drummer:Exactly. And the listening side, a lot of people assume when you're in the military, it's a one way conversation, I tell you what to do and you execute and that is not true. The military is a cross section of society. And those are organizations all the way up the chain from, from a platoon to accompany, to a brigade to a division. those organizations have people in them. And the best way to solve problems is to get feedback from those who are executing the business. And I learned that as a young company commander as a young Captain as a and I would after every field problem. I would sit down and ask my privates, what would you have done differently? And wow, they had some great ideas and I use them. I He's all the time I when I was with TSA, I joined the workforce at Newark, that was in deep trouble. I mean, it was 1500 employees, but they were not on the same page. And the leadership skills of the senior leaders wasn't as good as it should be. And when I joined the team, I let them know. And I tease, I said, Hey, guys, I have big ears. I listen, I want to know what you think about how we can improve and become one of the highest performing organizations in TSA. And then a three and a half year period, we moved from number 450, in performance to number two. But I get feedback from people on the front lines. And I learned to empower leadership at multiple levels, because the managers were driving the train and the supervisors didn't have a lot of input. And if the supervisors don't have the input, neither do the members on the front lines. So we kind of changed the game. But I just want to share with you the power of listening, yes. And I had to learn to do that. But in the military, it's not one way it is a two way street, and those who are successful, listen and learn.
Dennise Cardona:Wow. Yeah. You know, it makes me think about how how powerful it is when organizations are led by people who understand that the people, no matter what your position within a company, especially if you are, say, on the ground, you know, rolling up your sleeves in the trenches, right, you're seeing the day to day, you see the problems as they're happening, because you are the one doing that kind of nitty gritty work. When, when management when upper management, strategic managers could ask for the opinion of people doing the work, those people feel empowered, and they feel part of the solution. And so they want to do better. And I've experienced that on different levels, especially the UMBC community, when leadership comes together, especially during COVID. And, and they wanted our intake, they wanted our input about how we can make this a better a better year for ourselves being even though that was separated from each other, how can we do better, and they wanted input from everybody, everybody, and it was such a, it's a spirit that lifts everybody up, and you all just want to succeed together. And so that is very powerful. No wonder why you took it to number two. That's, it's absolutely amazing what a story that is. Wow.
Donald Drummer:I'm glad to hear you share that because UMBC is is really on the cutting edge of communicating well, through COVID. I look at you know, I read everything that they put out, and it's Wow, they're on top of it, and they care. And they keep everyone informed through multiple channels. And I said, Okay, this is a high performing organization here for for a lot of reasons. Now, you helped me understand, they got input from from everyone before they put out their plans.
Dennise Cardona:You know, it's interesting, because you mentioned that one thing that you were looking for in a program was not an online program, right? He was looking for an in person, of course, COVID hits, right. So this whole year has been online for you, you must be really looking forward to being able to get back in the classroom, with your peers with the faculty, right back on campus.
Donald Drummer:I sure I am. But it's been a two sided coin, I started my journey last spring. So this is my second summer, I went to spring and the summer. And then I took off the fall because I had a medical procedure. And then I restarted this spring. And we went until March 23, I think the first time around, and I was driving 47 miles, you know, one way, three times a week to get to class, but I enjoyed it. And then we made this transition. And it was good because at my age, I'm accustomed to video teleconferences. But as an executive, I didn't turn it on, I didn't turn it off, I didn't have to do anything. I showed up to the meeting, after everyone had it set up, put out what I was going to put out and gaze away, I was going to engage and we've moved on. And now I have to learn how to do things a lot differently. And it helped me get in the game on this technology that we have. Because I'm in a different generation. I didn't maximize this technology before I just used it because of the require in what we were doing. So for me, it's been a two sided coin. It's been a blessing, and very helpful for me to learn technology and to learn how to engage and go into meeting rooms to get things done with people. And also learn that later on we can we can save money. We don't have to take all these trips across country. get things done.
Dennise Cardona:Yeah, so true. What a savings it is for so many organizations that relied so heavily on putting their employees on airplanes and flying them around the world. They don't need to do that anymore. In a sense.
Donald Drummer:I will also share with you and Gib Mason's capstone course. I'm in Capstone one right now. And what we do on our on our business Canvas is we, we can use stickies, but you can't do that if you're not physically present. So I'm having to learn how to how do you do a sticky? And I haven't broken the code yet others have, how do you do a sticky in a virtual format. So I'm working in learning through that process. And I'm not using stickies yet. But I like stickies. They work because it gives you an opportunity to be flexible and move things around. So I do miss that. And maybe in Capstone, too, by the time I get there will be physically present, where I can engage and have those relationships.
Dennise Cardona:I completely understand that the fascination and the need for stickies because well, I'm have an office full of them. I'm holding one right now. And what I love about stickies, like you just said, it's flexible. You can move things around, if it doesn't work here, you can say, Okay, let's try it here. And if it doesn't, now, if it doesn't work here, let's try it here. Oh, wow, I didn't even think that it could work there. So it gives you a different way to look at things and view things and to learn how to be flexible and brainstorm and all of that kind of good stuff. And so you have not got to the stickies on a say, I think Microsoft Teams has sticky notes and things like that. I don't use them either. But virtually I don't use them. I'm much more of a paper pen and paper type person when it comes to that.
Donald Drummer:Yeah, I've invested more time in the thinking part than trying to figure out how to make these stickies work. But I will, I will, because it's, it's a skill set and a tool that I would love to use. And I'm a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. So I've used them before in business process improvement. And that's another thing I like about this program. It's about structure. It's about process. And it's about efficiency. And that's how you make things work in business, whether it's a social entrepreneurship, or whether it's a you know, profit making entrepreneurship. And what I like, what I'm accustomed to is you get a lot of brilliant people in a room. And they have popcorn thinking they're all over the map, with no focus, haven't defined the problem, and you just spin your wheels. And what I like about this program, it shows me that there's power in defining problems accurately, in building teams, and empowering them to provide feedback, and having some structure and some process and focus in solving problems and delivering results. So that's what I like about this program.
Dennise Cardona:Yeah, I agree. There's a time and a place for that popcorn thinking, I love that term. I think I might borrow that from you now. Like that term, but it does. Alright, so there is a time and a place for that. That's during the brainstorming type of session when you need ideas, thinking off the cuff out of the box and things of that sort. But there's a real value in that whole process, thinking because, yeah, I'm right there with you that having a process in place makes it replicable. Right. And that's really important. When you're in business sense. You want to be able to replicate what you just did. And you want to be able to do that over and over again, maybe tweaking here and there that replicable ability is really important. Our programs are very applied in nature, specifically, this particular program is very applied. Do you have an example anything where you have taken what you've learned in the classroom on say, Tuesday night, and then Wednesday, you went into what you do your everyday stop, you went there and you applied it, somehow you that light bulb went off Tuesday night and Wednesday, you were like, I'm gonna go there and do this and try it out.
Donald Drummer:Has that happened yet? Oh, yes, absolutely. And I think I mentioned that to give one day we were in class. And we were on about five minutes early. And I told him that I was connecting dots. And it was making sense. I take a class now from Jeremy Steinberg in marketing. And we talked about the marketing funnel, marketing and sales funnel. And it directly applied to what I was doing, and helped me understand a piece of the canvas when I talked about the marketing, or the customer segments. And it just that lights just came on for me. So there are things that I learned in each of the classes that are applicable to another class. And for me, of course, I'm processing a lot through my experience, then I also get to process it through what I just learned in another class,
Dennise Cardona:When you can apply it that's just so powerful. Most of us learn by doing. And there is some theory, I'm assuming, but there's also that applied learning that you can just can take that right there to your place and show the value. Now speaking of taking it to where you are right now, can you talk a little bit about what you are doing right now. You mentioned investing in solar farms.
Donald Drummer:Solar farms is a sector of what I'm interested in, if I look at and I'm gonna use Canvas terms, so customer segments the to customer segments on I'm interested in his utility scale, energy production solar. And that's equivalent to a solar farm. So my twin brother has 43 acres in Texas. And I called him up and says, Hey, what are you doing with that land? He says paying taxes, and nothing else. And I said, Okay, would you consider, you know, a solar farm opportunity, utility scale solar power generation? He said, Absolutely. So that's when I found the developer. And we started to work the process. And I found just how complex it is. And of course, a lot of us now know, in the news, there are regional regulatory entities that have an impact on how much you can put on the grid, whether you can get permits and a number of things. And Urquhart is one of them. And it's a real slow process. So what I thought would be a one year to one and a half year process could turn into a three to five year process, because of all of the steps that are taken, and all of the collaboration that is required. And in this case, the regulatory entities that influence how much you can put on the grid. And we wanted to do an 18 megawatt solar farm, but we're going to be limited to 10. Because the grid, they want to regulate how much energy is distributed to the grid. So that's what we're working on. And it's a slow process. So I said, you know, what, why don't you put yourself in position to succeed when that process matures. Another piece of this is the developer that I'm working with, has a patent process in progress. If that patent is approved, it could potentially change the game on efficiency. Right now, in the solar industry, the efficiency of trans lading, or transforming sun energy into useful AC DC energy is 15 to 18%. And it's been that way for about 10 to 15 years, the very Max, I think it's 21%. Without getting into proprietary danger, proprietary danger, I'll just say there will be some significant improvements if this if this patent is improved. And that means the infrastructure that's required, it takes about five acres for every megawatt that you want to produce. That's what it takes in infrastructure to get it done. So every bit of improvement, if you improve that by 30%, you reduce your footprint by 30%, which means you reduce the cost of capital associated with that, which means you reduce the price of energy, and on and on and on. So what I wanted to do was get in on the front end of this, and I'm not doing it to make money. My family and I were fine. And I'm retired, we're fine. But I want to produce a business legacy for my family. I have two grandchildren. Now, one three, and one turns, not one turns four on Monday, and one is one. And I want them to know that there's a possibility to be in business, and to leave that family legacy. So the best use of my time would be there. And then similar to what our professors are doing and what UMBC is about in a lot of wa s. I also want to give back, an I'm in a class right now wi h Carol Bogash called cre tive problem solving in the soc al entrepreneur. And I took it ecause I wanted to replace ano her course so I could gra uate when I wanted to gra uate, having no idea what I wou d learn. So I've seen ano her angle. And I've seen an opp rtunity to use solar energy in nonprofit organization to bec me an economic production pla form to give back to soc ety. And that's, that's bra d new, I haven't even put it out yet. And I will present that as ne of my my individual pro ects in that course, we'll be resenting in a few weeks. Tho e are the kinds of things tha just and you can have proof for profit, but you can also do non rofit, and give back to soc ety. And it gets back to wha my son said, empower them eco omically. Show them how to get in the game on the economic sid of the house. And the way I loo at solar energy, it's the gif that keeps on giving. The e's a lot of money flowing int Baltimore in particular, and we're studying homelessness. And then if you look at hom lessness, you have to break and look at poverty. And then if you look at the origins of Pov rty in Baltimore. Wow, I jus read a book called not in my eighborhood. Oh, my gosh. And it is been so enlightening. To ee how that shaped what's hap ening in Baltimore. So we hav all of this money coming fro Housing and Urban Dev lopment moving into Bal imore, we have just won erful donors, foundations and businesses that donate money to ake this happen. And my con ern is, that's all con umption, all of that old res urces are consumed in the com unity to address poverty and hom lessness, and a whole lot of pop orn thinking out there. And my uestion is, how can that be sus ained? It's going to be very dif icult. So why don't we find a w y to use solar energy as an eco omic production platform, to use those proceeds and revenues net revenues afterward, to con ribute back to the com unity, empower the com unity, and help them become mor resilient in the long run. So hat's an angle on taking, and I would have never thought of t could have not been in thi program. And taking that cou se, with Carol. And I took ano her course from her called lea ning organizations last spr ng, so she puts you to work. Boy you are,
Dennise Cardona:I love, Carol. Gosh, we worked together on the United Way. I did a video for her in her class design thinking, whole project with the United Way of Central Maryland. And what an inspiring story that was, I was able to put together their stories, several students, I think that were five students in this video talking about how it affected them. And that's what I love about this program and the UMBC community in general, they, we care about the community, and it's programs like this, that bring out those future leaders. And it also brings out pioneers, people who would do it my gosh, that the stuff that you're doing with us, I love the idea that you're talking about with building that Economic Education for the youth. And my sister and I talked about this many years ago to that that is one of the problems is that children don't, they're not learning how to use money, how to plan money, how to save it, how to how to invest in it, it's investing in these types of projects that you're thinking about, and you're putting into action, and you're here in graduate school to learn more, not for a degree necessarily, not for career advancement, it's to do better in the world. If everybody had that mindset, and that drive to be able to look at education, no matter what the education, finance, leadership, innovation, all of that, if everybody looked at education, through that lens of wanting to just make the world a better place, what they're learning in the classroom, man, as far as get Hmm.
Donald Drummer:I'm uniquely positioned to do it, you know, having been retired, settled, knowing what's important in life, but my mom and my late mom shared something with me in my middle years of military, she says, when you wake up every morning, you have to have something to be enthusiastic about something. So I found that retirement was a quite a journey, because you go from going 110 miles an hour in a 55 hour zone, to slowing down because everybody says I want to retire and do what I want to do and travel and do this. And I did that I spent a year and a half just doing everything that I wanted to do. And I realize you have a lot left in the tank. And you can give back. And what are you going to be enthusiastic about? And now I found that this is something that I'm enthusiastic about giving back and using these processes umpc education and business opportunities as an entrepreneur, to give back to society. So yes,
Dennise Cardona:Yeah, you've planted quite a seed. How do you want to show up in the world? I mean, to me, that's a phrase I when I'm listening to you, that's what I'm hearing in my head. How do you want to show up in the world? Because it's a choice. In many cases, it is a choice to be able to say, How do I want to show how do I want to show up to this very moment, this very day, we all have that choice. And it's in taking those choices. And having them guided by that principle is really enlightening and inspiring. And, gosh, this was wonderful. Hearing this conversation, hearing, hearing your insights. I've thoroughly enjoyed our conversation today. I'm so thankful that you were here that we were able to get our technology we had both technical and technological issues. But I'm so happy that we were able to square that away and we're able to have this conversation and then we'll be able to share this with others.
Donald Drummer:Well, my pleasure, my pleasure. And and I thank you because I don't think I've ever had a chance to really articulate this. Except in snippets here and there, you've helped me just think through it and go, Wow, yes, this is powerful. And you know, I did not know UMBC existed. I've on y been in the area six years. We moved from New York and New Je sey here. We bought a place in National Harbor, I worked in DC Arlington, in DC. And when I wa looking for schools, I di n't know what to look for. Wh n I looked at the University of Maryland, I looked on all the DC schools and I looked around, an then this popped up UMBC. And t e only connection I had with MBC was when you all beat Vir inia, in the NCAA Tourname t. That was it.
Dennise Cardona:That was a mom nt.
Donald Drummer:Yes. And then I found out, wait a minute, this is an honors university that produces more that provides more medical school students than any other school in the country. I think that's a reputation that I hear about. I don't know how accurate that is. But what a powerful institution it is. And then when I got on the inside, to see that it's first class, in planning, organizing, managing, and then I see how Gib Mason ot I don't know, I guess it appened over time how he is put ogether a program that goes eyond antiseptic academic eaching, where someone's been eaching for 30 years, and hat's all they've done is each. Whereas No, no, I'm going o bring in information and pplication, share lessons, earn the good, the bad, and the gly, and empower entrepreneurs o do it. Right. Wow. Yeah.
Dennise Cardona:When I talk t Gib, he is the most pa sionate person I think I've ev r met. Aside from you. I me n, I'm saying you are full of pa sion. It just comes right th ough the screen right now and gi e us give us the same way. He s got this passion for wa ting to just give back to the st dents and teach and teach ev rything he's learned and le rn more even from the st dents. He's so open minded li e that. He's constantly says he s always learning from his in tructors, the students, the pe ple around him, and I just lo e that whole attitude. It's a wi ning attitude. And it's I'm so happy to be a part of it.
Donald Drummer:It is it is.
Dennise Cardona:Thank you for tuning into this episode of UMBC s Mic'd Up podcast. If you'd li e to learn more about t e entrepreneurship, innovation a d leadership graduate program t UMBC, visit eil.umbc.edu