Leadership in W

ith its ambitious mission of changing the world, Binghamton University’s College of Community and Public Affairs prides itself in preparing students to become leaders. The evidence of success can be seen in its alumni, who have gone on to head organizations both large and small.

Two government leaders, Mary Whitcombe-Turbush ’02, MPA ’19, and Kimberly Gianopoulos ’88, MA ’89, are making a major impact at both the local and federal levels. While they have learned many lessons over the course of their careers, both agree on one thing — Binghamton played a key role in making them the leaders they are today.

When Mary Whitcombe-Turbush takes on a job, she goes all in.

Born and raised in Broome County, where Binghamton is located, she now serves as the director for the Office for Aging, responsible for “improving and enriching the quality of life for all older persons” in the county.

With services ranging from in-home support to socialization programs to Meals on Wheels, her office covers a lot. But after years of finding ways to meet the needs of the community, WhitcombeTurbush has learned the ins and outs of how to keep things running smoothly.

“I think some people believe they’ll graduate from school and just automatically become great leaders. I don’t see it that way,” she says. “I think you should experience every level of an organization to truly understand how to lead it. You should experience putting on a hairnet to serve food just as much as you should experience writing the grant that pays for that food.”

Whitcombe-Turbush’s immersion into roles that serve the community started when she became a preschool assistant at age 14. At 17, she started helping with an after-school program, and was the assistant director by the age of 19.

“When I jump into something, I tend to jump all in,” she says.

Her work continued through college, when she served as a director at the Boys and Girls Club of Endicott while studying sociology at Binghamton University. After graduating, she was hired by Catholic Charities of Broome County, where she worked for nearly two decades. Her first task was to create a new program to assist families in finding help for their children with mental health issues.

“Developing it from the ground up wasn’t as challenging as I was expecting it to be because I had done so much work with the community by that point. All of these experiences became pieces of a puzzle that I put together, and it built off of everything I had learned,” she says.

Her time at Catholic Charities led to her guestspeaking in CCPA classes, where she decided to eventually earn her Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree. A single mother working full time, Whitcombe-Turbush completed the program on a part-time basis over the course of five years.

“The MPA program really made me realize how human-service oriented local government could be. I didn’t realize there was this level of management within local governments to meet those needs,” she says.

That education in public administration helped push her to take on her current role with Broome County in 2021.

“The MPA program gave me the confidence to go outside of what I was comfortable with. Those classes and the ideas they exposed me to helped me consider how I could best use this education,” she says.

When it comes to effective leadership, Whitcombe-Turbush stresses the importance of teamwork.

“I can’t imagine I’d be in this leadership role without all of the work I’ve done with people over the years,” she says. “You need to understand where people are at every level of where you work, and that is very helpful in being a leader. We all have to work together to get important things done.”

Kimberly Gianopoulos ’88, MA ’89 Director, International Affairs and Trade, U.S. Government Accountability Office

When Kimberly Gianopoulos decided to major in mathematics, she never envisioned that one day she’d be testifying in front of Congress.

As a director in the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) International Affairs and Trade team, Gianopoulos is responsible for providing Congress with fact-based, nonpartisan information that helps lawmakers make important policy decisions.

“We provide recommendations that are 100% based on evidence and facts. Being able to lead this kind of work is very gratifying,” Gianopoulos says.

Her 30+ year journey with the GAO has brought her all around the world to take deep dives into topics ranging from nuclear power to cryptocurrency — all with a goal of providing the best information possible to our nation’s leaders. And it all began at Binghamton.

As Gianopoulos, a Chester, N.Y., native, studied math during her undergrad, she began to wonder how she could apply her love of numbers.

“I wanted to do something that would take my quantitative background and help me understand the world and solve its problems,” she says.

She credits an intro to world politics course with opening her eyes to options.

“I realized that what we do in the public policy realm has real implications, and if you could use data and facts and analysis to inform those decisions, then that could be a very powerful thing,” she says. “It really made me think I could make a difference.”

Gianopoulos moved on to the master’s program in public policy analysis and administration (the precursor to the MPA program) and dove into public policy, which included an independent study on federal budgeting and an internship with the Orange County, N.Y., budget office. She met a recruiter for the GAO on campus and started working there shortly after graduating.

Originally starting out in the New York City office, her time with the GAO brought her everywhere from China to New Zealand to Hawaii to study a wide spectrum of topics.

“I’ve gotten to see the organization from very different perspectives, which I totally recommend to people,” she says. “Just doing something different gives you such a fresh perspective on your role.”

Now in Washington, D.C., Gianopoulos is responsible for a portfolio of trade-related subjects. She oversees teams that research topics such as intellectual property rights, free trade agreements, international investments and sanctions.

Tasked with taking complex, important issues and making them easier for others to understand, Gianopoulos has learned that a key element of leadership is mastering the skill of communication.

“Who is your audience? What do they need to know about this topic? You need to know what you can provide to them, and how that is going to meet a need,” she says. “Being able to communicate succinctly and directly, whether in written or oral communication, is absolutely critical.”

While her role has changed over the years, her core passion — finding the meaning in the numbers — is still integral to everything she does.

“You can look at a spreadsheet, but without context, it isn’t very meaningful. What we do is add that context and let people know what it all means,” she says. “That purpose is something I was looking for as far back as Binghamton. I didn’t want to just work in the theoretical. I wanted to take that and make it meaningful to the real world.”

As a leader, Gianopoulos is most proud when her employees can find ways to connect the theoretical and practical.

“The little ‘aha’ moments along the way, when our research teams discover something after working hard, are wonderful — especially when they’re so excited about what they found,” she says. “They are taking things to the next level, and it’s exciting. It’s terrific to see people succeed.”