Col. Lee Price

Responsibilities: Price is project manager for Defense Communications and Army Transmission Systems, where she manages about 100 projects ranging from satellite and long-haul connectivity to providing land mobile radios.

What makes her a good program manager: Price understands the cost, schedule and performance aspects of a program to keep things on track, and on a personal level, she works well with her team, said Col. Wells Barlow, deputy program executive in the Army's Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems. "She has good long-range vision" and can work with many people to find out what needs to be done, he said.

How she got the job: Price was selected for her current position, which will last one more year, after proving herself in other project management positions. She holds a master's degree in management information systems from the University of Arizona and another in national resource strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.

Best advice received about program management: Price's best advice came from her father: Pick good people and let them do their jobs. "He also taught me to do the right thing...no matter how hard," she said. That, she said, has been echoed by two of the three-star generals she has worked for: Lt. Gen. Al Edmonds, when he was director of the Defense Information Systems Agency, and Army Lt. Gen. Steven Boutelle, the service's chief information officer.

Best lesson learned on the job: "Don't ever assume that anything is done," Price said. "We have to have some process to check and get feedback. Never ask anything just once. If I've given someone something to do, I'll restate it so people know" what is expected.