SPOTLIGHT MS. CHERYL MAGGIO


by Mr. Robert E. Coultas I


t’s been a busy and rewarding career for Cheryl Maggio so far. “T is is one of those jobs where I can look myself in the mirror every day and


say, I did something good,” said Maggio, a DA civilian who has been helping make the country a little safer every day in her 25 years with the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency (CMA).


Maggio’s work focuses on the safe and compliant destruction of the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile of mustard and nerve agents


and headed to the Bluegrass State, where she took a position as a monomer process supervisor and development engineer at a medium-size chemical plant.


stored in bulk con-


tainers, mines, bombs, projectiles and rockets, and the closing of storage facili- ties throughout CONUS and at Johnston Atoll in the Pacifi c Ocean. In her tenure with the agency, she has moved from senior chemical engineer to deputy of operations to director of chemical demili- tarization. Maggio now serves as deputy project manager for chemical stockpile elimination (PM CSE) at Aberdeen Prov- ing Ground, MD.


EMBRACING THE MISSION After earning her B.S. in chemical engi- neering from Villanova University in 1981, Maggio left her native Baltimore


“I was living and working in Western Kentucky, and I wanted to come closer to home. I saw an advertisement for a job sponsored by the program manager for chemical demilitarization located at Aberdeen Proving Ground.” For Maggio, the position proved too good to pass up. “T ey off ered me a program where I would have a congressional mandate to destroy a class of weapon of mass destruction … while maximizing


safety and protect-


ing the environment. I mean—what a great opportunity!”


Early in her Army career, Maggio found that her biggest challenges were the social and political aspects of her position. “I thought I had a wonderful mission,” Maggio said. “What possibly could go wrong?” T e answer: T e public didn’t always share her perspective.


“Being an engineer, I had a lot of con- fi dence and understanding benefi ts of


of incinerating the the stockpile.


Unfortunately, there was a strong public backlash toward incineration.” Maggio said opponents argued that


comfortable with the


the agent


would simply go “up the stack,” which was incorrect. By contrast, many com- munities were


storage of the weapons, which had been in place near them for decades.


“We were telling the truth, but people were saying, ‘We don’t believe you—you’re from the Army!’ We were shocked.” Mag- gio maintained an engineer’s faith in the facts, numbers and drawings. “I believed that if the facts were presented, everyone would join together. I didn’t understand how facts could be misinterpreted.”


Maggio overcame the challenge by incor- porating public concerns into the project, opening outreach offi ces in the small towns near each demilitarization site and ensuring that technical information was available on the agents, munitions, destruction technologies, test results, permits, public comments, schedules and costs.


“We also provided tours of the facilities [and] attended almost every public


156


Army AL&T Magazine


April–June 2013


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