2013 Honoree

General Ann Dunwoody

U.S. Army General

“You CAN be anything you want to be…with hard work, determination, and personal courage…take time–find your passion.”

What city best describes your personality?

City: Tampa, surrounded by: water, warm weather, friends, family, out door activities, arts, and shows with a party city atmosphere.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever ignored, and the worst advice you’ve ever taken?

a) Not to buy another house in HI (Maui). Had one in Oahu…bought another in Maui…market dipped. Not a good investment for us. Expensive mistake.
b) That I could actually be a good gymnast and perform on the balance beam. (I was too nervous in front of audience to ever be able to perform my routine on the balance beam in public).

What is your best read? What book would you want to be a character in?

a) Best Read: Seven Days in Utopia…Golf’s Scared Journey, by David L. Cook. A story about life as told through the eyes of a seasoned mentor to a talented, but troubled professional golfer. A motivational and inspirational read, over and over again.
b) Any book where one of the key characters is a dancer or a drummer.

How do you define power? Do you enjoy it? How do you live with your success?

Define power: The ability to positively influence people to follow you.
b) Yes.
c) I’m grounded and don’t take myself too seriously. And if I do, my husband always helps bring me back down to earth.

When do we stop asking questions about gender equality? When will it be Power People instead of Power Women? Is gender more important than politics?

a) When it stops becoming an issue. It can’t be about numbers. It must be about who’s the best athlete (not physically) and about one’s ability to recognize best talent can come from diversity of thought. I think it will take generations (like Civil rights movement). We are making progress, but we have a long ways to go before we stop asking hard questions.
b) When we are no longer surprised by the first female this or that.
c) I believe politics will always be more important than gender, but what is important is that there is a balanced representation of gender in politics to best represent the American people and to be able to contribute to finding the best solutions to complex problems.

What do you think of social media?

Social media: Like any tool, it can be useful and it can be abused.

What’s one place you’ve always wanted to visit on your travels?

Visit: Wherever I am, I always want to visit our Wounded warriors: Walter Reed Medical center, now Bethesda Medical center, Center of the Intrepid San Antonio TX, Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany, and Medical forward operating bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. While you think you are going to visit and hope to motivate the wounded soldiers, they always motivated me more

When sending a child out to see the world for the first time, where would you send them?

I would send then to see the ocean. A thing of beauty, fun, curiosity…something to enjoy, not be afraid of.

What advice would you give to a young woman starting out?

You CAN be anything you want to be…with hard work, determination, and personal courage…take time–find your passion.