Photo by Christina Mennella Nancy Mitchell

Q: How long have you been the store director at the commissary and how do you like it?
A: I have been in this position since August. This is a one of a kind store because of the clientele we have here — Fort Myer is one of kind. All of your higher ranking officials come to shop here. I get President Obama’s staff that comes to shop here at the commissary. They special order things and we make sure to have it ready for them.

Q: How long have you been in this career field, and how did you start out?
A: I have been doing this for 22 years. This is my 12th commissary. Actually I was stationed right here at Fort Myer 22 years ago. My husband was a military police officer here on base. I was actually working for the PX at first, and I kept hearing about the commissary, which is a government job. I really wanted to work there, so I studied and took the civil service test. It isn’t like that anymore. I started my career as a meat cutter, and worked my way up from there.

I have been married to my husband Dean for 32 years. It will be 33 years this May. My husband was in the military. I moved around quite a bit. I followed him for 22 years and now for the past nine years he is following me. The longest I have ever stayed anywhere is two years. My kids moaned about it, but then two of them joined the military. I have three children: Michael is 30, Nicole is 28, and my youngest Joseph is 25. My oldest son Michael, is the reason I came here. I reassigned for him. He’s in the Army. He just came back from Iraq where he was injured and taken care of through Walter Reed, so I asked to come here to be close to him. My daughter Nicole is a nurse, and she just moved in with me. My son Joseph is in the Air Force in Alaska.

Q: Where did you go to school?
A: I have an associate degree in business, I earned while we were stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas. I got my degree right on base for free. They were doing that for all of the military Family members.

Q: Currently what does your workload consist of?
A: I just moved all of my managers. All of them are going to new sections as of Nov. 1. We are under a new program entitled ‘‘Workforce of the Future,” where all of the employees switch departments and move to new areas throughout the store to learn. This helps develop our future leaders, so they can move up within the commissary system. So, the first thing I initiated was to move the managers.

Q: Is there an area you find truly important in life?
A: Family. I think it’s important to get together as often as you can and spend as much time together. My Family is spread out across the world, and we have been living like that forever. Thanksgiving is when we all try to get together, but with two of my children in the military sometimes it has been tough to do that. This year we are going back to South Dakota for Thanksgiving so my son won’t get to be with us, but we will be together on Christmas.

Q: What are some of your hobbies?
A: I like golf. I also like to go bowling, but I haven’t done that in some time because I am working all of time.