小卡尔·格林.

小卡尔·格林.

民权司司长

ARMY VETERAN AND ACTIVE GUARDSMAN IN THE COLORADO AIR NATIONAL GUARD

小卡尔·格林出生于菲律宾. grew up in a remote Alaska town with one full-blown stoplight. 今天, Green is director of the Civil Rights Division for RTD, one of the largest public transportation systems in the country.

The career climb from a “very wayward” junior high school student in Kodiak to civic leader in Denver, 绿色表示, is a direct result of being raised by a Filipino mother with a strong work ethic and the “new leaf” he turned over when he went into the military.

格林是四个孩子中最小的一个. 他小时候父母就离婚了, 和格林的母亲, 当时英语水平有限, 在华盛顿州养家糊口. His father wasn’t in the picture growing up, as he was often deployed while serving in the U.S. 海军. The children stayed with friends or relatives while she worked multiple jobs or cleaned houses before landing a job on a fish processing boat in Alaska.

After high school – he was the only one of his siblings to graduate – Green studied in community college, 但一个学期后，他的钱就花光了. He returned home, as he put it, “with my tail between my legs.” Green didn’t know what his options were and he wasn’t sure he wanted to serve in the military, 但这是一种“达到目的的手段”.” He instantly thought he’d made a huge mistake.

“那时我19岁，”格林说. “我记得我在想，我做了什么? 我为什么要报名? 我给自己惹了什么麻烦?”

格林很快意识到, 然而, what it meant to be part of something bigger, “to have that common sense of purpose and the opportunity to serve your country. … Being part of something really changed my life. And learning and integrating those Army core values, that's what set my trajectory.”

在格林的案例中，轨迹是向上的.

Green served two years of active duty in the U.S. Army and then committed to the Army National Guard. 服兵役让他交了大学学费, first to the University of Alaska in Anchorage and then Southern Oregon University (SOU), where Green competed on the SOU wrestling team. Green notes that a lesson learned from wrestling in high school and college is to leave it all out on the mat.

“What that translated for me was to give it everything you’ve got,” he said. “你可能没有第二次机会了. 这直接转化为生命.”

During college, Green was selected for the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement program, a federal grant for disadvantaged students with strong academic potential. The financial support put graduate school within reach. Green pursued and earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Oregon. He also re-enlisted with the Oregon Air National Guard, focusing on those core values again – integrity first, service before self and excellence in all that we do – with added zeal, 同情和热情.

Green transferred from the 173rd Fighter Wing at Oregon’s Kingsley Air Force Base to the 142nd Air Wing in Portland. 在那里, 他找到了一种新的满足感, working as a Special Emphasis Program Manager and Equal Opportunity Program Manager, as well as serving on the Oregon Military Department’s Joint Diversity, 公平及共融行政会议.

“That really was the spark and what introduced me to civil rights and social justice work,格林说. 在那之前, it was more so on a conceptual level of reading about it, 撰写学术研究论文, 参加研讨会等等. But I was able to put it into action and see the impact that it could have on my fellow airmen.”

Green moved up in the Air National Guard – from Senior Airman to Master Sergeant to First Sergeant. Currently, Green serves in the Colorado Guard as the Equal Opportunity Superintendent. He also spent two years as an operations analyst for the Bonneville Power Administration before moving into public transportation with Portland-based TriMet. 再一次。, he worked as an operations and data analyst before becoming the agency’s Senior Administrator of Title VI and Equity Programs. RTD招聘, Green moved to Denver in 2021 and worked as Transit Equity Manager before becoming Interim Director of the Civil Rights division in the summer of 2022. 去年12月，他被任命为常任董事.

Green views his side-by-side military and civilian work career, 然而, as not about him. “It’s not about me crossing the finish line,格林说. “It’s whether I’m ensuring that the people to my left and to my right are able to do it with me.” A common denominator for Green is ensuring that people are thriving and working toward collective liberation.

Green is passionate about going beyond compliance to “move the needle” on expanding equal employment opportunities, ensuring small and disadvantaged businesses have equal access to RTD contracting opportunities, improving accessibility for people with disabilities, providing equitable access to RTD services and programs, and ensuring that the agency is free of discrimination in all its forms with employees, 客户和广大社区.

绿色, public transportation is itself a connector of communities and people, which is a positive force in building a livable city.

In many ways, he says, serving RTD is no different than serving your country.

“Being something bigger than yourself – that's RTD,格林说.

“如果你想成为团队的一员, if you're wanting to contribute and make a positive impact in your community, 你可以在RTD做这件事.”