“We Stayed True to the Mission”
Vassie Stamos, the FAA’s longest-serving employee, and likely the longest serving female federal employee in U.S. history, offers a few humble reflections on her remarkable career.
Women’s Equality Day commemorates the anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote, but also celebrates women trailblazers who contributed to achieving the full and equal participation of women in every facet of our Nation’s life.
Vasilike “Vassie” Stamos — an airports program officer, in the Planning, Financial and Environmental Programs Branch, Northwest Mountain Region — is one of those women, her work at the FAA has paved the way forward for countless others during her remarkable federal career. And she’s still serving today as a living link to the honorable history of America’s civil service.
At Vassie’s request, we are not disclosing how many years Vassie has worked at the FAA, but in our review of personnel records and her entrance on duty date, Vassie is officially the FAA’s longest-serving employee. She’s also likely to be the longest serving female federal employee in both the Department of Transportation and the entire U.S. Federal Government. (Author’s note: We could only find media references to two male federal employees with longer tenures, Herbert Tabor (NIH) and Sarkis Tatigian (DOD), each with 77-years of service.)
Vassie’s friends and coworkers in the Office of Airports know she does not like the spotlight on her or her career milestones. Yet for those who know her, Vassie is a remarkable source of inspiration in the Northwest Mountain Airports Division and beyond.
Humble about her work and private about her personal life, she likes to take one day at a time and focus on the present — not the more than 18,000 business days she’s spent at work, starting with the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) in the Department of Commerce, about a decade before the FAA was even created.
Vassie entered the federal workforce in the post-WWII era as the country was rapidly expanding its airport infrastructure at the dawn of a new jet age in aviation. The CAA was trying to keep up with the pace of industry advancement and needed people who knew their way around a typewriter to handle the volumes of official communications.
Vassie wasn’t motivated by the prospect of an exciting career in the glamorous golden age of aviation: “At that time, the priority was obtaining a job. My mother and I had to support the family.” With the passing of her father at an early age, Vassie didn’t waste any time getting to work and providing for her family.
“The first day after high school, I got a job as a clerk stenographer with the Civil Aeronautics Authority, Alaska Region,” Vassie recalled, “However, the warehouse was in Seattle. We shipped supplies and materials to Alaska.”
In those early days of the CAA in Seattle, personnel taking trips north to the Alaska Region were few and far between, especially in the winter. Except for a memorable trip to Fairbanks in which she had to endure -20 F weather conditions, she has continuously worked in the Seattle area and witnessed the rapid expansion and growth of the city’s aviation economy.
Vassie eventually left the warehouse where she started for new desk space at several federal facilities, moving with the FAA as it grew out of federal offices in Seattle, Renton and now in Des Moines. She recalls when smoking was allowed in the office, working a switchboard to route telephone calls and the honor of holding the scissors during a new district office ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The dynamic local environment created career development opportunities for Vassie at the FAA, and through the years she worked her way up through a series of progressively higher positions and roles: While the diversity of Vassie’s assignments has varied throughout her career, she has simple advice for an employee starting at the FAA, “Learn the job, and work hard.”
Vassie provides historical perspectives and invaluable context for the FAA’s work in the Office of Airports, “I try to do my best, and that’s the best I can do.” Her regrets are few, and when asked if she could do something differently in her career, she replied, “I may have accepted the offer to go to the office in Brussels,“ where FAA employs a team to liaise with European aviation regulators.
She credits her successful career to numerous colleagues and managers, as well as the FAA — “A great employer and great coworkers” — for keeping her motivated and postponing a retirement she’s been eligible for since the 1970s. “There is no secret; I’m not in control of longevity. But, I do control the quality of my life.”
Away from work, she’s an avid sports fan, closely following the Seattle Mariners and Washington Huskies through their seasons. Vassie’s regular routine has kept her sharp, “I exercise every morning and walk every evening.” Even during the pandemic and after her move to full-time telework, “I never begin work without having breakfast.” She signs on at 6:30 am every morning, ready to work.
Her division director, Heather Fernuik, shared, “Her work is impeccably precise, but what stands out most to me is her astonishing adaptability. Knowing that Vassie hadn’t been a teleworker pre-pandemic, I was worried how she might be holding up with the pandemic pivot to work-from-home. I checked in only to find a staunch telework convert who’s enjoying tracking more steps on her neighborhood walks.”
Her disciplined regimen, continuous reliability and exceptional record closely resembles the reputation of her employer. Through unimaginable changes in technology, revolutionary innovations and continuous changes across the people, programs and policies that shape the skies, Vassie’s career is a representation of how a federal agency remains adaptable to the ever-evolving nature of the aviation business. When we asked Vassie what hasn’t changed at the agency since she started, Vassie answered, “We’ve stayed true to our mission.”
