DEOMI
On March 18, 2005, Contres replaced CAPT Robert Watts as Commandant of the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI), located at Patrick Air Force Base near Coco Beach, Florida. Contres, became the first Hispanic woman and the thirteenth Commandant to lead the Institute since it was established. She oversees a joint-service school supporting all Department of Defense and U.S. Coast Guard equal opportunity and equal employment opportunity (EO/ EEO) program and research requirements.
The Department of Defense (DoD) established the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, originally chartered as the Defense Race Relations Institute, in 1971 in response to recommendations from an inter-service task force examining the causes of racial turmoil on military installations and aboard ships. In its early years, the Institute trained military members and DoD civilians to lead mandatory seminars on race and human relations issues throughout the military departments to improve mission readiness.
She was responsible for maintaining the $24 million compound of the Institute and training more than 2,500 students annually from military bases around the world. Under Contres’ leadership the Institute had a successful re-accreditation overseen by the Council on Occupational Education, a rigorous re-write of all curriculum using the Instructional System Design process and the roll-out of a new DEOMI on-line survey utilized by the Military Services to assess the organizational climate of their units.
On June 4, 2010 Contres retired from the United States Navy. She was honored for her service during a change of command and retirement ceremony presided by Rear Admiral Joseph R. Castillo, Commander, Eleventh Coast Guard District, and held at DEOMI in the Major General Lucius Theus Auditorium. Captain Contres was succeeded by Mr. Ronald M. Joe.
Read more about this topic: Kathlene Contres