Arleas Upton Kea, chief operating officer and deputy to the chairman of the FDIC

Arleas Upton Kea has spent her entire career at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. She was the first woman of color in the FDIC's legal department and is now the deputy chairman and chief operating officer.

In an email conversation with Corporate Counsel, Kea discussed some of the challenges she faced as a woman of color in law, the importance of having a mentor and the FDIC's mentorship programs. This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

Corporate Counsel: Having been the first woman of color in the FDIC's legal department, did you experience any uncertainty not seeing people in the department who looked like you?

Arleas Upton Kea: Yes, there's always that uncertainty. However, even throughout my childhood, youth and adulthood—this is mostly the case. By the time I was a lawyer at the FDIC, the experience of not encountering someone with a similar background was something I came to expect. I believe that so many of the experiences I had prior to coming to the FDIC prepared me for the uncertainties and the barriers which later I faced. While the University of Texas School of Law prepared me with an excellent education in so many ways, I faced many challenges as a black woman in law school during the early 1980s. There were very few minority students or professors and even fewer women.

The environment for minority students was not immediately friendly. I relied on coping skills to avoid having any of the negative factors distract me from getting the best legal education that I could possibly get from a top-rated law school. I remained active as alumni and became the first African American woman to become president of the Law School Alumni Society. I was highly motivated to seek this position as I saw it as an avenue to influence positive change and create a better learning environment for students of color and all students in general. At the FDIC, initially, I overcame the negative stereotypes by always performing at my best, being prepared, focusing on the business and disregarding or simply avoiding the negative distractions, which I came to regard as just "noise."

CC: What were some of the early challenges you faced in the legal department at the FDIC?

AUK: I believe that some of the challenges that I faced as a young lawyer were commonplace during the time. Obviously there were a lot fewer women, let alone a woman of color.

Often at the start of meetings, I would be mistaken for the secretary, and others would be obviously surprised to learn that I was legal counsel representing the FDIC. Sometimes opposing counsel would be so surprised that I felt it gave me a clear advantage in the negotiations because they were still trying to get over the fact that I was a black woman lawyer working for the FDIC.

I was often overlooked and not invited to relevant meetings in the division. However, early on, I stepped outside of my comfort zone and learned how to diplomatically invite myself into arenas where minorities had not previously been included. My strategy was to always add value in a way that could not be challenged. Although I was a high performer and a strong contributor in my early days in the FDIC legal division, promotions did not come easily, and I always felt that I had to work harder than my nonminority male counterparts. Even though I came with an excellent legal background and worked very hard, I believe that finding informal mentors and sponsors made the difference for me as I started to move up.

As I reached the highest position that I could achieve in the legal division, I faced the biggest challenge of my entire career. That was the decision to leave the legal division and the pure practice of law as I had known it to join the business side of the FDIC. I realized that in order to be promoted and use all of my talents and skills, I had to leave my life's chosen profession in the legal division where I had served for 13 years. I had other informal mentors who reassured me that this decision was OK. I now use this example to help others understand that the road to success is not always a straight line and the ability to be flexible and agile is so important to career progression and success.

In more recent years, there has been a lot of talk and buzz about "being agile," and I believe my story conveys the importance in career planning and strategizing. I have not had too many regrets about leaving the legal profession.

CC: What kind of mentors did you have early in your career?

AUK: I had a strong mentor while at the University of Texas. She was Barbara Jordan, former congresswoman from an underserved community in Houston, which is just 100 miles from where I grew up. Although she passed away at a time when I was early in my legal career, I regarded her as inspiration always. Her advice and good counsel when I was still in law school, and in my earliest years in Washington, D.C., has proven to be priceless. She instilled in me a kind of inner strength, resiliency and tenacity, and I still often reflect on her words of wisdom, the encouragement she provided, and her positive, confident manner and the extraordinary way she showed her leadership.

Of all my role models, she epitomizes the ideal ways she broke through many glass ceilings, overcoming challenges and obstacles as she pursued her education and ultimately her career as a public servant. I have tried to model my career after hers and often thought of her as I have faced many career disappointments and other substantial obstacles in my professional journey at the FDIC and in other arenas.

Throughout the years, I did have additional mentors at the FDIC—some of whom provided valuable advice and did not even know that they were mentoring me.

CC: In your opinion, how important is mentorship for diversity and inclusion efforts in legal departments?

AUK: Mentorship is one of the best ways that result in positive diversity and inclusion outcomes, not just in legal but in all departments and areas of an organization. I was one of the original founders of our FDIC Mentoring Program in 1999, and I currently oversee the program. I also serve as a formal and informal mentor to a large number of employees. I try to share my experiences of overcoming obstacles and hope that I will bring out the strengths in others through my sharing.

As a member of the FDIC's first diversity and inclusion steering committee, I originally suggested the creation of the mentoring program in response to concerns about diversity and inclusion from large groups of employees. I believed that the creation of a mentoring program would benefit the FDIC because mentors could serve as a friendly but confidential ear for complaints, provide insights about how to survive and thrive in our organizational culture, prevent missteps by sharing lessons learned, and boost career development by providing feedback and encouragement in a safe environment.

At the FDIC, we make an effort to market mentoring among our nine employee resource groups, and I personally think it makes a difference. I also feel that by investing time and resources in our mentoring program, we are demonstrating our commitment to the success of all of our employees. To the extent that we are undergoing changes at the FDIC, which involve modernization of many of our processes, I believe that our mentoring program will assist in managing change by showing mentees how to adjust to new roles, leaders or expectations.