A Profile of Veronica Hill

Veronica Hill is an agent of change, moving from industrial engineering, to food supply chain management, to K-12 facilities management. She attended Mississippi State University, where she received a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Technology. She also has a Master in Science from the University of Maryland. She’s now the Executive Director of Facilities for Frederick County Public Schools in Maryland, the fastest growing county in the state of Maryland, with many elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools.

Before transitioning into the facility management industry, she developed a deep background in quality control management within the manufacturing sector.

As quality control manager she ensured that production processes and output met stringent quality standards. Her expertise included implementing quality assurance protocols, conducting inspections, and overseeing corrective actions to maintain product consistency and compliance. She’s worked as an industrial engineer with an emphasis on logistics. She then transitioned to food distribution and stayed in that field for approximately a decade working as an industrial engineer for several companies. She developed expertise in optimizing the storage, distribution, and transportation of food products.

Veronica applied engineering principles to design efficient systems and processes, manage inventory, coordinate with suppliers and distributors, and implement technology solutions to enhance overall logistics performance.

Veronica’s expertise in quality control, asset management, vendor relations and technology gave her a solid foundation to consider new directions.

“My family dynamics changed, so I needed to make a career change and I had a mentor who encouraged me to look into the public sector, but I was skeptical about what they were going to do with an industrial engineer in the public sector,” Veronica said.

Fearlessly, she looked at opportunities in local K12 facility management where there would be less traveling, and she could be closer to her family. Her intuition was right. She’s been in educational facility management for 14 years and she loves working with teachers, students, and parents. In the process, she learned to deal with the unexpected, like the time about 18 to 25 school facilities all had pipe bursts at the same time during a holiday break.

“It was extremely difficult to find contractors, but we pulled the necessary resources together and opened on time,” said Veronica.

With more than a decade of experience, Veronica believes that the most challenging lesson she’s learned on the job is that your value often hinges on your most recent success. High expectations never waver, and past achievements can be quickly overshadowed by new demands or decisions.

“This dynamic keeps me striving for continuous excellence,” said Veronica. “But it also underscores the difficulty of balancing progress with realistic boundaries.”

Veronica has been delighted to see an increased presence of women in facility management and the skilled trades. She sees several career paths to facility management, including administration, engineering, and management. She believes that just getting this far and attracting young talent to careers in facilities management are two of her proudest achievements.

“There are several rewarding factors in facility management, including work life balance, job stability, and entrepreneurial opportunities,” said Veronica. “Also, organizations continue to emphasize sustainable goals and cost saving innovations that result in operational excellence.”

Weekends revolve around her family and athletics. As a sports mom, Veronica has been busy with tournaments, practices, and training. Now that her youngest is heading off to college, the family will continue to support their daughter’s commitment to sports. She also serves as a cohort representative for the Meyerhoff Parents Association at the University of Maryland Baltimore County where her son attends.

“I plan to increase the number of days I have scheduled for doing absolutely nothing,” Veronica joked.

Growing up, Veronica’s greatest influence was her grandmother who instilled many basic life lessons, many of which she only began to understand and appreciate as she got older. Some of these life lessons encompass the importance of hard work, maintaining focus on goals, treating others with fairness, recognizing and rewarding a job well done, guiding them towards success, and being a trusted advisor.

“My grandmother always said that local and homegrown food is the best,” said Veronica. “I’ve seen that this applies equally to people and staffing.”

To stay focused and undistracted at work, Veronica works at stepping away from the screen and taking social media breaks. When working with team members with varying work styles, Veronica takes the time to understand their style and the contributing factors.

“I respect their approach even if it differs from mine,” said Veronica. “It’s always best to find common ground and shared goals.”

Veronica is on a mission to help people see the trades as a viable, valuable profession.

“I think I'm one of the models for diversity and inclusion,” she said. “It's extremely important that young minority girls who look like me know that they can choose a career path whether it's in engineering, whether it's in the trades, or facility management and that there's a place for them.”