The career path that took Terry Gerton to her job as host of Federal News Network’s “The Federal Drive” program was decidedly different from the paths taken by other journalists interviewed by Luca Pagni and Joyson Cherian for the “Gov & Beyond” podcast. In fact, she’s taken many paths.
In this interview, Gerton notes that her current stint at Federal News Network represents her “fourth career.” Where most journalists jump right into reporting directly out of college, Gerton went through a series of federal government-related jobs before her current one. That path started in the 1980s as an active duty second lieutenant in the Army, where she worked as a maintenance officer. After retiring from the Army in 2003, her next career move saw her take on the role of senior executive in federal civil service running the Department of Defense’s Future Years Defense Program.
From there, she transferred to the Army Materiel Command, where she served as comptroller and then the civilian deputy to the four-star commander with responsibility for the headquarters staff. And if that weren’t enough, about 10 years later she was appointed by President Obama to run a Department of Labor program to help veterans find civilian jobs before becoming the president of the National Academy of Public Administration, a nonprofit organization chartered by Congress to help government agencies work more effectively and efficiently.
If there’s another government tech media figure with such an extensive background, I haven’t met them!
And while she acknowledged that she lacks the journalistic experience of many of her peers, she noted that her varied work history and government background has helped her to “understand where my guests are coming from and being able to ask interesting questions and get them to talk about interesting things.”
Monitoring Federal Workforce Issues, AI and More
Despite her relatively short time at the mic for “The Federal Drive,” Gerton quickly came up to speed as the federal government began going through a period of unprecedented change. Asked by Joyson which news stories she’ll be tracking closely in the coming year, she cited several issues that first came to light in 2025. For example, she said she’ll be covering “the disestablishment of government” – the Trump administration’s actions in areas such as federal workforce policies, the termination of employee bargaining rights, removal of leaders from independent agencies and other issues that she expects to be litigated in the coming year. “We’re going to have to see how all of those play out and what stands,” she said.
And it’s no surprise that, like many of the other guests on “Gov & Beyond,” she’ll be monitoring how AI is applied to government functions. “It’s getting adopted faster than people understand the ramifications of its adoption,” she said. “And the fact that we have so many fewer federal employees, whether that promise of AI being able to make the remaining employees more effective and efficient…will certainly be something to watch.”
She also will be keeping an eye on the implications of the “real loss of access to government statistics and data over the past year” and how the termination of many data collecting functions will affect the businesses, medical and financial institutions that have traditionally relied on federal data for their decision making.
And like many reporters, Gerton will be watching the midterm elections and how Congress will function in 2026. “The midterm elections are going to be front and center starting now, and it will inform how members of Congress decide to take up or not take up different pieces of legislation, whether Congress will act to claw back fiscal authority and oversight authority,” she said.
Asked by Luca about the types of folks she would like to interview, she noted that she prioritizes federal government employees but is also open to interviewees with “one degree of separation” from the government, such as lawyers involved in a federal case, advocacy groups with a stake in a federal program or a beneficiary of a federal program.
And if you really want to pique her interest, ask her what she thinks of the movie “Pride and Prejudice” (the Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen version) or to explain the ending of the more recent film “Bugonia.” On the other hand, don’t start singing “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” if you run into her at a holiday party.
Listen to the podcast below or read the transcript for all the details.
Timestamps
0:34 – Terry’s background and career path
6:48 – Terry’s keeping an eye on AI, tracking of government data and midterm elections
11:31 – Data protection and critical infrastructure investment don’t get enough attention
17:13 – Making content appealing to an audience on the go
20:58 – What Terry looks for in her guests
23:03 – Some of her favorite movies – “Pride and Prejudice” and “Bugonia”
24:22 – Anything but suction cups
25:04 – Safe to say she doesn’t enjoy “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree”
Transcript
Intro: Welcome to Gov & Beyond. I’m your host. Luca Pagni, here with my cohost Joyson Cherian. This podcast features conversations with the newsmakers and influencers at the center of today’s public sector news cycles from our studio at W2 Communications, let’s go Gov & Beyond.
Luca Pagni (LP): Welcome, everyone, to “Gov & Beyond.” I’m your host Luca Pagni, here with my cohost, Joyson Cherian. We’re excited to be joined today by Terry Gerton, host of “The Federal Drive” at Federal News Network. Terry, welcome to the show.
Terry Gerton (TG): Luca. I’m really happy to be here. Thanks for the invitation.
LP: We’d love to start by learning a bit more about your background and your role at Federal News Network. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your career so far?
TG: I actually think this is my fourth career. So we can start at the beginning, because it’s been kind of a meandering path. I started, my first job really was as an active duty second lieutenant in the Army. And I spent 20 years in the Army, principally as a maintenance officer, learning a lot about how to fix stuff and supervise people who do and then picked up a secondary in resource management and program analysis. And so I kind of alternated between those two fields for 20 years and learned a lot about customer service, learned a lot about leadership, learned a lot about, you know, how all of those things fit together. And then spent my last six years really in the Pentagon, understanding how the highest headquarters operated. So it’s very formative and probably transformative in the process.
After I retired, which was in 2003, I transitioned to being a senior executive in federal civil service. And my first job there was running the Department of Defense’s Future Years Defense Program [FYDP] – the POM [Program Objective Memorandum] – if you know anything about that. It was something I’d worked in as an analyst. But then, actually taking on the technical aspects of that was a little more challenging than I expected. Learned a lot on the fly and had some great folks but ran the FYDP process for four POM cycles. And then was invited to transfer out to Army Materiel Command, which is one of the Army’s major commands, managing Army support and logistics around the world. And I was their comptroller for two years, and then the civilian deputy to the four star commander there with responsibility for the headquarters, the staff, the internal staff functions of AMC for about three years.
After that, I did a little consulting and then was invited to come back as a political appointee in the second Obama administration in the Department of Labor. Department of Labor has an organization called the Veterans Employment and Training service, and it was created to help veterans transition into effective employment. When I got there, which was about 2013, the veteran unemployment rate was around 20%, was coming out of the Great Recession, massive downsizing in the Defense Department, and real struggle for veterans to find civilian employment. We were able, in about three and a half years, through a very close collaboration with the Veterans Administration, the Department of Labor and the Defense Department, to get that down to under 4%. We could talk a lot about how that happened, but probably one of the things I’m really most proud of in all the things that I’ve done, because we created some systems and structures that have stuck. And I have continued to watch those numbers, and veteran unemployment has yet to rise above civilian unemployment since that time. So we did some things right back then, and the business community really stepped up. And so we sort of created a new management system and transition system for that.
After I left the Department of Labor, I became the president of the National Academy of Public Administration, which is one of only two congressionally chartered national academies. It’s a nonprofit, 501c3, but an organization chartered by Congress to help government agencies work more effectively and efficiently. We had about 1,000 elected fellows who gave back their time on a pro bono basis, predominantly to work again with government agencies, with Congress to help improve government operations.
And from there, I came here to Federal News Network in March of last year, taking over for the legendary Tom Temin as the host of “The Federal Drive.” So pretty windy career path, but that’s how I got to where I am.
Joyson Cherian (JC): You know, that’s a pretty extensive career path. I’m curious how have your past experiences throughout various levels of government, especially building programs and understanding various audiences, helped prepare you for this new role at FNN?
TG: Well, I think one of the ways is that I understand a lot of how government works, right? So as I’m talking to all kinds of different guests about all kinds of different programs, I may not be able to do quantum physics, but I can talk about how quantum physics programs get funded and managed, right, and how the different scientific agencies come together. I may not be able to do cyber analysis, but I understand the national cyber network. And so every job that I’ve had in very strange ways has built upon the skills from the last one. I always feel horribly underprepared when I start. And by the time I leave, I’m like, “Oh, so that’s what I learned here.” Be interesting to see where I get to use that next. So I think that’s probably the biggest way that all of that government work connects to radio. Because I’m certainly not a trained radio host. The team here has been very, very kind and very patient as I’ve learned at the gig. But really, I think the main example is helping me understand where my guests are coming from, and being able to ask interesting questions and get them to talk about interesting things.
JC: You touched on a couple, you know, interesting questions and topics there. When you talk about physics and cybersecurity, you know, over the past year, we’ve seen the government experience a lot of change. What are you keeping an eye on in 2026?
TG: Well, I think you got to start with 2025 first. People are still sort of catching their breath and taking inventory about what’s left standing. But as we come into 2026, there are certainly some big carryovers that are going to have an implication for what we see in 2026. I think the first question on everybody’s mind is, how much of the disestablishment of government that was executed in 2025 survives litigation? I mean, the court system just simply does not work as fast as all of the administrative actions that happened in 2025. So there are still outstanding cases around federal workforce policies, around the termination of bargaining rights, removal of leaders from independent agencies. We’re going to have to see how all of those play out and what stands, I think. You know, still watching for what happens as a result of all the contracts and grants that were canceled. There are still outstanding litigation, cases and penalties that haven’t been resolved. So I think that’s a big one. Lots of people have their eye on the courts to see how all of these outstanding cases will play out and what will have to be undone, if anything, or redone, and how that will play out.
Certainly, one of the things that I know a lot of people are watching is how artificial intelligence is going to infiltrate government functions. We have watched it drip in, you know, a little bit over time in the past few years. But it is full force now and it’s getting adopted faster than people understand the ramifications of its adoption. So understanding and watching how governance, you know, will take form as it relates to AI deployment, privacy, you know, visibility and transparency of the AI models, I think is going to be really, really important. And the fact that we have so many fewer federal employees, whether that promise of AI being able to make the remaining employees more effective and efficient plays out, I think will certainly be something to watch.
A couple of other things that I think will be really important as we watch through this coming year: One is what happens to government statistics and data? There was a real loss of access to government statistics and data over the past year, as well as a dismemberment of many of the data collecting functions in the government. So not only can we not see the data anymore, in many cases, we’re not collecting any new data. That kind of data informs all kinds of private sector functions. Businesses rely on economic data. The health industry and insurance relies on medical data. Fiscal data is important. Economic prediction data is important. And it’s not quite clear how a new data regime will be established, if it will be established, what proxies might arise where government data is no longer available, and how that will infiltrate the decision making systems that used to just take government data for granted. So I think that’s going to be one that’s important. It’s not a headline, but it’s really essential to how so many sectors in our society operate.
And I think maybe the one that towers over all of them is how Congress will function in 2026. The midterm elections are going to be front and center starting now, and it will inform how members of Congress decide to take up or not take up different pieces of legislation, whether Congress will act to claw back fiscal authority and oversight authority, whether the Supreme Court decisions that are upcoming in this term return authority to Congress and the legislative branch or leave it with the executive branch. So those are just just a few small things to keep an eye on. I think in 2026.
LP: Yeah, they definitely will be important topics to keep an eye on. And you kind of started touching on it already, and you brought up some of the, you know, other burning items of quantum. AI. As someone who has so much experience, both within and outside of government and just working with government, are there any topics that you feel like aren’t being talked about enough currently, that you suspect will be important to government leaders, you know, even maybe next year or in the next few years?
TG: I will go back to the data question, because I think that’s super important. But in this case, with a little bit of a different twist. People who have worked in government or close to government have known for decades that data sharing amongst government agencies and government programs is really, really, really, really, really, really, really challenging for very good reasons, right? The first priority in government data has always been to protect the privacy of the beneficiary. But over time, those privacy provisions have not kept track or kept up with performance expectations, technology provisions and other things that might make data sharing easier anytime that you have a focus on customer experience. That is how the average person interacts with a government program. It’s horrible, and a main reason is because the privacy issues and the data sharing issues are so complex. One of the things that DOGE did was decimate the data protection silos with their intent to share data across all kinds of programs, you know, across Social Security and IRS and Health and Human Services beneficiaries. People have wanted to do that for a long time but not been able to navigate all of the protections against data sharing, because we all know that a person who’s a beneficiary of housing assistance is possibly also a beneficiary of SNAP, of Medicaid, of other kinds of services. And yet that person has to log in separately to every one of those programs. And the people who run those programs can’t share information about that person to optimize their support. Well, many of those protections are gone, whether they should be or not. Whatever your opinion is there, they’re gone. So I think a really important opportunity right now is for folks in government, especially in those programs, to think about how you put the data pieces back together in a way that makes it much easier for the average person who is a beneficiary of a government program to access their benefits, to reduce fraud opportunities – and that’s certainly been a big agenda topic for this administration – and still protect privacy. There’s a lot of smart folks who’ve been talking about this for a long time and recognizing how hard it is to do well. Now the field has sort of been cleared. So you get to start from scratch and build the beneficiary data system, the citizen data system that you’d like to have with modern technology. I think that is a huge opportunity. Perhaps that was created a little bit by accident, but it’s here now, so people who’ve been talking and thinking about this have an opportunity to actually do some of the things that they’ve been thinking about. That’s a really big thing that could, in the long term, affect citizen trust in government, right? And back to the other sorts of data. If you believe that when you put your personal data in as a beneficiary, that it’s protected and shared properly, and you get better service as a result, you might be more willing to share other kinds of data or invest in other kinds of data.
The other topic that I think just does not get enough attention is critical infrastructure investment. I heard a statistic a while back that every airport on the eastern seaboard was within a couple of feet of being underwater in the next decade because of sea level rise. No one has talked about where you’re going to move LaGuardia or Reagan International or Miami Airport, right? Where are those going to go? What happens to our ports? What happens to our road infrastructure? What happens to our grid? What happens to our water infrastructure? There are so many threats against those. We often hear about cyber, but natural environmental threats, human impacted threats, we have not spent enough time or thought or money in refurbishing our national infrastructure so that it’s resilient for the future, whatever the threats may be, it’s expensive. It takes a long time. The closest people are getting is the permitting conversation, which is making improvements somewhat, but we haven’t begun to come to terms with that, and it will affect every single person, one way or the other. So I think that’s one that really has got to rise to the top of folks’ agendas if we’re going to continue to live communally in our in our cities and and country.
JC: You know, it’s funny, you outlined several topics there that are of imminent importance. But you’re absolutely right. They don’t come up organically in a lot of conversations where they should come up.
Moving on to our next question, you’re very different than a lot of the journalists and media that we speak to on tour podcast in that many of your audience listen to your content and get your content audibly versus written content. And so when you’re evaluating the topics and issues to cover, what makes a compelling topic for you and your audience, especially people that might be on the go.
TG: That is such an interesting question, because you’re right. We are designed to – it’s not called “The Federal Drive” for no reason, right? It was designed when people were commuting an hour, an hour and a half, you know, on the highway into work, in their government job in Washington. And so we have 15 interview slots to fill every week for a day, plus our reporters. So thinking about what is of interest to our audience, we always start there. Our audience predominantly is folks who work for the federal government, folks who work with the federal government, so contractors and NGOs, sorts of organizations, folks who advocate for those organizations, folks who litigate with those organizations, and that sort of ecosystem. So we first start from a position of thinking about, what do they want to know? And that is, typically, they want to know what’s happening with federal contracting and acquisition. They want to know what’s happening with IT and cyber. They want to know what’s happening with civil service provisions, specific agencies and policies. We find that they’re very interested in IG and GAO reports, what Congress is doing. And then every once in a while, scientific activity, what’s new and the boundaries of science – but not just disembodied science, rather how is that getting played into how the government operates. So it’s always about what is happening in the government and how it’s operating that is affecting the work of the people who support the government ecosystem.
We also tried to do cool stories that people might not know about but might be interested in. We just did over the holidays a story – the Air Force is working to recover bodies from a crash on a glacier in Alaska 70 years ago, and how that’s proceeding. I mean that that’s pretty interesting, right? First of all, you might not know that the Air Force has that function. But how you recover debris from a glacier is a whole different problem. You can only do it for about four weeks a year. How you stay in touch with families. So we do those kinds of interesting stories as well. And then things that are on the horizon that you know wouldn’t necessarily show up in your daily headline, but that, because we work with the reporters from Federal News Network, we know about things that are on the horizon, that are coming. We get their breaking news stories and share those as well. So, you know, we’re very fortunate to have access to a lot of those folks who want to come on and share kind of what’s new and what’s happening where they work.
LP: Terry, you actually set the stage perfectly for my next question of, you know, because you have so many slots to fill in a week, and we’re sure that you and the rest of the team are getting bombarded with pitches on a daily basis, what helps someone stand out and what makes them really a compelling guest for the podcast?
TG: You’re right. We do get lots of proposals, and we do try to sort them out based on some of those criteria. But I think first and foremost, we’re always looking for federal principles to come on, right? If something is happening in an agency, we want the person who’s responsible for that to come on and talk, if we can get them. Because they they know best what details about that program can be shared, what
the administration’s perspective is on it. So we always try to go with a federal principle first. If we can’t, then we look for one degree of separation, right? Are you a lawyer representing a plaintiff? Are you an advocacy group that’s got a stake in a program? Are you a beneficiary of a program, you know. So first person interest is really important there as well. Or do you have an interesting story to tell? So not everything is related directly to an agency program. You know, we have groups that are active in supporting veterans and military spouses and communities, those kinds of things. But we do always try to drill it back to the federal government. So even when we’re talking about things like Medicaid and SNAP, which we do because they’re federal programs administered by states and communities, we always try to find that federal nexus. So those are some of the things that we talk about. We like to get members of Congress as well to tell us what they’re working on and what they’re hearing from their constituents, because those are all things that play out in the life of our listeners.
JC: You mentioned a few minutes ago that in terms of stories that you cover, it’s sometimes things that people aren’t covered enough, interesting anecdotes and things that are happening that they may not be aware of. With our podcast, we always like to close with a few get-to-know-you questions, a few nuggets about our guests that people wouldn’t know otherwise from their work. So I’ll start with our first get to know you questions. What is one of your most frequently watched movies? If you come across it, you’re going to stop what you’re doing and start watching.
TG: It’s a funny question. I actually had to talk to my husband about it. What movie would I stop and watch? And he reminded me that it is “Pride and Prejudice,” the Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen version, which I will stop and watch anytime. But I also want to give a shout out to a current movie. I watched “Bugonia” twice over the holidays with Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. I won’t give anything away, but I was so shocked the first time I watched it that I had to watch it again to figure out which clues I missed on the way to the ending. So I highly recommend it.
JC: Adding it to my watch list immediately.
LP: And Terry, you know, as we’ve done these get-to-know-you questions, when you ask someone what they like, they’ll tell you, usually with the story behind it. But if you ask them what they hate, they get really passionate about it. So to that end, what is a dish or food ingredient that you just absolutely hate?
TG: Anything with suction cups, No octopus, no squid, ever, ever, ever.
LP: So I take it no sushi then.
TG: Oh no. There’s plenty of sushi that doesn’t have octopus or squid, but definitely nothing that has an arm that can reach out and touch you. [Laughs]
JC: Fair enough. And then our closing question for today, if you never had to hear this song again, you would be extremely happy. What song is that?
TG: Coming off the holidays? It’s “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree.” I would live a happy life never, ever having to hear that song again. [Laughs]
JC: I think you’ve given us our first holiday song.
LP: I think I’m more shocked that it wasn’t the Alvin and the Chipmunk song. I feel like that’s usually number one on people’s lists.
TG: No, I love that song. [Laughs] That one makes you laugh along with, you know, “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.” But, yeah, “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree,” I’ve never quite figured out why it made it into the perpetual Christmas playlist.
LP: I’ll have to get to the bottom of it someday. Well, Terry, thank you so much for your time today. If any of our listeners wanted to learn more about you and “The Federal Drive,” what would be the best way to get in contact?
TG: Oh, I recommend going to FederalNewsNetwork.com, our homepage. You can reach me on LinkedIn at Terry Gerton, or you can reach me here at Terry.Gerton@federalnewsnetwork.com.
LP: Perfect. Well, thank you to everyone who tuned into this episode, and Terry, thank you again for helping us go “Gov & Beyond.”
TG: Well, thank you so much for the invitation. It’s been a real pleasure.
Outro: Thank you for joining us on today’s episode of Gov & Beyond to learn more about our podcast and hear all of our episodes, please visit us at w2comm.com/govandbeyond, and make sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter at govandbeyond. You can also subscribe anywhere podcasts are found.