Between attending press conferences in Arizona and setting up meetings with officials from Turkey, Carla Anderson answers e-mails.  She holds conference calls.  She golfs (it’s a new hobby), flies to Washington and other locations, and writes grants.

Anderson also attends her son’s ball games, keeps in touch with her eldest son (now in Bournemouth, England), continues her service on the board of directors for rural health care clinics, and helps her husband manage bids, payroll and other business operations for the family-owned business, Anderson Custom Cabinets.  

It’s a full life.  Anderson makes it clear that she could not do what she does without the support of her family, including her mother and father.  But with her family firmly behind her, there’s no stopping her. 

As SVP/COO of the consulting company e-Copernicus and deputy executive director of the non-profit public safety education group E9-1-1 Institute, Anderson works more than full time, mostly from her home office, often adjusting her work schedule to accomodate clients in other time zones. 

“It seems natural to them that I should be able to do all these things,” Anderson said.  “They say ‘time zones don’t seem to make a difference to you because you work night and day.’”

“You just have to learn to adjust your schedule a little bit and understand that clients are the ones that you take care of,” she said.  “I can adjust my life to do that, and I have always been able to do that.”

Anderson, now a work-from-home superwoman, has had an interesting career path.  She started as a secretary in a clinic in Center, North Dakota and worked her way through the medical system, eventually managing several rural clinics and implementing the first telemedicine network in the state.  Her duties included everything from mediating workplace disputes to lobbying in Washington for health care initiatives that could impact rural health care and citizens in North Dakota.

Anderson’s lobbying efforts brought her to the attention of Senators Kent Conrad, D-ND and Byron Dorgan, D-ND.  Her determination to get things done and her dedication to the people she served also impressed Gregory Rohde, a Bismarck native who worked as the Chief Policy Advisor for Senator Dorgan for all areas of jurisdiction under the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. 

Anderson said Mr. Rohde played a key role in major legislation such as the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Internet Tax Freedom Act and the Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act of 1999.  Rohde later served as the Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Information and the Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration while Clinton was in office. 

Another key telecommunications player of the time was Christopher A. Mclean, former administrator of the Rural Utilities Service and governor of the Rural Telephone Bank.  Anderson said McLean was instrumental in crafting legislation as he served as the legislative and legal counsel to Senator Exon’s staff (D-Nebraska) until Exon’s retirement and then as legislative counsel to former Senator Kerrey (D-Nebraska). 

Both Rohde and McLean were founding members of a group of senate staffers known as the FARM TEAM who helped craft the universal service and rural provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.  After serving in their respective capacities, they teamed up to form the consulting company e-Copernicus.  Asking Anderson to join the team was a natural move.

Since then, Anderson has worked mostly from her home office in Center, although she travels to Washington, D.C. about once a month.  While she’s there she works on projects for both e-Copernicus and E9-1-1 Institute for companies from “All over the map,” she said.  

“Most of the stuff I do right here from Center, North Dakota,” Anderson said.  “It covers the whole United States and it’s starting to touch Europe now.”

Keeping the work she does for the two companies separate is one of the biggest challenges Anderson faces.  When a client comes to e-Copernicus with an idea, the project goals are looked at carefully.  If it fits better with E9-1-1, the non-profit institute takes it on.

“I really have to define my role with each one because you can’t mix non-profit and for-profit,” she said.  “You have to be very careful with that.”

Somehow Anderson has found a balance that lets her work internationally as well as nationally.  On the e-Copernicus front, she recently worked with a member of the European Parliament who wanted to understand United States political processes and ethics.  Her E9-1-1 world recently allowed her to explain the United States 911 system to the Turkish delegation who wanted to study our system to find ways to improve their own emergency response systems.   

“A lot of the stuff I do is really event-driven,” she said.  “Events occur in many fashions regarding education and awareness and business development.  We listen to our clients and our members and put together events and sessions that meet their needs.  It can be hometown security events, roundtable forums, technology fairs, and galas as well as business development and relationship-building meetings.  It’s about the clients and members we serve.  It has to fit their needs and meet their expectations.”   

One of the most exciting events this past month was a press conference Anderson attended in Phoenix, during which e-Copernicus client Space Data launched its first weather balloon to help the Navajo nation track diabetes using PDA/blackberry technology.  E-Copernicus wrote the $425,000 grant that allowed the project to move forward.

But that wasn’t the best part.  While there, Anderson received word that two other grants she helped with had been approved.  One of the grants was for $20 million, and the other was for $700,000.  Both were for rural health care pilot programs within the United States.

“I had to scream a little bit,” she said.  “It’s such a fun thing.  When we put those applications out there we said shoot for the moon, and we got it.”

Anderson said the passion she feels for her work and her life comes mostly from the idea that she’s helping people. 

“If my family is happy and the people I work with are happy, then I’m happy,” she said.