Debra Jo Totton-Soper is an information specialist and independent consultant who has found success in her field for more than three decades. Throughout her career, Ms. Totton-Soper excelled in a broad range of administrative roles while working for several offices of the United States government, including the United States military. She is a proud veteran of the United States Navy and served for one year during the Vietnam War as a communications technician administrator.
Following her discharge, Ms. Totton-Soper remained with the U.S. Navy for the next seven years, managing naval avionics. Her responsibilities in avionics required an in-depth knowledge of aircraft technologies and electronics, and while enlisted she built on the skills she had developed, as well as utilized her natural attention to detail and talent for logistics. While in the Navy, she was honored with a Citizenship Award. She was also the recipient of a Hammer Award, presented by the federal government to teams whose commitment to efficiency and transparency results in cost savings and improved functionality.
Following her service to the U.S. Navy, Ms. Totton-Soper continued to work in the public sector as an accountant for the United States federal government and the Army Service Center. Later in her career, she entered the staff of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as an information specialist. In this role, Ms. Totton-Soper thrived professionally, and she wrote DBase programs for Housing and Urban Development, scheduling inspections for use by the State of Indiana Department of Housing and Urban Development. She replaced manual Word documents with database programs, which were unique to the State of Indiana. She continued with Housing and Urban Development headquarters in Washington, DC, as a security administrator for public housing. Her performance and commitment to excellence in her work were recognized with several awards, including a Neighborhood Network Award and an honor for her participation in a human relations equal opportunity program.
Most recently, Ms. Totton-Soper has focused on independent consulting, merging the skills and competencies that she has built throughout her career to better help her clients and the larger community. She remains committed to developing as a professional and continuing to grow her business, and hopes to open her own consulting firm in the next five to 10 years in order to reach more people. Ms. Totton-Soper began her career by earning an associate degree in business management from Vincennes University and a Bachelor of Science in business administration from Indiana Wesleyan University. She has pursued additional education throughout her life and went on to earn a diploma in accounting in Guam. In order to stay at the leading edge of developments in her field and participate fully in her community, Ms. Totton-Soper is a member of the Federation of Accounting, the American Women Vietnam Veterans and the Federal Women’s Program.
Ms. Totton-Soper credits her success to the strength that her faith has lent her, and to the flexibility and grit that she learned from her personal experiences and military service. She became self-sufficient at a young age after unexpectedly losing her father and continued to find momentum and resilience in her experiences as a disabled veteran. Ms. Totton-Soper considers her independence and firm sense of self to be the core of her ongoing growth and emphasizes to others that they are strong, capable and worthy no matter what the public perception of them may be. Her personal philosophy is to “think outside the box,” and she attributes many of her greatest accomplishments to her flexibility and creativity.
