Terri Long’s Retierment:
After 47 years of dedicated service, Ms. Terri Long will begin her well-deserved retirement to spend more time with her husband and their family. During Ms. Terri’s career, she spent the last 24 years supporting the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) through multiple support contracts. She began support to the MDA as an Executive Assistant providing administrative and security support to the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) Joint Program Office (JPO), and its predecessor organizations; in 1998. In 2006, Ms. Terri joined Paradigm Technologies, which later became ECS Federal; she supported the Huntsville-based corporate team that provided Business and Acquisition support to GMD; and later, the full Agency. After the contract transitioned in 2018 to our Small Business team, Ms. Terri joined the Vali team via our predecessor company, Defense Acquisition, Inc. (DAi).
Terri’s Career:
Over the past 15 years, Ms. Terri has served many roles for our employees. She’s helped keep the prime contract running on schedule and target by ensuring deliverables are collected and submitted accurately and on time. She’s provided the administrative support necessary to fuel the MDA Business Operations training program and the countless interviews to keep the contract running smoothly. She’s been the “Office Mama” for so many of us, including; being the person you can confide in, the shoulder to cry on, the source for sound life advice, the “who do I need to call about fill-in-the-blank” person, and at times, the person that can take you to the “wood-shed” to help get you back on the straight-and-narrow! Throughout all, she always did it with a smile and with love.
Outside of the office, Ms. Terri’s family is at the heart and center of her life. She’s lived and worked in Huntsville all her life and will be retiring here. She and her husband, Mickey, live on family land in the eastern portion of Madison County.
Her daughter and son-in-law, Tina and Brian, live next door with many of her extended family nearby. She will spend her retirement years working in her garden, traveling, and just finally taking some overall time to relax! – and don’t forget to watching Alabama football, Roll Tide!
Granddaughters Scholarship:
Ms. Terri is also excited to spend more time with her granddaughter, Lanee, who will be a junior at Jacksonville State University (JSU) next year. Lanee is the apple of Terri’s eye. She is so proud of Lanee for making the President’s List and being a two-time recipient of the AAAA (Quad-A) scholarship! Our entire Vali team is happy to see the Quad A scholarship going towards one of our valued employees! Her granddaughter is pursuing a degree in criminal justice with a minor in psychology that will allow her to work in the field of behavioral analysis. Terri hopes that other Vali employees will take advantage of the Quad-A Scholarship opportunity to help their children, grandchildren, or themselves!
We will greatly miss Terri Long and all her contributions to the Vali team. We wish her all the best in her retirement!
Left: Terry Turpen Right: Terri Long
