MBC sponsor Nogales US Customs Broker’s Association, represented by board president Gloria Spencer receiving her US Customs Broker license from CBP in Phoenix, September 2009.

Through our sponsor recognition articles, we are showcasing the many ways professionals cultivate and use creativity to improve their personal lives, their careers, the places they work and their communities. This article features Gloria Spencer, President of Nogales US Customs Brokers Association and General Manager of Livingston International. Read on to learn more.

Gloria Spencer is Branch Manager at Livingston International and President of the Board of Directors for Nogales U.S. Customs Brokers Association, a 2022-2023 Mat Bevel Company sponsor. She says, “As US Customs Licensed Brokers, we play an essential role in the flow of products from around the world and in this way, contribute to the economy of the USA.”

Customs brokers help companies import products into the USA from countries all over the world with whom the US has a normal trade relationship. These individuals and firms are licensed through US Customs & Border Protection (CBP), a Department of Homeland Security, to act as agents for importers and exporters. Brokers handle all the required protocols involved in customs clearance and importation of goods, in compliance with the Code of Federal Regulations -Title 19, Customs Duties.

In reporting information required by all participating government agencies that regulate the eligibility to import products, they protect the safety and interests of consumers in the USA.

Gloria says, “This is a highly specialized and complex job, but a rewarding one, as we keep the economy flowing! I use my creativity to visualize and analyze problems from different angles, and to figure out resolutions that will help myself, my company and my customers. I apply my experience and creativity to write instruction sheets or procedures so others know what to do when they encounter a similar issue, or need to train employees.”

Gloria discovered her career path by leveraging some of her best creative skills: analyzing details, solving problems and applying critical thinking. In the 90s she was hired as a purchasing manager in a manufacturing plant in Mexico. She also managed the Inventory Control function, calculating the cost of new products which includes at a high-level, parts + labor + freight + overhead costs.

This was during the time when the US, Mexico and Canada signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which allowed duty-free trade between the signatory countries. The agreement also required products to use specific quantities of NAFTA-region components in a product to qualify for free-duty imports.

Gloria explains, “My general manager, who was a mentor to me, asked me to help calculate the product cost for NAFTA purposes, since I was already assessing our product for Inventory Control. I insisted on taking professional training from our local customs broker experts, so that I could learn the regulatory requirements and take on the task of NAFTA record keeper to help our company claim NAFTA benefits with US Customs. This was my incursion into International Trade related functions.”

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Birds and flowers from Gloria’s garden.

Her mentor challenged her to pursue a government license to become a broker in Mexico so that she could help manage the import and export of production materials for the factory. She signed up for classes, took a test required by Mexico’s Hacienda and obtained her in-house Mexico Broker license. The experience of contributing to her company as in-house broker led her to decide to become a US Customs Broker later in life when she emigrated to the US. To qualify as a broker in the US, Gloria became a US Citizen, passed a rigorous US Customs broker test with English as her second language and passed an CBP-required FBI background check.

For Gloria creativity is a deep source of satisfaction derived from learning and applying her learned skills, plus inspiration and intelligence to make something beautiful or useful. To help stimulate her creativity, she loves to read books, take courses and watch videos to learn how to do activities that interest her, from taking good photographs to growing fruit trees, veggies and flowers for pollinators.

Regarding the role creativity plays in her personal life, Gloria says, “In my hobbies, creativity means taking a beautiful picture of a sunset, planting flowers, herbs, and veggies in my garden, then taking pictures of the visiting butterflies and hummingbirds. I then harvest plants from my garden to cook something delicious like a basil-pesto pasta dish, to share with loved ones.”

While there are situations in life that we have no control of, like the Covid 19 pandemic and its impact in everyone’s activities, Gloria advises young people to focus on what they have control of: “Positive decisions like studying and learning. Everything we learn will be useful in life and nothing can take our knowledge and skills away from us.”

Gloria Spencer, President of Nogales US Customs Brokers Association and General Manager of Livingston International

MBC sponsor Mary Estes is a Landscape Architect and Principal at Norris Design, an integrated planning, landscape architecture and branding design company.

Collaborating with our sponsors, we’re sharing the many ways professionals cultivate and use creativity to improve their personal lives, their careers and their communities. This article features Mary Estes, Landscape Architect and Principal at Norris Design. Read on to learn more.

Mary Estes is a Professional Landscape Architect and Principal at Norris Design, a firm with multiple offices in Colorado, Texas, and Arizona.  Norris Design specializes in creating places where people live, work and play.

Landscape architecture encompasses the analysis, planning, design, management, and stewardship of the natural and built environment through science and design.  The fundamental practice of landscape architecture includes keeping the public safe from hazards, protecting natural resources, and sustainably managing the natural and built environment surrounding our homes and communities.

For Mary, part of exercising creativity involves foreseeing conflicts between design disciplines (architects, structural engineers, civil engineers, electrical engineers, etc.), constructability concerns, zoning code requirements, all while ensuring that client goals are met.  Her role is to help the design team deliver the best possible solutions for their projects.

Mary says, “There are always unforeseen issues in the field where we need to make a quick decision and maintain the integrity of the design. The Landscape work evolves over the course of the entire design and construction process. When the construction is complete, a project can take years before it realizes its full potential from a landscape perspective.  The plants need time to mature, creating habitat, shade, defining space, and providing maximum value.”

Mary Estes in Germany, March 2020, in front of Neuschwanstein Castle.

Mary always considered herself to be creative. In high school, her drawings won a few art contests, and she even sold some of her artwork. When she arrived at Texas A&M University, they didn’t have a Fine Arts school, so instead Mary studied Environmental Design.

She studied abroad for a semester where she had the opportunity to work together with Landscape Architecture students on some projects. Once she graduated, she moved to New York City and accepted a position with a small architectural studio. There, she met a landscape architect who had a growing practice in the city where she eventually worked for seven years, learning much of the profession while on the job.    

While working as a landscape designer, she went back to the City College of New York to take some courses in their Urban Landscape Program. Eventually, she had enough experience and education to take the landscape architectural registration exam and receive her license in 1996

Mary explains, “All of landscape design is creative, which means thinking outside the box…. and looking for solutions to problems in new ways by unlocking your imagination. To stimulate my creativity, I listen to various genres of music and try to clear my mind of other ‘life stuff.’  I find that exercise—like walking, trail running, bike rides—helps me to focus and tap into my natural creativity. For a more challenging design problem, I like to tackle it first thing in the morning, when my mind is fresh.”

Creativity requires Mary and her team to ask a lot of questions, like:

• How will the plant combinations go together?
• How do you circulate through or around the space?
• What are the needs for the community or resident or homeowner?
• How do we make sure the space is comfortable, safe, inviting, and accessible for all?
• What clues can we draw from history that might help inform our design?

Mary’s career path was not a straight line. She advises people starting out in their career to, “Be open to possibilities that you haven’t perhaps even thought about yet! I never considered being a landscape architect and when I enrolled in the University, I didn’t really know about the profession.  Now, I could never imagine being anything but a landscape architect!  It’s truly a creative passion of mine and I learn something amazing every day.”

THANK YOU, MARY ESTES!

MBC sponsor South32’s Mine Engineer Cayley Hoffman with her dog Riggs hiking on Mount Lemmon.

Collaborating with our sponsors, we’re sharing the many ways professionals cultivate and use creativity to improve their personal lives, their careers and their communities. This article features Cayley Hoffman, Mine Engineer with South32. Read on to learn more.

Cayley Hoffman is a Mine Engineer with South32. Even though the majority of her work involves managing technical details, she finds plenty of opportunities to use creativity in her line of work. She defines creativity as the ability to see a problem and come up with multiple solutions that might be quite different from the straight-forward or obvious answer. A creative solution doesn’t have to be a “new” thought, it can be a new way of thinking, a new approach to a problem or a new way of implementing a previous thought or plans.

She explains her work at South32: “We’re in the pre-mining study stage, which means we are planning The Hermosa Mine outside of Patagonia, a mine that has not been built yet. The geologists on our project have defined an orebody, and part of my job is to determine how we can build a mine to get to the orebody and extract it. I work with software that allows me to design the underground mine in 3D, and then produce a sample schedule showing all the steps that we need to take to actually mine the ore from underground.”

There are a lot of factors and inputs that go into making the mine plan as accurate as possible. So Cayley works with many subject matter experts every day to gather all the required information and help determine the optimal design based on endless configurations and layouts.

Cayley Hoffman using 3D software to design the underground Hermosa Mine outside of Patagonia.

She says, “When I am going through the design process I am able to flag elements that have potential to impact the environment. It is very exciting to have the opportunity to use my creativity to help develop an environmentally sustainable mine from the ground up.”

As a former mountain bike athlete who competed all over the world, Cayley found that creativity frequently came into play when she was riding on the trails. Many times there were sections of trail where every racer would take the same path, without thinking about whether it was the fastest. Her team took the time to look at all the options and sometimes come up with a ‘creative line’ that shaved a few seconds off their race times. This could be the difference between winning or losing a race, and many times not following the same path as everyone else paid off.

It was during her travels that she saw many mines, both active and closed. She always found mines really interesting, and this coupled with her love of working outdoors, influenced her to major in geology. During Cayley’s second year of school she learned of the Mining and Geological Engineering department at the University of Arizona (UA) through a friend who was in the program. She was attracted to the many different areas of study within mining at UA. She chose to focus on sustainable resource development, taking courses on how mines can affect the environment.

In her job she often reaches a point where she has to make a design decision based on many possible options. Taking the time to sort and select potential solutions helps her streamline the review process for others when discussing design decisions with a larger group.

To stimulate her creativity, Cayley says, “I have always found that getting outside and moving really gets the creative juices flowing. I like to go for a walk to the nearby park and leave my headphones at home, so that I can be alone with my thoughts. I find sitting at my computer for too long really impacts my ability to think creatively. If there is a particular problem that I am focused on solving, I will take a small note pad with me to make some notes as things come into my head.”

Her advice for young people thinking about going to college is, “Don’t be afraid to start classes, even if you aren’t sure what you want to major in. Your first couple of years are mostly general education courses that will apply to any major you decide on, and you really only find out what you don’t want to do once you start taking classes.”

She also recommends joining as many clubs and organizations as possible to meet more people. Tapping into a big network is another great creativity tool that comes in handy when tackling challenges at school or work. Cayley says, “More than likely someone in your network has already been through what you’re facing, and they can help guide you through it.”

THANK YOU, SOUTH32!