Dinner Guest Wish List: LM Contractor Janice Maruniak Shares Her Female Role Models

March is Women’s History Month, and this year’s theme — “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories” — recognizes “women, past and present, who have been active in all forms of media and storytelling, including print, radio, TV, stage, screen, blogs, podcasts, news, and social media.”

This theme resonates with Janice Maruniak, an executive administrative assistant for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management. Before LM, Maruniak started her professional life as a part-time staff writer for The Herald-Standard, a small newspaper in southwestern Pennsylvania — an experience that brings back fond memories for her.

“I had an assigned beat, covering local government meetings held by municipalities, boroughs, and townships within that area,” she said. She also wrote numerous feature stories for the Sunday paper.

She eventually obtained a full-time position at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, another newspaper in southwestern Pennsylvania. At the Tribune-Review, she was responsible for putting together a bimonthly advertorial insert focused on local women.

“I wrote about a lot of very interesting women who were very active in their communities,” Maruniak said.

A few of those women profiled were a certified nurse midwife, a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, and a dual-career mom who was a dental hygienist and a pro bono attorney in family court.

“Drawing a parallel to Women’s History Month, the stories provided a very meaningful way to recognize and celebrate the achievements and contributions those women were providing to the local community,” she said.  

Although working as a federal contractor may seem completely different than her previous role as a reporter, Maruniak sees more similarities than differences. Working the night shift as a reporter, she constantly ran against the clock, turning stories around within hours of publication in the morning’s paper.

“I learned a lot about being flexible and adaptable,” Maruniak said. “And how every task you start is one you should finish as quickly and as accurately as possible.” 

Those formative years taught Maruniak the art of wearing multiple hats in multiple arenas. As a member of the field and headquarters correspondence teams, she juggles many administrative requests daily, monitors five separate email inboxes, coordinates several federal staff calendars, organizes teleconferences, and trains new hires.

As a former reporter, Maruniak is accustomed to thriving quietly and letting the subject of each story take center stage. Although Maruniak’s work is essential to LM, much of what she does happens behind the scenes.

When asked which three women in history she would invite to dinner, Maruniak cited her role models.

“The first one would be my mom, who passed away 15 years ago,” she said. “That’s a definite dinner request.”

Maruniak also mentioned NASA astronaut Judy Resnik, the second woman to travel in space. Resnik was among the seven crew members who died when the space shuttle Challenger exploded.

She also credited Barbara Walters. In the spirit of this year’s theme of honoring storytellers, it’s no wonder why a former reporter would pick a news legend. A trailblazer in broadcast journalism, Walters interviewed every sitting president from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama.

“She was just an iconic TV newswoman who broke the barriers in the industry for women,” Maruniak said. “I think it would be really interesting to sit down over dinner with her and listen to all the stories that she would have to tell.”

Maruniak believes her role at LM follows in the tradition of what storytellers have always done: preserve history for future generations.

“That Women’s History Month recognizes and celebrates all the achievements that have been accomplished up to this date is important,” she said. “But we also need to recognize there are still challenges we have to overcome.

“And kudos go out to those women who were able to stand up and fight for all the achievements we honor today.”