Lucy Clark

t times, Lucy Clark wishes the Homeland Security Department had at least some of the entrenched-bureaucracy characteristics common to established government departments. If it did, she and others might be able to focus more on shaping and executing policy rather than on mundane office tasks.

"You have to do all this stuff that doesn't have anything to do with homeland security, but is incredibly important to the department being able to function as part of the executive branch," Clark said. "The most difficult part of my job, I think, is just trying to get all the pieces to fit together and trying to make sure the right people are talking to each other about the right policy matters," she said. "In other words, ensuring the communication that is necessary."

A Michigan native, Clark helped draft the president's original legislative proposal to create the department while she was a lawyer in the White House's Office of Homeland Security in 2002. "I also was one of the lead policy representatives for the administration during negotiations with the House and Senate on the bill itself," said Clark, who earned a law degree from the University of Michigan, a master's from the University of Virginia, and a bachelor's from Yale University. "I know that act by heart. I know the strategy by heart, because I was part of that core group that helped develop it."

In Secretary Tom Ridge's office, Clark, 34, serves as a confidential adviser on a wide array of matters related to policy and department organization. "Because I've been a part of this from the beginning, I'm not shy about my opinions, and I feel free to advise the secretary as I need," Clark said. "This is sort of in my blood now."