Administrative Professionals Day: Terri Decker

Today is Administrative Professionals Day, a day dedicated to those who keep businesses and organizations on track.

Meet some of RTD’s mighty business supports who ensure the agency has what it needs to serve the people of the Denver metro area.

The COVID-19 pandemic made life difficult for every human on the planet. Yet, amid lockdowns and social distancing requirements, RTD managed to open its newest rail line, the N Line. Despite facing tremendous challenges to get the line running during a global pandemic, the crew at N Line Transportation made it happen. At the ground floor of it all was Terri Decker, N Line Transportation’s business support.

Decker, a Texas native, grew up in the Rio Grande Valley near South Padre Island. Spending her life enjoying the constant sunshine, she wanted to experience more.

“I have traveled a lot and I’ve been through several states, and seeing that Colorado had all four seasons attracted me here,” Decker said. “Where I grew up, there was one season.”

In March 1992, she made the long move from South Texas to Denver, where she started her own event planning business and didn’t look back.

Decker spent 23 years as an event planner. After meeting her husband, she began to notice how her work schedule was becoming unsustainable.

“My clients were mostly only available during the evenings, so I found myself working nights and weekends,” she said. “I never got to see my husband because of that.”

Decker decided it was time to find something more sustainable, so she began looking for a career change. In 2015, she joined the Denver office of Parsons, a global engineering firm.

Things were smooth sailing for her, and then the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020.

Like many companies during the peak of the pandemic, Decker’s company was beginning to consider layoffs. She saw what was coming next and decided it was time to jump ship.

“The firm was looking to downsize,” Decker said. “I read the writing on the wall and decided to move.”

For Decker, the timing could not have been better. RTD was in the middle of building its N Line department and preparing to open the line in September 2020. The agency needed key personnel, such as a business support.

Decker’s diverse skillset and ability to adapt to rapidly changing situations, as well as her passion for helping people, made her a prime candidate for the open position. RTD hired Decker for the N Line’s Maintenance of Way team in June 2020, just a few months prior to the N Line’s opening.

It didn’t take long for Decker to adjust to the agency, as her many years of experience in different facets of administrative, creative and event management work allowed her to hit the ground running.

“I am pretty good at figuring out projects and assisting people with getting those completed,” Decker said. “My skills in different software programs, and the fact I can learn from them quickly, help a lot.”

Joining the N Line team as a business support as it was being built was a unique experience for Decker.

“I assisted everywhere I could, from Human Resources to drafting policies and procedures, to onboarding new team members and creating a training curriculum,” she said. “I also helped design and order the uniforms. It was a great experience.”

“Helping design everything from the ground up was really a lot of fun.”

Today, Decker’s duties have changed a bit since the N Line opened.

“I do a lot of coordination now,” she said. “I onboard new hires, help managers review resumes, and set up exams and interviews in tandem with Human Resources.”

Decker also assists with ordering uniforms, ensures new hires have all the equipment they need, and coordinates division-specific town halls and social events.

The N Line Maintenance of Way team consists of General Superintendent of Infrastructure Brady Hollaway; managers Ben Powell, Frederick Joseph and Jake White; and 11 supervisors and 30 line-level employees. Decker supports all of them in various ways.

While Decker recalls enjoying many aspects of her job – such as spending time with her coworkers, watching N Line ridership grow year over year and helping new hires jump-start their careers – the one that stands out was the opening of the N Line, on Sept. 20, 2020.

“It was a really cool day to see one of our operators, Marcus, take out the first train,” Decker said.