Carmen MedinaCarmen worked at the Central Intelligence Agency for 32 years, rising to become one of the highest-ranking women at the Agency.

During her career at CIA she achieved positions of apparent importance, such as the Deputy Director for Intellignce and the Director of the Center for the Study of Intelligence (CSI.) But she thinks her greatest achievement is that most people who worked for her are still her friends. She had many ideas about how the CIA could do its job better--not all were welcomed. Being true to yourself, being a rebel at work, Carmen learned, means you will often feel uncomfortable and not welcomed at work.

Since her retirement from the CIA in 2010, Carmen has led two new careers. One with Deloitte Consulting and the other as a curator, connector, and synthesizer on social networks. At Deloitte, she continues to support the Intelligence Community on issues such as social networking and future trends, and mentors Deloitte's consultants about how to become innovative and independent thinkers. (She prefers to think of it as being their Yoda).

She tweets regularly under the handle @milouness (She started on Twitter while still at CIA so chose an obscure user name; she has 2,504 followers.) She also writes regularly both on her own blog, recoveringfed.com, and on the joint website with Lois Kelly, rebelsatwork.com. Read More Read Less