December 2019
Jim Ware: I’m speaking today with Diane Coles Levine, who is currently the Executive Director of the IFMA Foundation (IFMA = International Facilities Management Association), which is based in Houston, Texas. However, Diane lives in Southern California and works remotely most of the time, which is a story in and of itself, but that’s for another time.
Today we’re going to talk with Diane about her career, how she ended up at the IFMA Foundation, and what she sees as the challenges and opportunities facing the facilities management profession in 2020.
Here is a four-minute “teaser” excerpt from the full forty-five minute conversation (the remainder of this post is a transcript of that full conversation, slightly edited  for clarity and readability).

March 2020 Update: This conversation between Diane Coles, Executive Director of the IFMA Foundation and Jim Ware, Managing Editor of Work&Place, took place in October 2019, well before the coronovirus pandemic of 2020. Thus, while it contains valuable information about the future of facilities management and FM career opportunities, it does not directly address any of the important strategic and workplace design challenges created by covid-19. However, the ideas and programs discussed here do have major implications for FM professional development independently of the pandemic.

Jim Ware: Diane is the perfect person for this conversation, as she has been an FM executive, an award-winning author, a workplace consultant, and is now leading the FM Foundation as its Executive Director.
Diane, thanks for being with us.
Diane Levine: Thank you!
Early Career Experiences
Jim: I’m looking forward to this conversation. Let’s start with some history. How did you get into facilities management in the first place? My recollection is that you once described yourself as an accidental FM. Take us through your early education and workplace journey. How did you end up in Facilities Management?
Diane: It was sort of accidental, but once I found out about the career, I was really interested in it and wanted to do it. I was a librarian and records management consultant for most of my early career in high school and college and shortly after college.
I was working as the head of the library and records center at the Orange County, California, Transportation Authority. My boss left, and they made me manager of general services – which included all the facilities, and I thought “this is my ticket out of libraries.”
I really wanted to get out of working in libraries, as much as I liked it. I wanted something new and different. Facilities management seemed like an exciting field; it was creative and different every day. It involved solving problems, and I was learning a lot. I really got excited about the work and so I followed around the vendors that were servicing the Orange County Transportation Authority. They mentored me. At the same time, I joined IFMA and got myself educated in the field of Facilities Management. I loved it.
Jim: I was going to ask about the education. You came into the profession with almost no formal FM education. How did you pick up the knowledge and skillset you needed?
Diane: Fortunately, I was a librarian, so I knew how to do research. I did a lot of research and found IFMA and other organizations and lots of reading materials. I took classes within IFMA and through the American Management Association. I had a lot of folks within the company that I worked for who took me under their wings. For example, the head of procurement taught me procurement procedures. That was really helpful. I wasn’t your typical Facility Manager; I had just finished a business degree, which I also think was helpful.
Jim: You and I first met when you were Director of Facilities at SCAN Health in Long Beach, California. How did you get there and how did you end up in a leadership position?
Becoming Director of FM at SCANHealth…