Jonna Mendez
π€ SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Over time, the job, the work changed me entirely.
I discovered that my ambition receded and that my need for recognition disappeared.
I discovered that invisibility actually suited me.
I traveled all over the world.
I came back to the States and eventually was promoted to deputy chief of disguise and then to chief of disguise, where my duties included
managing a worldwide staff that was rather difficult to manage.
And I enjoyed the work very much.
After I retired, I hung a picture in my library, rather discreetly, a picture of that moment in the White House in the Oval Office.
And what you see in the picture is the semicircle, the group of men, the woman talking to the president,
And before the masks that I was wearing, before those masks were declassified, people would stop in and they'd look at that picture and they'd say, who's that?
Who's that woman in that picture?
And I would say, well, yes, thank you.
I knew her very, very well.
We were really, really close.