Success Story She Helps Launch Future Leaders

This retired Navy pilot teaches her civilian clients how to take command.

What exactly do you do?

I teach and speak about leadership development and consult with clients in the corporate, government and nonprofit worlds. My clients have included Microsoft, Domino Sugar, AmeriCorps and the departments of Defense and State.

You were a career Navy pilot?

I retired as a captain in 2008 after 16 years of active duty and 14 years in the reserves while I was raising my two children. I qualified to fly helicopters and propeller and jet aircraft.

What inspired your second act?

I did a lot of community and nonprofit work while I was raising my family, and I realized that the civilian world was desperate for the management, leadership and “followership” principles that I had spent 30 years learning. That is, in the military, we’re groomed to lead but expected to follow, too, and we’re taught how.