From the category archives:

Role Models

Honored Role (part 18): 2nd Lt. Taneshina Wright – Body & Mind

May 21, 2010

This is the 18th installment in the Honored Role Series. Saturday’s graduation at West Point will mark 30 years since the first women joined “the long gray line” of graduates of the storied Military Academy. During the commencement exercises, Taneshina Wright will take the oath of a commissioned officer and become a Second Lieutenant in [...]

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Honored Role (part 17): Maj. Candice O’Brien – One Step at Time

May 7, 2010

This is the 17th installment in the Honored Role Series. In Kindergarten Candice O’Brien started running the 1/8th of a mile loop around her elementary school in Muscatine, Iowa. Each time she finished ahead of all the other kids—girls and boys. Although she ran for fun, she did not want anyone to beat her. From [...]

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Honored Role (part 16): Col. (ret.) Crissy Gayagas – In Balance

April 26, 2010

This is the 16th installment in the Honored Role Series. More than a word of welcome or parting, “Aloha”, in the Hawaiian language means affection, love, peace, compassion and mercy. Often described as the coordination of mind and heart, it also means the extension of warmth in caring with no obligation in return. This would [...]

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Writing Women Back into History

March 31, 2010

March is Women’s History Month and this year’s theme is “Writing Women Back into History.” Honored to be the guest speaker at West Point’s Women’s History month celebration, I had an unique opportunity to share my story and the genius of Porcelain on Steel: Women of West Point’s Long Gray Line with a diverse audience [...]

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Honored Role (part 15): Paula Broadwell – Arc of a Driver

March 19, 2010

This is the 15th installment in the Honored Role Series. Paula Broadwell does her best thinking and reflecting during her daily 6:00AM run with her Iphone and Pandora blasting. She runs at warp speed literally and intellectually. To say she is driven to perform is a precise statement of how discipline and determination have shaped [...]

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Fortis to Publish Porcelain on Steel

February 22, 2010

Porcelain on Steel: Women of West Point Long Gray Line is being published by Fortis Publishing and will be available in May 2010! I am thrilled and honored to be working with Fortis co-founders Dennis Lowery and Jim Zumwalt. It’s ironic that a Navy and Marine veteran respectively are making this book a reality. Frankly, [...]

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Honored Role Series (Part 2): Becky Kanis – Armed Service and Social Service

October 29, 2009

This is the second installment in the weekly Honored Role Series. As a junior high student in Franklin, Tennessee, Becky Kanis remembers the excitement and awe of fellow parishioners when they learned a young woman from St. Philip’s Catholic Church received an appointment to a service academy. Carol Anderson, a high school senior and St. [...]

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Honored Role: A weekly series about role models

October 23, 2009

Between 1980 and 2008, 3,245 women graduated from West Point and have served selflessly in the Nation’s armed forces. Most of them, whether or not they still wear the uniform, are ordinary women with extraordinary stories of perseverance and integrity. They are soldiers and wives, mothers and daughters. They are doctors, lawyers, teachers, clergy and [...]

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Honored Role Series (Part 1): Odessa Maxwell — An inner journey looking outward

October 23, 2009

This is the first installment in the weekly Honored Role Series. Odessa Maxwell is the story of a soldier turned poet. A study of complexities and contrasts, Odessa Maxwell describes herself as an unusual woman. Born in Germany to a Japanese mother and African-American father, Odessa grew up in the south. The family settled in [...]

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Leadership and mentoring in the news

October 7, 2009

Akin to many women, I wear a myriad of “hats and coats”, including mom, wife, daughter, friend, writer, volunteer, and outdoor enthusiast. I am inspired often by the actions, involvement, excitement and stories of women I meet. Daily, I am reminded of the impact women make in other people’s lives. They bridge past, present and [...]

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