Reflecting on a Week of Celebration

Last week was an absolute whirlwind for Hiring Our Heroes and our partners. Not only did we hold six events in three different cities (including our 100th Career Summit at Fort Gordon), we hosted major events focused on military spouse employment and the longstanding challenges faced by military spouses as they search for meaningful careers.

At our 3rd annual Military Spouse Employment Summit on June 20th, presented by USAA, we brought together an inspirational group of military spouse leaders, both from the private and public sectors, to discuss innovative programs and impactful solutions. Andrea Inserra, Executive Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton announced one such solution, a new program supported by Booz Allen Hamilton that provides 100 scholarships to place military spouses into HOH’s Corporate Fellowship Program—a program creating experiential work opportunities and a high likelihood of permanent employment.

We also announced major progress in our Hiring 100,000 Military Spouses Campaign, supported by Starbucks. That campaign has seen over 130 companies commit to hire over 25,000 military spouses in nine short months. Bottom line: we are well on our way to the 100,000 commitment goal by the end of 2020.

The Department of Veterans Affairs also announced its efforts to stand up a dedicated Military Spouse Professional Network through Hiring Our Heroes focused on connecting military spouses with career development and opportunities within the federal government—an important step towards making a dual-income military family a sustainable reality with public sector careers.

The festivities continued into the evening as we hosted our first-ever Military Spouse Impact Awards and Celebration Dinner, also presented by USAA, and the announcements kept coming.

Microsoft and MOAA are teaming up with us to offer grants to military spouses and small business owners to facilitate location independence by providing workstations to help companies retain military spouse talent through remote work arrangements.

As part of the dinner, we recognized the tremendous accomplishments of military spouse and entrepreneur Lisa Parmeter of Call Sign Coffee Company, military spouse volunteer Mary Reding of the Military Spouse J.D. Network, and the recipient of our Military Community Leader Award, the city of San Antonio.

Finally, we were joined by Dr. Jill Biden to recognize Sheila Casey, Chief Operating Officer of The Hill, as HOH’s 2019 Impact Award winner for Lifetime Achievement. Sheila has been a tremendous advocate for military spouses and families and was instrumental in creating Blue Star Families and serving as an advisor to the Bob Woodruff Foundation and many other organizations. I could go on and on, instead, here is the video we created to recognize her many accomplishments

Every year, the Summit and Celebration dinner serves as poignant reminder of the hard work, commitment and sacrifice of our military spouses and their families. I am honored to work with such a great group of leaders and friends. As we head into the 4th of July week, please take a moment to think about our service members, veterans and military spouses who have given so much for our country and freedom.