I completed a two-decade career as an Army National Guard officer while spending most of my working life in education — teaching students, advising them, and later supporting the faculty who carry higher education. And it was there, years after I'd hung up my boots, that something finally clicked.

The Army had given me a clear, shared language for how you grow leaders. Education, the place that shapes everyone else, often had none. Some of our best teachers, faculty, and administrators lead by instinct, without the words to name what they do, develop it in others, or be recognized for it.

That gap is my work. After the Guard, I spent years as an ROTC instructor, preparing cadets to enter the profession of arms — much the way future educators are mentored before they're licensed to teach. The Army gave me a framework for that preparation, one built to develop leaders at any level. Through keynotes, workshops, and my most recent book, I bring it to educators and the leaders who support them — a practical vocabulary for recognizing leadership, intentionally developing it, and keeping the people who have it.