Destinee continues to serve the military community after leaving the military. She left the Army after four years. She had given birth to twins was pregnant with her third son. Her leadership was focused on her family care plan to send her on a deployment after her son was born. She felt overwhelmed and decided without the time to figure out her next step the easiest choice was to leave the military behind. Destinee is working today as the president of her non-profit We2AreVets and she is also works as a consultant and coach to help organizations and business owners.

Thank you so much to the VA Office of Women’s Health for sponsoring this week’s episode. Want to learn more about HeaRT? Head over to their website to learn more or sign up to attend an in person or virtual event today.

https://www.womensheart.info/register

Continuing to Serve after the Military

Destinee grew up in a military family. And at first she did not want to serve. But September 11th and thinking of what was next for her in going to college led her to the military. Initially, she was offered a three year scholarship and this allowed her to test out ROTC to see if it was the right fit. An opportunity to extend her scholarship to 3.5 years became available and she decided the military was right for her.

She commissioned along side her soon to be husband and they were able to get stationed at Fort Bragg after getting married right after college graduation. He wanted to be part of the 82nd Airborne and she wanted to be with him and was able to get a job working for the 44th Medical Brigade at Fort Bragg, NC, which fell under the 18th ABCs.

Starting a family

They decided they wanted to start their family and Destinee soon became pregnant. Her husband was deployed unexpectedly and left when she was eight weeks pregnant. Then at the twenty week appointment she found out that she wasn’t just having one baby. She was having twins. The first 8 months of her twin’s lives were a blur. She was on active duty and trying to survive until her husband came home from his deployment. He was gone for 15 months. After he returned home, she quickly found herself pregnant again. And that ended up leading to her leaving the military and beginning her journey in I/O Psychology.

Getting her PhD

She started working on her PhD when she left the military and for the first four years she was not connected to the military community. She decided to focus on her kids and also focus on herself with her degree. After four years of staying at home she went back into the work force working in the Transition Assistance Office helping people find their next career after the military. It was there she found her passion to help people and also was what led her to focus on women leaving the military in her dissertation. In episode 78 we talked about her findings and her dissertation, you can check it out here.

Today she is continuing to help others through her non profit We2AreVets and she is the CEO of PG Strategies Group. We2AreVets 501(c)(3) purpose is to honor, empower, and recognize women veterans as they enter and reintegrate into the civilian workforce. PG Strategies Group three core competencies are Organizational Strategies; Learning, Training and Professional Development; and, Military/Veterans.

Connect with Destinee:

https://www.we2arevets.org/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/destinee-prete/