Kimberly is finding healing and hope through her Warrior’s Path to Healing journal series. She has channeled her experiences in the military to develop a self-help tool for other survivors. We met at the Women Veteran Alliance Unconference in October where she was a finalist for the Melissa A. Washington Small Business Award. Kimberly started a social change consulting agency, The GOLD Beacon, PLLC. “GOLD” stands for Grant Management, Organization, Learning, and Development – key elements in capacity building and agency development. She is a Navy veteran and served as a Signals Intelligence Analyst supporting Operations Tomodachi, Enduring Freedom, and Inherent Resolve.

Finding healing and hope

Kim joined the Navy so that she could help take care of her young brothers. She had a job out of high school and was planning to go to college and then the recruiter called. She might not have joined if her date for boot camp wasn’t pushed up unexpectedly. Instead of wait for six months, 12 days later it was time for boot camp. She worked in Intel and served on three deployments. The first was to Japan and the Tsunami happened while she was there. The second two were in the middle east.

Leaving the military

She decided to leave the military because she was exhausted. Not only was there a lot of work required in the Navy, she also was a new mom and was in the process of adopting her nieces. The Navy was unwilling to support her family situation and wanted her to move to Japan. The move could have caused challenges with the adoption and it was difficult for her to not look for other alternatives.

Today she is working to help others through GOLD Beacon, PLLC. She helps companies with their strategic vision for the future. Both in the non profit and for profit space. She is also working to continue to expand her Warriors Path to Healing journal series. Now with three journal options in the series.