Be Bold. Be First. Be You. Learn how these differentiating factors attract top talent, build trust, help businesses succeed and leaders inspire. We possess the unique opportunity to improve the quality of our life and make a difference for others and our world by striving for what we can be. Martha shares insights from her career in the U.S. Coast Guard and “sea stories” from her interviews with top leaders to help drive personal, business and cultural change. Facing our fears & taking risks requires courage. This inspiring presentation is relatable to corporate boardrooms, teams and individuals. In 45-minutes, participants will rise up renewed and ready to execute the steps to Be Bold, Be First, and Be You!

As a master story teller, Martha delivers fascinating leadership stories and empowering discussions from the military to the boardroom to motivate both teams and individuals. Martha is an experienced leader building teams in the Coast Guard at sea and ashore and in the corporate environments while working in New York City. Her presentation will give your team the insights to be ready to work through a crisis, identify goals for long term success while giving them tips to take the next step with courage.

Martha inspires audiences with her own “sea stories” and leadership insights from her interviews with inspirational change-makers, adding well placed humor to describe leadership lessons, tips and overcoming adversity from the deck plates to working with the White House. A maverick, she is an example of how to make positive change happen and earn respect in a male dominated military where women are 15% of the force.

Author of the award-winning book, So Others May Live: Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers Saving Lives, Defying Death, she published four other books on leadership, role-model women in the military and a collection of STEM stories for younger audiences.

Fostering unity and equality are active conversations in diversity and inclusion offices, by faculty, among students, military and business leaders. Yet, we’re still not there! I’ve learned behaviors I witnessed 30 years ago on my ship as one of the first two women assigned, are still taking place today. Achieving equity and unity across generations requires an understanding of the roots of inequality. Actions and accountability are still needed to change inappropriate, commonplace cultural or institutional norms and policies which support discrimination. Refining our awareness of practices, policies, comments & gestures is one of the first steps to stand-up to insensitive harassment and discrimination. In this presentation, I will talk about how we use our personal norms and policies for the good and sometimes, inadvertently perhaps, for the detriment or disparagement of others who are not like us because of their sex, color, age or beliefs. Hear about issues and steps to incorporate inclusiveness while improving business practices and culture. I have faith that small actions of equity and acceptance of others, mavericks, people who don’t look like our “norm” or talk like “us” or are from “that generation” can have positive consequences for teams, businesses, our military and our own happiness and fulfillment. I will help your audience build awareness. We will take a small step for change. Imagine, cumulatively, how many miles will be walked for progress.

Martha encourages audience participation and engages participants to face complex challenges, to rise and realize success, giving them actionable solutions. Faced with adversity, we all feel afraid. Martha provides insights to avoid paralysis that prevents productive responses. She shares insights on how to build solutions to bring to the fight in business or in life. Utilizing her own experiences working through the chaos of a national crisis, helping build solutions, she provides insights on leading teams and individuals.

Certified as Type 1, the most complex Incident Command System level for a national incident, Liaison Officer and Public Information Officer, her experience working with corporations, state and local leaders brings value to this presentation.

Hand-picked to serve as the US Coast Guard Commandant’s Press Secretary in Washington D.C., Martha worked as a Coast Guard spokesperson with the White House, Department of Homeland Security and international media through the bookends of this assignment: the Haitian earthquake in 2010 and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. From this experience and her work at sea on two ships or during major national disasters like Hurricane Sandy’s strike on the Northeast seaboard and the triple Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2017, Martha knows that being resilient and working through the aftermath of a crisis is the only option for success in any business.

Nationally certified and experienced managing major disasters and incidents of the highest level (Type 1) as a Public Information Officer and Liaison Officer, Martha responded to the aftermath and destruction of national disasters including hurricanes Irma/Maria, Sandy, Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Alaska.

She brings her experience working and leading with teams at the national, state and local level to audiences to help your team optimize their performance.