#WeAllServe

#WeAllServe – Episode #56 with Former US Congressman Dan Donovan

Posted on by Shalom Klein

A distinguished public servant, Dan has served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives; the District Attorney for Richmond County, New York; and the Deputy Bureau Chief for the New York County District Attorney’s Office. He has decades of experience working with high-level government officials on the federal, state, and city level.
As Representative for the 11th Congressional District of the State of New York, he was appointed to the Homeland Security Committee, where he served as chairman of the Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communication Subcommittee and was a member of the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee. He was also appointed to the Foreign Affairs Committee, where he served as a member of the Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee and the Africa, Global Health, Human Rights, and International Organizations Subcommittee.
As District Attorney for Richmond County, Staten Island, New York, he served as the Chief Law Enforcement Officer and presided over 125 prosecutors, administrative staff, and NYPD detective squad. In this role he was responsible for the prosecution of more than 12,000 criminal cases per year. He also represented Staten Island as Deputy Borough President and as Chief of Staff for the Office of the Staten Island Borough President, where he oversaw public safety, education, transportation, healthcare, environmental, and city planning matters.
As Deputy Bureau Chief for the New York County District Attorney’s Office, Dan served the NYC Special Narcotics Prosecutor and managed New York City–wide felony narcotics cases.
Dan received his J.D., cum laude, from Fordham University School of Law, where he was a member of the Fordham Law Review, and his B.S. from St. John’s University.

#WeAllServe – Episode #55 with CH (COL) Khallid Shabazz

Posted on by Shalom Klein

Chaplain (COL) Khallid Shabazz is the U.S. Army Central Command Chaplain and is the Army’s highest ranking and first Muslim division-level chaplain. Chaplain (COL) Shabazz is a recipient of the Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal (9), Joint Army Commendation and Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal (2), the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, The Iraqi Campaign Medal, the Army service Ribbon, the Overseas Ribbon (3) and the NATO Expeditionary Medal. He was also awarded the humanitarian award for outstanding volunteerism, The Saint Michael’s Medal for service to Army Aviation and Saint Barbara’s Award for service to the Field Artillery Corps. He is the author of three books, “Losing our Manhood,” “Islam and Christianity a Road to Peace” and “Culture a Call to Reason.”

#WeAllServe Episode #54 with LTC (Ret) Oakland McCulloch

Posted on by Shalom Klein

Oakland McCulloch was born in Loudon, Tennessee and raised in Kirkland, Illinois. After graduating from high school, he attend the United States Military Academy at West Point for two years. He then graduated from Northern Illinois University and received his commission as an Infantry Officer through the Reserve Officer Training Course in 1986. In his 23 year career in the Army Oak McCulloch held numerous leadership positions in the Infantry and Armor branches. He assisted in disaster relief operations for Hurricane HUGO in Charleston, South Carolina and Hurricane ANDREW in south Florida. His operational deployments include Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia and Iraq as a Generals Aide-de-Camp, the Congressional Liaison Officer in support of operations in Bosnia and the Operations Officer during a Peace Keeping deployment to Kosovo. He held instructor positions at the US Army Ordnance School, the US Army Command and General Staff College, the Australian Command and Staff College, University of South Alabama and Stetson University. His last position in the Army was a three-year tour as the Professor of Military Science at the University of South Alabama where he led the training and commissioning of Lieutenants and tripled the size of the program in his three-year tour. LTC McCulloch retired from the Army in September 2009 with over 23 years of active service and joined the staff at the Bay Area Food Bank as the Associate Director. He was also the Vice Chair for Military Affairs on the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Mobile Rotary International Club. LTC McCulloch left the food bank in December 2010 to become the Senior Military Science Instructor and recruiter for the Army ROTC program at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. In his 9 years at Stetson, the program grew from 15 Cadets to over 100 Cadets. In October 2013, he became the Recruiting Operations Officer for the Eagle Battalion Army ROTC program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University where he has more than doubled the size of the program in 6 years. Cadet Command selected LTC McCulloch as the top recruiting officer, out of 274 recruiters, for 2019. LTC Oak McCulloch published his first book in February 2021 – “Your Leadership Legacy: Becoming the Leader You Were Meant to Be”. LTC McCulloch earned a Bachelor of Science degree in History from Northern Illinois University in 1987 and a Master of Military Arts and Science in History from the United States Army Command and General Staff College in 2002. He received thirty-one military service awards including the Bronze Star, eight Meritorious Service Medals and the Humanitarian Service Medal. LTC Oak McCulloch is married to the former Kelly Smyth of Wauconda, Illinois. They were married at Fort Sheridan, Illinois in 1987 and they have two children, Oakland Vincent McCulloch and Caileigh Nicholson. They also have a granddaughter, Ryleigh Jade Nicholson and two grandsons Christopher Bryce Nicholson and Oakland Maverick McCulloch.

#WeAllServe Episode #52 with Juliana Mercer

Posted on by Shalom Klein

Juliana Mercer is a Marine Corps veteran, serving honorably for 16 years. She was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan during her military career and spent five years providing holistic support to wounded, ill, and injured Marines recovering at the Wounded Warrior Battalion in San Diego. With over 20 years of experience working with and serving the veteran population, Juliana has a deep understanding of the veteran community’s needs and what it takes to support them through their transition from the military back to the civilian world. Since leaving active duty in 2011, Juliana has committed her career to supporting her veteran brothers and sisters through their successful transition into civilian life. Juliana serves on several nonprofit Veteran Service Organization BODs and founded a Public Benefit Corporation, Sabe, which aims to create meaningful change in the world through individual transformation and healing through psychedelic therapy. A portion of Sabe’s profits expands veteran access to wellness through veteran-nonprofits Heroic Hearts Project and the H.O.P.E Project. Their collective missions provide hope and healing to our nation’s veterans and military families. *Sabe is Spanish for “know” and an ode to Mexican healer Maria Sabina. Juliana found plant medicines in her quest to years of personal and military heal trauma. Having experienced their healing potential, she’s now an advocate. She has worked with CA congress members, senators, and legislators along the coast to get a yes vote on SB-519, recently testifying at the state capital in Sacramento. Her business cards would say “psychedelic concierge” if business cards were a thing 😉

#WeAllServe Episode #51 with Peter Braxton

Posted on by Shalom Klein

Peter Braxton is Managing Director, Akoya Capital, Investor Relations. Peter has been serving the financial needs for ultra-high net worth individuals and their families for more than 14 years, delivering holistic advice and creative solutions across the spectrum of private capital markets. Earlier in his career Peter was a US Air Force Instructor Pilot, with over 3000 Flight hours, including 1,000 Combat hours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Following his military service, Peter joined Credit Suisse, Chicago, as a Private Banker. From there he was the COO/Chief of Staff for DOM Capital Group, a single-family office and private investment group of the Dominick’s Grocery Store Family, and most recently worked with Envoi, a management owned private family office dedicated to servicing high net worth clients and Blue Marlin Partners, a Private Equity Firm. Peter is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, Distinguished Graduate of Joint Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training, and holds an MBA from Washington University in St Louis. He currently serves on the board of the Tuskegee Next Foundation and is a private pilot in the Citation VII out of DuPage Airport, West Chicago, IL.

#WeAllServe Episode #50 with Priya Sridhar

Posted on by Shalom Klein

Priya Sridhar is an Emmy-award winning political reporter and host of “Politically Speaking”, a weekly political show that airs on Sundays on NBC 7. She comes to NBC San Diego from KPBS where she worked as a general assignment reporter and fill-in host for the station’s radio and television programs. Prior to San Diego, Priya worked as an investigative and general assignment reporter for the CBS affiliate in San Antonio, Texas. In addition to local news, Priya has worked as a White House correspondent and morning show co-host in New York City for Arise News, a 24 hour international news channel headquartered out of Nigeria. She has also worked as a Washington correspondent and anchor for RT and went on to work for that channel as a South Asia bureau chief and correspondent posted in New Delhi, India. She began her career at the NBC affiliates in Maine and has also worked at the Associated Press in Chicago. Priya received her undergraduate degree in International Relations and History from Bowdoin College and a master’s degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Some of the most impactful stories she’s covered in her career include the aftermath of the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri for the Associated Press and the historic 2015 presidential elections in Nigeria. Priya is originally from outside of Boston, Massachusetts. She is an officer in the United States Navy Reserve and fell in love with San Diego through her work in the Navy. She is the co-President of Asian American Journalists Association San Diego and on the board of directors for Military Veterans in Journalism.

#WeAllServe​ – Episode #47 with SMA (Ret) Dan Dailey

Posted on by Shalom Klein

Sgt. Maj. of the Army Daniel A. Dailey, U.S. Army retired, joined the staff of the Association of the U.S. Army, where he serves as vice president of Noncommissioned Officer and Soldier Programs. A native of Palmerton, Pennsylvania, Dailey enlisted in the Army in 1989 and attended basic training and advanced individual training as an 11B (infantryman) at Fort Benning, Georgia. During his career, Dailey held every enlisted leadership position in the mechanized infantry, ranging from Bradley Fighting Vehicle commander to command sergeant major. Dailey has served with the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Infantry Divisions stateside and overseas. In March 2009, he was selected as the 4th Infantry Division command sergeant major, where he served as both the command sergeant major of Fort Carson, Colorado, and U.S. Division‐North, Iraq. In 2011, Dailey was selected to serve as the command sergeant major of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). Dailey was sworn in as the 15th sergeant major of the Army on Jan. 30, 2015, and relinquished the position on Aug. 9, 2019. In addition to four tours in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and New Dawn, Dailey deployed in support of Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield. He earned the Bronze Star with Valor for his leadership during the 4th Infantry Division’s two‐month Battle for Sadr City in 2008. Dailey is a graduate of class 54 of the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy and the Command Sergeants Major Course. Dailey holds a Bachelor of Science (Summa Cum Laude) from Excelsior College. Dailey has been married to his wife, Holly, for 26 years. They have one son, Dakota.

#WeAllServe​ – Episode #46 with CPT Mark Brouker

Posted on by Shalom Klein

Captain Mark Brouker, United States Navy (Retired), is a thought leader, keynote speaker, professor, coach, consultant, facilitator, pharmacist, and proven leader who is passionate about helping others on their leadership journey. He has more than twenty-five years of leadership experience, fifteen of which were in C-suite-level positions. The recipient of numerous military and civilian leadership awards, he held a wide array of leadership positions both during and after his naval career. He served as commanding officer at one of the largest naval hospitals worldwide and as chief of staff for Navy Medicine West, responsible for ten hospitals spanning the West Coast to the Indian Ocean and health care for eight hundred thousand patients.
After transitioning from the military, Captain Brouker founded Brouker Leadership Solutions, a company dedicated to helping leaders succeed on their leadership journeys. He has presented to thousands of professionals in twenty-one countries, and his clients include Fortune 500 companies, professional and military organizations, and top universities. Brouker volunteers as an executive coach at The Honor Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps U.S. Navy SEALs and other Special Operations Forces transition from the military environment to the corporate environment.