KaLea Lehman is the Executive Director and Founder of the Military Special Operations Family Collaborative (MSOFC). KaLea grew up in rural Missouri and learned to cook as a young child at home and more formally through required home economics classes in high school. She took this homegrown spirit to Washington, D.C., where she’s been a longtime advocate for health education, research, and policy. KaLea earned her bachelor’s degree in Sociology from George Washington University in 2007, shortl...

Dr. Topher Murphy graduated with his PsyD from Regent in 2008 and has served as a Psychologist both in the US Army in the in the Department of Veterans Affairs over the past 9 years. For more information about All Secure Foundation, visit https://allsecurefoundation.org/

Joe Stimac is the founder and President of AccuHire Corporation, a company that specializes in selection, engagement, and retention. His clients include notable firms including H&R Block, Enterprise-Rent-A-Car, PeopleSoft, DoD commands, MIT, PWC, Marathon Oil, The White House, and others. He has trained over 12,000 hiring managers at global firms, elite military commands, universities, and fast-growing startups on how to hire high performers over his 20-year career. He has been a speaker...

Meet Dr. Angus Fletcher. Dr. Fletcher has his PhD from Yale and is the Professor of Story Science at Ohio State's Project Narrative. His research has been called "mind-blowing" by Malcolm Gladwell and "life-changing" by Brene Brown. In 2023, he was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for his work with US Special Operations on training the brain to act smarter in chaos. He began working with the Army’s Command and General Staff College two years ago, both virtually and by conducting in-person...

For nearly 20 years, Cook County Sheriff’s Police Lt. James Draz has served the community through his various roles while working for the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. In 2004, soon after graduating from college, he began his career as a Correctional Officer for the Cook County Department of Corrections which is overseen by the Sheriff’s Office. As a Correctional Officer, he worked in several capacities including becoming a member of the Emergency Response Team. In 2011, he graduated from the...

Long before CBS cast Tyler Grey as operator Trent Sawyer on the hit show SEAL Team, he was a real-life Army Ranger sniper turned operator assigned to the US Army’s most secretive counterterrorism special missions unit. He deployed multiple times to Iraq and Afghanistan, where he went after high-value targets and endured multiday reconnaissance missions in austere terrain. His military career changed forever after Grey was seriously wounded in an explosion during a nighttime raid in Sadr City,...

Stacey Stone. Where do we even begin! She is our lead coach and has worked with thousands of Special Operations family members, whether active, ETSed, or retired, and their significant others. She has helped to redirect struggling relationships with tools that help us during our worst times. She is here to teach us the tools to help us live our next best life without the bad baggage of our past. For those who are unaware, Stacey is a licensed clinical social worker who provides c...

Sheriff Dart has revolutionized a system that most people don't even want to look at, let alone get into the trenches of & that is prison reform. Something that hit home for us in SOF is that if a person can be rehabilitated, then you should take that time & effort to do so. "When they're back on the street which version do you want to bump into at target?" Sheriff Tom Dart has dedicated his career to challenging injustice, fighting the violence plaguing our communities, & bringi...

Listen Up! Picture this: our podcast audience is a classroom. Imagine Tom asking, "How many of you know someone within SOF or a veteran of SOF that has been diagnosed with cancer?" We can guarantee every hand would shoot up. This is why you need to listen in to this episode with Dennis Downey. Dennis Downey is a retired Army officer who spent 26 of 29 years on active duty in Special Forces. He served in a variety of assignments with the 10th and 1st Special Forces Groups and had extensive d...

The growth mindset is important to cultivate as you journey onto the next step following your time in SOF. In this episode with Aaron, he recognizes and owns what he's done in the past, speaks on imposter syndrome, is able to reflect on his growth, and questions Tom on his same path. Aaron also knows he's not on mile 26 of the marathon of life. There's more growth to come. Aaron Hill served for five years with the 45 Royal Marine Commandos and five years with the 22 SAS (UKSF). F...