Media & Advocacy
Some rocks aren’t ours to grow around.
Sometimes loving families well means helping move what stands in their way.
Listen first.
Advocacy should begin with the people living the problem. Before a story becomes a statistic, a talking point, or a policy proposal, it belongs to a person or family carrying the weight of it.
My approach starts by listening for what families are actually experiencing: where support is working, where it is missing, and which barriers are being treated as “just part of military life” when they may be changeable.
Amplify what families are carrying.
Military families are resourceful, but resourcefulness should not make their challenges invisible. Public conversation can help surface the everyday realities behind issues like pay disruptions, food insecurity, housing costs, spouse employment, family transitions, and the strain military demands can place on marriage and family life.
Media, interviews, community conversations, and public education can create space for those experiences to be heard without reducing families to hardship alone. Military life also holds purpose, pride, humor, resilience, friendship, and deep community.
Advocate where change is possible.
When a barrier can be changed, advocacy can be one way of tending the soil.
- Military-family pay continuity and financial stability
- Food security and access to practical support
- Housing affordability and the real cost of military moves
- Marriage and family support during demanding assignments and transitions
- Spouse careers, education, and the cumulative impact of repeated relocation
- Family-centered communication, resources, and systems that are easier to navigate
This work has included congressional outreach, public education, family advocacy, and participation in advocacy efforts such as RESOLVE Advocacy Day in Michigan.
Media, writing & advocacy
Advocacy can take many forms: telling a family’s story accurately, helping the public understand a complicated issue, writing from lived experience, or joining the conversations where policy and support systems are being shaped.
News & Media
- Fox News — America’s Newsroom, November 2025. Interviewed about the impact of the federal government shutdown and financial uncertainty on military families.
- WZZM 13, October 2025. Interviewed about military families facing uncertainty over pay during the federal government shutdown.
- News Channel 3 / WWMT, October 2025. Interviewed about food insecurity, SNAP concerns, and the shutdown’s impact on Michigan military families.
- The Daily Tribune News, May 2025. Featured in “Kozak wins national military spouse award,” highlighting military-spouse advocacy and recognition.
- The Washington Post, December 2025. Quoted in reporting on military-family IVF benefits and provisions considered during the National Defense Authorization Act process.
Podcasts
- Wreaths Across America Podcast — Guest. Discussed military families, their experiences, and the support they need throughout military life.
- Our Navy Life — “Ask an Ombudsman: How Your Command Ombudsman Serves to Support You,” July 2024. Joined a conversation about the Ombudsman role and support available to Navy families.
Published Writing
NMSN Magazine — “Tracking the Military Spouse Transition.” Wrote about the realities of military spouse transition, including relocation, career disruption, and the repeated work of rebuilding life in a new season.
Speaking & Advocacy Events
- PCS Joint Task Force Spouses Roundtable — Participant. Contributed military-spouse perspective on PCS challenges, family impact, and transition support.
- 2025 Virtual CPO Spouse Selectee Symposium — Naval Services FamilyLine. Helped create and host the symposium and served as a panelist, supporting spouses navigating the transition into the Chief Petty Officer community.
The goal across all of this work is the same: keep families visible, make complex issues easier to understand, and help move the barriers that do not need to remain in the soil.
A note about roles and representation
My advocacy, media, educational, and speaking work reflects my own experience and views unless a specific role is clearly identified.
When serving in an Ombudsman role, I support families within the boundaries of that role. I do not speak for a command, the Department of the Navy, or the Department of Defense through Anchored Where We Grow.
Keeping those boundaries clear protects both the families I serve and the integrity of the advocacy itself.
Listen. Amplify. Advocate.
Sometimes resilience means growing around what cannot be changed. Sometimes it means helping move the rock.
Anchored Where We Grow is an independent educational and advocacy platform. Content here does not represent the Department of Defense, the Department of the Navy, or any military command.
