Currently a J.D. candidate at UDC Law, Gretchen’s career is one of a highly analytic, data-driven leader with corporate-wide functional understanding and risk management acumen.  The unique crossover scope of her background powers integrative thinking and dot-connecting on diverse, complex issues, causing her to have been repeatedly sought out to renovate company strategies, infrastructure, and performance.  As a Growth and P&L executive across aerospace, technology, and professional services firms and as a retired US Air Force officer, she’s read thousands of resumes—from experienced executives to former military to recent graduates—honing her insights on the gaps and unintended messages most resumes contain.  Combined with her experience in companies selling to both government and commercial clients, she adeptly translates people’s skills and attributes across a wide range of industries and markets.

Gretchen contributes her time as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Defense Industrial Association, representing 1,600 corporate and 65,000 individual members, and on the Advisory Council of STEM for Her, which brings educational programs to junior and high school girls.  She also actively engages with the technology innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem, leveraging her experience in evaluating talent, viability, and market potential of start-ups as well as corporate M&A targets.

A graduate of the US Air Force Academy, Gretchen holds two Master’s degrees and an advanced executive certificate from the MIT Sloan School of Management.  Now living in Virginia, her global perspective comes from a career spanning the US, Europe, and Asia.  Her life experiences plus a passion for furthering education led her to establish and lead a non-profit foundation that supplies computers and internet connectivity to a remote school in eastern Zambia.