Advisory Board
BSF Friends And Advisors
At BSF, we believe military families are our own best experts, so we are very grateful and excited to be building a team of VIP military spouses to serve as our in-house advisors. These accomplished members have agreed to lend their invaluable insight and experience, and to connect with our members so that we can all share in our pride of service. Come back to this page soon to see the full list, and get a glimpse of the terrific contributions these outstanding members will bring.
Wanda Nelson Castellaw
Wanda Nelson Castellaw holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, and a Master of Science from the University of Tennessee. She is the wife of LTGEN John G. Castellaw, USMC, Ret. The Castellaws have one son who works for the Justice Department’s Environmental Protection Division.
During the family’s 36 years with the Marine Corps, Wanda moved her household 25 times, including moves to Italy, Germany, Japan, Hawaii, Florida, California, Arizona, North Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, DC. She held a variety of jobs—personnel analyst, psychiatric evaluator, social worker, marketing specialist, project assistant for pharmaceutical testing, relocation specialist, education counselor, community college instructor, high school teacher, program administrator for masters degree programs, and executive director for a trade association.
Wanda has been extensively involved in volunteer work for military families over the years. She worked with the Marine Corps Key Volunteer Network and LINKS programs, served on the Board of Directors for the American Women’s Welfare Association and the Marine Gift Shop, served on the Currently Serving Spouse Advisory Council for the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) and on the Host Committee for the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation.
Wanda is employed by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) where she works with the Strong Bonds program of the Army. She divides her time each month between a 100-year-old family farmhouse in Tennessee and Washington, DC.
Dr. Janet Breslin-Smith
After earning a Master’s Degree in International Relations and Economics (and later a PhD in Political Science) from UCLA, Dr. Breslin-Smith began working in the US Senate, where she worked for three senators, including her role as Legislative Director for Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont. She went on to work at the National War College in Washington, DC, where she taught a number of courses in National Security Strategy, and in 2000, she became Department Chair and was named Outstanding Professor in 2006.
Currently Dr. Breslin-Smith is finishing a history of the National War College. She was active in the campaigns of both President Obama and Senator Jeanne Shaheen, and served on the Senator’s advisory group to set up her New Hampshire field operation. She is also a senior advisor on the Truman Project and a member of Women in International Security.
Dr. Breslin-Smith has broad experience and a long history of supporting military families. In addition to her work on the Board of the Blue Star Families, she has consulted with the Military Officers Association in their spouse outreach efforts, taught special classes for spouses at the National War College and was actively involved in overseas deployment issues when her husband was Wing Commander at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa Japan. During her two years at Kadena, she initiated the first Joint Okinawa Women’s Forum, a day long program offering classes and activities for military spouses. She was also an advisor to the Officer’s Spouse Club as well as the Enlisted Spouse Club.
Babette Maxwell
Babette Maxwell is one of the founders and the Executive Editor of Military Spouse magazine, which is published by Victory Media. She holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas in San Antonio. She is also a fourth-generation military dependent with 27 moves and 38 years dedicated to military life. Babette lives in New Orleans with her active duty husband and their three sons. She oversees all strategic relationships, print and web content production and strategic vision of Military Spouse. Babette’s passion and energy have been the driving force behind the massive growth and influence of Military Spouse.
She co-founded Military Spouse in 2003 with no prior industry experience and managed to secure distribution and advertising for the magazine in less than six months. In addition, she launched the magazine with an entirely virtual staff. After three years, Victory Media acquired Military Spouse magazine and integrated it into the operations of its military niche media brands.
Prior to founding Military Spouse, Babette was an environmental test engineer for the government when based out of NAS Atsugi, Japan. During her time with Radian International, Babette staged air quality testing on Shinkampo, an industrial waste-burning incinerator. It was this testing and analysis that led to Japan's closure of the environmental hazard. Additionally, Babette worked for Newport News Shipbuilding conducting HVAC design support work for the Navy’s fleet of submarines and for the Air Force doing design support for the C-5’s TF-39 engine.
Paula Sumrall
Paula Sumrall is the author of Our Sons, Our Daughters: A National Guard Parent's Guidebook to Deployment. A retired educator, she has taught children of both active component military members as well as many National Guard and Reserve component children. While her husband was Adjutant General of the Alabama National Guard, she was active in all aspects of Guard Family Programs. She continued working with the Florida National Guard Family Program while her husband was stationed at Central Command (CENTCOM).
An ardent advocate for military family issues, she was a member of the first MOAA President’s Currently Serving Spouse Advisory Council. She is an active volunteer with the National Military Family Association (NMFA) and is a certified instructor for Army Family Team Building (AFTB). Currently, Paula serves as the Branch Chief for the National Guard Volunteer and Child/Youth Program.
Paula and her husband, MG Mike Sumrall, reside in the Washington D.C. area.
Ward Carroll
Ward Carroll is the editor of Military.com, responsible for all news, editorials, commentaries, and other content on the website and in e-newsletters.
During his 20-year Navy career Ward served in four different F-14 squadrons, accumulating more than 2,800 flight hours in operations that included five extended aircraft carrier deployments to hostile regions. His last tour on active duty was at his alma mater, the U.S. Naval Academy, where he taught English, leadership, and ethics. He retired at the rank of commander. Immediately following his retirement, he worked as the public affairs officer for the V-22 Osprey program at the Naval Air Systems Command.
Ward’s writing has appeared in a wide variety of print periodicals and websites. He was editor of Approach magazine and in recent years wrote the popular “Grampaw Pettibone” column for Naval Aviation News. His three novels about a Tomcat pilot -- Punk's War (2001), Punk's Wing (2003), and Punk's Fight (2004) -- have been widely praised for their realistic portrayals of a Naval Aviator's life. He earned the Naval Institute Press’ “Author of the Year” honors in 2001. He has two other published works: The Aide (2005) and Militia Kill (2006) and is currently working on another novel called Autumn of the Sea Wolves that he hopes to have completed by the summer of 2010.
In addition to making frequent appearances regarding military matters on Fox News and KGO radio (San Francisco), Ward blogs at Defensetech.org and his personal site, wardcarroll.com.
Ward’s military decorations include the Strike Flight Air Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, and the Navy/Marine Corps Commendation Medal (four awards).
He is married with two teenaged sons.
Lauren Carpenter
Not coming from a military-family background, Lauren Carpenter was lost and distressed when her loved-one deployed to Afghanistan with a reserve unit of the USMC 4th LAR Battalion. Through Blue Star Families she has found a welcoming community to which she can also give back.
Lauren has worked in corporate finance at Accenture since 2005. She has spent her career in support of the US Federal practice at client levels and currently at the Federal Client Portfolio level. The Federal portfolio generates approximately $1B a year of net revenue. Lauren works on a team to manage sales, revenue, and profitability targets. She manages and advises on the portfolio’s technical structure in SAP, the firm’s operating system. She also manages the overhead costs of the Federal portfolio and identifies areas for cost savings. Lauren is passionate about creating efficiency, devising strategic solutions, and sharing knowledge.
In 2005 Lauren earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration with concentrations in Finance and International Business from the University of Richmond.
She currently lives in Washington, DC.
Joyce Raezer
Joyce has represented military families on several committees and task forces for offices and agencies of the Department of Defense (DoD) and military Services, including the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA), the U.S. Army Community and Family Support Center, the Defense Commissary Agency, and the TRICARE Management Activity (TMA). Joyce has served on several committees of The Military Coalition, an organization of 36 military-related associations. She was co-chair of the Coalition’s Personnel, Compensation, and Commissaries Committee from 2000 to 2007. From September 1999 to December 2000, she was a member of a Congressionally-mandated Federal Advisory Panel on DoD Health Care Quality Initiatives. From June 1999 to June 2001, Joyce served on the first national Board of Directors for the Military Child Education Coalition. In 2004, she authored a chapter on “Transforming Support to Military Families and Communities” in a book published by the MIT Press, Filling the Ranks: Transforming the U.S. Military Personnel System. She has been a member of the TriWest Healthcare Alliance Executive Advisory Board since 2007.
Joyce was the 1997 recipient of the Association’s Margaret Vinson Hallgren Award for her advocacy on behalf of military families. She also received the “Champion for Children” award from the Military Impacted Schools Association in 1998. In 2006, she was named a recipient of the Gettysburg College Distinguished Alumni Award.
A Maryland native, Joyce earned a B.A. in History from Gettysburg College, and a M.A. in History from the University of Virginia. An Army spouse and mother of two children, she has lived in the Washington, D.C. area (4 tours), Virginia, Kentucky, and California. She is a former teacher and was elected to the Fort Knox Community Schools Board of Education in 1993, serving until August 1995. She has been an active volunteer parent in her children’s schools and sings in her church choir and the Northern Virginia Chorale.
Holly Page
Current clients include America’s Natural Gas Alliance, Constance Milstein, The DCI Group, Third Way, Fred Siegel Partners, and the From Company. Ms. Page also proudly serves as an Advisor to Blue Star Families.
Prior to becoming a Free Agent, Ms. Page spent 13 years at the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), the last 5 of which she served as the Executive Vice President. Some of her initiatives are counted among the organization's most impressive accomplishments, including the development of a national network of Centrist elected officials and their annual meeting, The National Conversation, which is the biggest gathering of Democratic Elected Officials outside of the National Convention.
Ms. Page envisioned and implemented the first ever Online Town Hall Meeting with President Clinton and elected leaders from around the Nation (1998). She conceived and brokered partnerships with the Aspen Institute and Harvard University that resulted in ground-breaking Leadership Development curriculum and retreats for Centrist Leaders (2002 – 2007) and led the organization in many of its international forays including the Third Way World Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C. (March 1997) and the Milstein Symposium Series, featuring Prime Minister Tony Blair, then Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, Former President Bill Clinton and others (2001). Ms. Page was responsible for the vision and details of the White Oak Symposium Series (1996 - 2002), a retreat for centrist thinkers and leaders that featured the who's who of the moderate political spectrum.
Ms. Page proudly served as the Director of In Kind donations for the 1993 Presidential Inaugural, the Director of the National Finance Council of the Democratic National Committee (1993 - 1994), Western States Deputy Finance Director for the Bill Clinton for President Committee (1992) and Deputy Finance Director for Lt. Governor Leo McCarthy of California.
A native of California, Ms. Page studied Political Science at San Francisco State University.
Diane Jones
Diane is the mother of four, including a daughter with Fragile X Syndrome, and enjoys nine grandchildren.
Suzanne Pollack
As the former spokesperson for Federated Department Stores, Pollak was the point person for morning television shows and newspapers in the major markets. Her advice columns (“Suzanne Suggests” and “Ask Suzanne”) and recipe/advice take away cards (“Home Ingredients”) played a vital role in building customer brand loyalty.
Born in Beirut Lebanon, Pollak spent the first 18 years of her life in Africa, where her father was a diplomat. Returning to the United States, she graduated from the University of Virginia.
Pollak has three sons and a daughter: Pete, 31 (a two-time cancer survivor), twins Charles and Caroline, 30 and Christopher, 26. Charles and Christopher, both Brown University graduates, are lieutenants in the US Marine Corps. Christopher is currently deployed in Afghanistan. Charles has orders to deploy to Afghanistan in January 2011.
Pollak is currently writing a book about mothers and sons.
Sinclair S. Cooper
Sinclair Cooper is an Executive Vice President of Hunt Companies, and serves as the Co-President of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) division of Hunt. As Co-President of the PPP division, Mr. Cooper is responsible for targeting the development of institutional public-private opportunities where ever they exist in the United States in addition to managing the military housing privatization initiative business.
Prior to joining Hunt Companies, Mr. Sinclair owned Falcon Properties, a self-managed, full service, real estate development and construction management firm based in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Falcon has been directly involved in the financing, development and construction of approximately 3,000 units of housing in Alabama, Louisiana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Mr. Sinclair is a graduate of the University of Maryland and also holds a degree from Temple University. Mr Sinclair is a member of the National Council for Public Private Partnerships, Philadelphia Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc., the DC Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, and the Urban Land Institute.
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