Tonya-Marie Towles

Branch: Army

Duty Station: Fort Bragg

Number of Deployments: 2

Number of PCS's: 3

Share your military spouse story:
My husband and I met at a very chaotic time in my life back in 2017 in Colorado, he was active duty in the army and I was working 3 jobs (coming from a childhood of homelessness; I was obsessed with working hard to create a better life for myself). Our first date was during a 30 minute break in between two of my jobs that day, eating sonic milkshakes and laughing—while my jobs have changed over the years to where I am now, his understanding of my work ethic since that first date has remained, something I love dearly about him. He has always supported me on my entrepreneurial journey, as I've always supported him in his dedication to the military and his passion for his career. We got married later that year; several homes, deployments, PCS, companies, and a daughter later — our lives have truly changed together, and I wouldn't change a thing.

Share an example of your leadership experience within the military community:
I am the owner and founder of The PCS Pro Team with Keller Williams, VirtPros, and Seasons Mortgage, to name a few. All of which are primarily comprised of military spouses, veterans, and reservists! It has been a huge driving force and passion of mine to help provide jobs to military spouses across the nation, and not only to just provide jobs... but have those jobs be ones that they can take with them wherever they PCS to. To create CAREERS that spouses can be proud of, and they don't have to worry about quitting every few years when they have to move.

Describe your involvement in the military community:
All three of my companies are heavily involved with the military community! All year round, we host our own events for our communities! We do Thanksgiving food drives, Christmas Toys for Tots events and collect warm winter wear for shelters, we do the 'adopt' a family per team we have per location a year at Christmas time to donate toys and grocery's to, etc. We also participate in local military events; we donate to many different military derived charities! Our military communities are our literal heart and soul-- the whole reasoning behind our mission.

Describe how you support your community:
We have created a Facebook group that has over 20,000 people in it! It has become an incredible community of spouses that can really go in there and get support, or advice, or anything really and be met with almost ALWAYS someone else who knows exactly what you're talking about/going through/ can help you. We also provide FREE webinars to anyone interested in real estate and answer any questions they have on how to kind of get started and where to do so!

What do you advocate for? Why?
I advocate for moms, women, spouses, independence, confidence, self-worth. I want to show my daughter, my friends, my fellow military spouses that we CAN do it all. We CAN be moms; we CAN have meaningful and impactful careers AND support our spouses. We CAN be bosses. Entrepreneurs. Big dreamers. We can do it all.

How have you spread the message of your platform/advocacy?
I spread my message every chance I get, that you matter, you can have it all, and you are worthy of a big life. I spread this everywhere from social media, to one on one conversations, to standing on a stage in front of thousands. I've engrained this message in every member of our organizations, and so they have gone out into their communities with the same belief and spread the same message of empowerment. They are living proof that you can have big careers while supporting your spouses careers, and having a family life, wherever the military moves you.

What do you hope to accomplish with the AFI Military Spouse of the Year^® title?
I hope to keep changing lives. I hope to keep inspiring people, to keep showing people that this life and this world is what you make it. I hope to show people that being a military spouse, although yes can be limiting sometimes... it is such a special thing. With an incredibly special community. And if I can be any part in bettering this community, in bettering someone's life, then I'm doing my job right.

Nominations

To know Tonya, is to know pure Grace. She is constantly giving to others, constantly trying to better the lives of everyone she comes in contact with, and constantly lifting people up and being an absolute inspiration and light in SO many people’s lives. She truly has the biggest heart and is the most deserving person of all things good. I pray she gets this!
- by Megan Boisvert

Tonya is an amazing military spouse who has the biggest servant heart. She has created the PCS Pro Network of realtors at 16 duty stations to help those buying, selling or renting - providing military families with education on the VA loan and how to minimize their out of pocket expense for home ownership. In addition, she hosts various events and give-backs to those helped from the PCS Pro Network, and also gives holiday meals, toys, etc. to other military families in need. She has not only started the PCS Pro Network, but has additional small companies that all employ military spouses, so that you can take your job with you anytime you move. She is always seeking out different ways to give back to the military community all over the country and will continue to grow for years to come.
- by Lindsey Bruno

There are truly not even characters allowed in this text to explain why Tonya deserves this recognition. To barely scratch the surface she founded a real estate team solely based around educating and serving our military community. Not only that but this team is mainly comprised of military spouses too, who she ensures are nothing but moral people who have the heart to serve this community. She doesn’t take much recognition, if any at all, and we want to change that.
- by Montana Branco

She is the most selfless, amazing woman and the perfect representation of what military spouses are. She is all about helping everyone around her selflessly.
- by Heather ichiki

Tonya is constantly engaging with the military community as well as empowering them and giving back. She employs mainly military spouses, and helps thousands of military members and their families buy/sell homes and educate them on the VA loan. She gives back to the community through outreach events.
- by Madilyn Brown

Tonya has built an empire that has educated over 3,000 families on how to take advantage of their VA Loan benefits. Not only that, but she continues to provide career opportunities that are remote and moves with us when we PCS. If someone says they are not a good fit for their current role, she finds them a place rather than let them go. Tonya also gives so much money back to communities we serve… She gives to veteran organizations, soldier suicide prevention organizations, homeless women and children organizations. She doesn’t just give money, she actively engages her followers on social media to participate in fund raising as well! There are so many more things she does and most of it has been with a new baby on her hip!!
- by Renee Adkins

She has the most giving heart I have ever seen in a single person. Her dedication to serve her employees, clients, military spouses and the military community is unmatched. I’m so grateful to her as a human being for how incredible and how selfless she is. She’s constantly thinking about military spouses in our company. She created an entirely new company just to create more opportunities for even more military spouses for remote jobs that can travel with them. And for a military spouse, that’s stress relieving and gives a sense of stability when people have to worry about finding a new job every three years. I could go on and on about how caring and incredible this woman is. But she’s definitely the Military Spouse of the Year!
- by Adriana Alaniz Gonzalez