Kimberly Gold

Share your military spouse story:
I didn’t want to be a military spouse…..again. My first marriage in my 20s was plagued by abuse. It broke me. I dove into work and being a single mom thinking that marriage was likely not for me again. I even swore off getting serious with a man in the military. Well, you know what they say, “Make plans, and God laughs.” It was the summer of 2019 and I had gotten serious about shedding some weight. I enlisted the help of a trainer who analyzed my lifestyle and gently told me, “You can’t outrun a bad diet.” He was right and we worked on a meal plan. Less than a week later, I found myself at Baskin Robbins ordering a specialty flavor that was not in my meal plan. As I went to take the first glorious lick of my cone, I could feel someone looking at me. No sooner than this thought crosses my mind, I see my trainer walking through the doors of Baskin Robbins. He gently takes the cone out of my hand and to my surprise, he starts eating it! I stand there laughing at my terrible luck. That day was June 7, 2019. Two years later on June 7, 2021, we eloped at the beautiful Garden of the Gods. I still didn’t get ice cream that day. In the first six months of marriage, we experienced an overseas PCS, blending families, joint COVID, losing my grandmother, losing my income, and purchasing a home in a crazy market. To say it was stressful would be a huge understatement but I had the opportunity to experience the healing power of a healthy love from my husband. The same gentleness my husband showed me as a trainer guiding me to better decisions is the same gentleness he has expressed day after day, no matter the challenge. My dear husband is a man who ensures that love is an everyday action and has taught me to not allow the past to steal your future.

Share an example of your leadership experience within the military community:
The leadership experience that excites me is working with the city of Colorado Springs on the Military Spouse Career Coalition. The Military Spouse Career Coalition is a multi agency coalition of military and veteran connected leaders with representation from the military bases in Colorado Springs. As a coalition, we are working on providing real solutions to making information more accessible for military families upon PCSing to Colorado Springs. We are also working on ways that city leaders like the Mayor can hear first hand from military spouses the challenges (and solutions) of our military connected lives. As a part of this coalition, I serve on a committee dedicated to improving the user experience on the official Military Spouse Career Coalition website.

Describe your involvement in the military community:
When I became a military spouse (again), I decided to go into this experience by letting go of my past. I chose my present and future over my past and really leaned into embracing my role as a military spouse. Since marrying my Soldier in 2021, I’ve served as the Second Vice President of our installation’s Spouses’ Club and completed a fellowship with a prominent military service organization. I currently serve as a leader in the Association of Military Spouse Entrepreneurs, am an active member of our local Hiring Our Heroes Military Spouse Professional Network, volunteer for the Military Influencer Conference, and sit on the city of Colorado Springs Military Spouse Career Coalition.

Describe how you support your community:
I strongly believe that community changes everything and as a global citizen, I believe that it is our purpose to make communities and the people who live in them better even if we will only be a part of that community for a season. As such, I am active with the following organizations; President & CEO| Black Chamber of Commerce, District Operations Manager | Rotary of Colorado Springs, Board Member | CONO, Steering Committee Member, Women's Community Leadership Initiative | Leadership Pikes Peak, Elevating Leadership Development Scholar | El Pomar Foundation, Pikes Peak Safe at School Coalition Committee Member | Inside Out Youth Services, Fellow | Colorado Governors’ Fellowship Program, Committee Member | KOAA News Channel 5 Advisory Committee, and Committee Member | City of Colorado Springs Community Development Advisory Committee

What do you advocate for? Why?
If I had to choose one title to define who I am, I would choose the word advocate. My lived experience as a military child, young military spouse who went through abuse, and a current military spouse navigating underemployment have helped me understand the challenges that far too many military spouses face. Instead of feeling weighed down by the challenges, it fuels me to be a voice for our community particularly in the realm of military spouse underemployment and unemployment and mental health. Though the challenges are many, the support is also vast. We can make the choice for our stories to be sob stories or success stories.

How have you spread the message of your platform/advocacy?
I’ve used my voice to speak on panels regarding the military spouse experience particularly in the realm of underemployment and unemployment. In digital media, I’ve been featured in National Career Spouse Network, spoken on podcasts such as Hearts and Stripes, and use my social media profiles to highlight the joys and challenges of being a military spouse. I am also a credited author for research on military families of color and military relocation. I’m always looking for ways to grow and better communicate and have recently taken training on how to testify so I can be prepared to testify in front of state and local government to share the impact legislation may have on military families.

What do you hope to accomplish with the AFI Military Spouse of the Year^® title?
My experience as a military child, military spouse, and working with the military have shown me that our military connected community is just like the rest of the greater American community. We have pain from childhood trauma and young adult trauma and when you couple that pain with the challenges of the military lifestyle, it can show up through divorce, mental health diagnoses, poor financial decisions, and more. Despite those challenges, I know of many who do the everyday hard work to not just serve our country but to show up as a better version of themselves in the community. If given the opportunity, I’d use the title AFI Military Spouse of the Year® to sing the songs of our everyday unsung heroes of our military community. We all have a story that deserves to be shared, particularly when a person is choosing to make their sob story a success story.