Sharon Kozak

Share your military spouse story:
I have been a Navy spouse for five and a half years. I hold many roles as a mother, writer, supportive friend, and advocate. I have become excellent at expecting the unexpected, rolling with the punches, and trying to find the positive in life's chaos, especially at challenging duty stations. These skills have benefitted me through the adventure of raising two high-energy toddlers, one with suspected ADD. Military life has made me more adaptable and willing to go into new places with a positive outlook. Coming from a military family, I said I would never marry someone in service because I have never liked change. God had other plans, so imagine my surprise when the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with happened to be in the Navy. Like many military couples, we were long-distance for a few months before I left everything behind to be with my now husband. I was blessed to marry a man with integrity and a heart to serve his country and others. This zeal for changing lives, as a recruiter, matched my own and encouraged me as I finished my master's in teaching and began my second master's in marriage and family therapy specializing in military families. I have always wanted to do something important with my life, what I originally thought was curing an incurable disease became a heart for service and to help those who may not know how to help themselves. Through observing, and experiencing, difficulties that come from being a military spouse, I knew that one of the best uses of my talents would be practicing as a Marriage and Family therapist focusing on military families. I hope to combine my knowledge in teaching and counseling to help build resilient, strong foundations for our military families. I volunteer with Homefront Heroes Ministry, Naval Services FamilyLine, NTAG Heartland, and the Full Range Foundation as a marriage coach, developing and leading marriage seminars for service members, veterans, and spouses. In my community, I serve at our church.

Share an example of your leadership experience within the military community:
Since becoming a military spouse, I have been allowed to serve as a leader in various ways. I have and continue to serve two commanding officers as the NTAG Heartland ombudsman. My role is to provide families and sailors with resources and serve as the connection between families and the command. As a recruiting ombudsman, I support families in multiple states and gather resources accordingly. As the chairperson of the Great Lakes Ombudsman Assembly, I prepare and distribute the agenda, preside over assembly meetings, and maintain the roster. This role has also allowed me to be a member of the Regional Ombudsman Advisory Board where we share needs and trends observed across the regions being served. I serve on the board of directors as the deputy director of the Naval Services FamilyLine podcast. This role allows me to advocate for interesting and informative content relatable to all sailors and families, including recruiting.

Describe your involvement in the military community:
My husband calls me the queen of volunteering for positions that do not get paid. I have two beliefs regarding my involvement in the military community. I believe in leaving a duty station, or even the navy, in a better place than when you first encountered it and my second is if not me then who? I see a need and I have a heart to fill it. I began serving as the NTAG Heartland ombudsman in February of 2024 and Great Lakes assembly chairperson in October. This position also allows me to serve on the ROAB as a voice for recruiting families that often feel forgotten. I also serve on the Naval Services FamilyLine Board of Directors as the deputy director of the podcast, allowing me to help create content that encourages and teaches navy families about topics they desire to know more about. I developed a blog to empower military spouses which began through writing content for Homefront Heros Ministry.

Describe how you support your community:
I have been fortunate to work with military spouses of all branches to advocate for improved family and marriage resources. I believe military spouses and families need to be our own biggest advocates. This is a culture that is different from the "civilian" world, so to say, thus we need to advocate for each other, our families, and the families coming into our community. When I became a mom, people told me it takes a village to raise a child, but that applies to making changes in the military spouse community. I support my community by advocating for our specific command through meeting with our triad to discuss the needs of our families. I support our region by serving on the assembly to give a bigger picture of regional family experiences which helps the Navy see trends of immediate family needs. My service in the Our Navy Life podcast targets all military families, not solely navy spouses through interviewing spouses from all branches to create community and build support systems

What do you advocate for? Why?
I am passionate about empowering and encouraging military spouses to build or maintain strong foundations in their marriages and families. From my observations during my husband's service at various commands, one of the most glaring problems for morale and retention was the health and well-being of marriages and families. My platform encourages spouses and service members to use the resources available to them and dispel myths about counseling affecting military service. I firmly believe that morale begins at home, when the family and marriage of a service member are healthy and strong, so are they.

How have you spread the message of your platform/advocacy?
I have spread my platform's message through networking with current and former military leaders who have helped me to gain insight into the plights of military marriages across all branches, not just the Navy. I have also been a guest on the Naval Services FamilyLine Our Navy Life Podcast to share my platform's message. Furthermore, I have connected with the Full Range Foundation to build and teach a seminar on creating strong marriage foundations for service members and their families.

What do you hope to accomplish with the AFI Military Spouse of the Year^® title?
What I hope to accomplish with the AFI Military Spouse of the Year Title is to help service members and their spouses build strong foundations for their marriages and families, connect military spouses on a wider scale with other spouses and resources that can help with marital and familial stability, and overall showing spouses, they are not alone. It is easy to think everyone else is having an easy time with marriage and family in the military because there is often an assumption that the longer your spouse serves, the fewer problems you have. However, through research, observation, and personal experience, this is not true, and I hope to give spouses a place to say things are not okay and we want to fix them without fear of judgment or repercussions.