Today we’d like to introduce you to Brett Crozier. He and his team shared their story with us below:
A 30-year Navy Veteran, senior executive, and amateur surfer, Brett has a deep understanding of military culture and experience in leading large, high-risk, and diverse organizations.
Brett grew up in Northern California, graduated from the United States Naval Academy, and embarked on a career in the Navy, flying dozens of combat missions over Iraq and leading at the highest levels of operational command. He served as the Commanding Officer of a combat F/A-18 strike fighter squadron, the world’s largest and most advanced communications ship USS Blue Ridge, and ultimately Commanding Officer of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt before retiring from the Navy in 2022.
He currently is a Senior Advisor with Support The Enlisted Project (STEP) and a financial investment start-up company in the Bay Area. Brett is also the author of Surf When You Can, and when not focused on Active Duty and Veterans issues in Southern California, you can usually find him at the beach surfing.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Support The Enlisted (STEP)?
STEP builds financial self-sufficiency among junior active duty enlisted members and recently discharged enlisted Veterans and their families facing financial crisis through counseling, education, and grants.
To date, STEP has served more than 7,000 military and Veteran families through our main Emergency Financial Assistance (EFA) program. The families who come to STEP are at risk of losing a basic necessity – their home, a vehicle, water, electricity, insurance – or they consistently run out of essentials, like food and baby diapers, before their next paycheck. Our professional Social Workers counsel one-on-one with each client’s family, utilizing a holistic approach to personal finance. Every client’s family leaves STEP with a better understanding of their financial situation and a personalized plan to achieve their goals. When necessary, STEP provides a financial assistance grant to prevent the loss of a critical basic need.
More than 90% of the families who complete our EFA program improve their financial well-being. In just eight years, STEP has issued more than $2.5 million in financial assistance grants to stop the loss of basic needs. To date, we have prevented over 600 in-process evictions.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
In the course of a 30-year Navy career, we moved 20 times. We were lucky enough to be stationed in Coronado several times and even luckier to now call it home. We’ll see how long we can stay in one place, but for now, we enjoy the beaches and casual lifestyle.
Contact Info:
- Website: teamstepusa.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teamstepusa/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teamstepusa
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/support-the-enlisted-project/mycompany/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/teamstepusa
