Introducing Stephanie Schroeder: Ms. North Carolina America’s Select Veteran

For Women’s History Month SitiGirl Atlanta wants to promote and highlight women from their perspectives!!

Lets Get to know Ms. Schroeder in her own words “I was instrumental in getting a reporting system in place involving sexual assault & domestic violence. From there, I took on VA & got the way benefits for MST is awarded changed for the better. (Military Sexual Trauma) 

In the process of this, I built a nationwide network of professionals that my veteran clients could go to for help while also building a peer to peer support group for females. 

This started because I was a survivor. I subsequently found out there were hundreds of thousands of women just like me. I knew then that I had to fight back— for all of us. I couldn’t change what I went through, but I could change the way the women who came after me were treated. So, that’s exactly what I did…I was called for such a time as this. 

I started making national media appearances. I partnered with Cornell Law School. We made several trips to Washington, DC to lobby Congress, both the House & the Senate. We made several trips to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland to meet with the Joint Chiefs and their aides. I was relentless. I wasn’t going to stop until changes were made.

First, they implemented SHARP (Sexual Harassment & Assault Prevention Program) which implemented a reporting system where survivors could make reports either restricted or unrestricted. (Anonymously or publicly) It was major progress, but it still wasn’t enough. 

Before SHARP implemented, if you wanted to report either domestic violence or some type of harassment or assault, a person had to go to their boss. Given that this mostly happens to junior enlisted or junior officers, this meant one had to report (more often than not) to the person’s attacker— if it made it up the chain of command, the commander was the one who decided whether or not charges should be filed. This was unacceptable because the commander always had a reason to sweep reports under the rug while turning against and even punishing the survivor or otherwise retaliating against the survivor. 

I continued to lobby the Joint Chiefs. They finally relented and agreed to move the decision to file charges to Field Grade Officers; meaning the commander had to be a battalion level commander O6 or higher. This was again a major victory, but it still wasn’t enough. We knew in order to truly get an unbiased chance at justice, the decision to prosecute had to be moved to an unbiased third party that wasn’t made up of military personnel.

One morning during one of our UN trips, my Cornell team and I were approached by one of the Joint Chiefs’ aides to take a breakfast meeting. So, we took that meeting. During that meeting, I negotiated for an overhaul to the UCMJ in regard the way MSTs were prosecuted. The Joint Chiefs agreed that the Uniformed Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) should be overhauled and agreed to add a retaliation article (clause) to the UCMJ. Then they agreed to finally relinquish the responsibility of commanders deciding whether to file charges. That board finally implemented in December of 2023. 

All during this time, I took on thousands of female veterans and helped them win their MST claims. I helped some women who were active duty win their claims against being wrongfully terminated. I helped veterans win their claims at VA. This how and why I built the network of professionals and resources for any female that asks me for help. I connect them to my network of professionals. I gave them every opportunity to start their healing process. I never charge a dime to any female veteran that asks me for help because I firmly believe empowered women empower women. It’s my labor of love, my gift to my community.”

Served in the Marine Corps