Today we’d like to introduce you to Shanon Starkey.
Hi Shanon, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Shanon, and my journey began in the United States Army, where I served nearly a decade as a 31B — Military Police. My service included a deployment to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, where I also worked inside a prison facility. Those experiences shaped my understanding of trauma, humanity, and leadership in ways that would follow me long after I returned home.
I was married once, but the realities of military life — the trauma, the distance, and the emotional cost of service — did not align with the mission of the marriage. That chapter closed, but it became part of the foundation I rebuilt myself on.
I am a female combat Veteran, a single mother, a survivor of trauma, and a system‑impacted woman who has walked through some of the hardest valleys a person can face. After years of battling combat trauma, military sexual trauma, mental health struggles, and substance challenges, my life took another difficult turn. From 2019 to 2024, I became system‑involved and served time within the justice system. That season did not destroy me — it refined me. It taught me what it truly means to be unseen, unheard, and underestimated, especially as a woman Veteran navigating systems that rarely understand our experiences.
Through all of this, my daughter Madison, now 15, has been my greatest reason to rise. There was a time when I could not see myself as anything but broken. But she deserved a mother who felt like a hero again. She deserved a legacy she could be proud of. She is my heart, my anchor, and the living reminder that God was not finished with me.
My advocacy work began at CampV, where I served as the Women’s Committee Co‑Chair and later as the Women’s Center Coordinator. I ultimately stepped away when I realized that the initiatives and advocacy female Veterans and spouses needed were not receiving the support required to create real, lasting change. My integrity and my calling would not allow me to stay silent.
I continued serving through the Military Veteran Peer Network (MVPN), supporting system‑impacted Veterans across East Texas, and through SHINE Moms, walking alongside women rebuilding their lives after trauma, recovery, and hardship. These roles strengthened my voice as a peer, a mentor, and an advocate with lived experience.
Today, I am honored to serve as the Director of Hearts for Heroes at The Belief Center, where my story, my purpose, and my faith finally align. This is where I thrive — creating trauma‑informed, volunteer‑driven programs for Veterans and families, and using my testimony to show others that healing is possible. I say openly and without hesitation that God saved my life, and now I use that life to serve others with compassion, truth, and courage.
I am also partnered with a powerful circle of female combat Veterans in East Texas, working together to build the foundation for East Texas Female Veteran Warriors — one of the first and only female‑led Veteran orders in the region. This organization is being designed, operated, and led entirely by women Veterans, ensuring that our voices, our needs, and our leadership are finally centered where they belong.
My journey is not just a story of survival — it is a testimony of transformation,
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My road has been anything but smooth. The valleys — the trauma, the setbacks, the system involvement, the rebuilding — have been some of the hardest seasons of my life, but they’ve also been the places where God did His deepest work in me. Those struggles became the very adventure that shaped my voice, my purpose, and my calling.
Because of what I’ve lived through, I’ve been able to sit at tables and have conversations that many people never get invited into. I bring the realism of what our community is actually facing — not just as Veterans, but as female Veterans, mothers, professionals, and women who carry stories that don’t fit neatly into a brochure. My journey gave me the credibility to speak truth in rooms where sugarcoating is the norm, and to advocate for women who are still fighting battles no one sees.
The road wasn’t easy, but it prepared me for the work I do now — and it taught me that the struggle itself was part of the assignment.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
What I do:
I serve as the Director of Hearts for Heroes at The Belief Center, where I lead trauma‑informed, faith‑rooted programs for Veterans, families, and system‑impacted individuals. My work is hands‑on, heart‑driven, and grounded in lived experience. I also continue to serve through MVPN, SHINE Moms, and alongside other female combat Veterans as we build East Texas Female Veteran Warriors, one of the first female‑led Veteran orders in our region.
What I specialize in:
I specialize in the kind of work you can’t learn from a textbook. My expertise comes from walking through combat trauma, MST, reintegration, single motherhood, incarceration, recovery, and rebuilding. I understand Veterans — especially female Veterans — from the inside out. I bring trauma‑informed care, peer support, community education, and faith‑centered healing into every space I step into.
What I’m known for:
People know me for my honesty, my transparency, and my ability to bring realism into conversations that are usually sugarcoated. I’m known for speaking truth about what our community is actually facing — not just as Veterans, but as women, mothers, professionals, and system‑impacted individuals. I’m known for showing up with compassion, courage, and lived credibility.
What I’m most proud of:
I’m most proud of my daughter, Madison. She is the reason I fought to feel like a hero again. I’m proud that I survived seasons that should have taken me out — and that I turned those seasons into purpose. I’m proud that God took my broken places and turned them into a testimony that now helps others heal. And I’m proud that I get to sit at tables I once thought I’d never reach, bringing truth and representation for women who are still fighting battles no one sees.
What sets me apart:
What sets me apart is simple:
I don’t just talk about the work — I’ve lived it.
I’ve been the soldier, the single mom, the survivor, the system‑impacted woman, the peer, the advocate, and now the director. My story gives me a perspective that can’t be manufactured. I combine professionalism with faith, lived experience with leadership, and truth with compassion. I’m not afraid to walk into hard spaces, and I’m not afraid to say what needs to be said.
The road hasn’t been smooth, but the valleys became my training ground. The struggle became my assignment. And now, those same struggles have opened doors for me to speak, lead, and advocate with a voice that is real, grounded, and unapologetically mine.
What matters most to you? Why?
What matters most to me is knowing that the work I’m doing now is exactly where God intended me to be, even though it looks nothing like the life I once imagined for myself. I earned my Bachelor’s degree in Business Management and Human Resources from LeTourneau University, and for a long time I thought my path would be corporate, structured, and predictable. I imagined myself in offices, boardrooms, and business environments — not in the trenches of trauma‑informed care, nonprofit warfare, and community advocacy.
But God had a different assignment for me.
Instead of the career I planned, He placed me in the heart of nonprofits, peer support, system‑impacted advocacy, and Veteran leadership — work that requires real lived experience, not just credentials. Work that demands honesty, resilience, and a willingness to stand in the gap for people who feel unseen. Work that I never expected to do, but now can’t imagine living without.
What matters to me is being able to serve others without losing myself, to help people while still honoring my own boundaries, healing, and worth. I care deeply about showing women — especially female Veterans, mothers, and system‑impacted warriors — that we are valuable, powerful, and deserving of spaces where our voices matter.
I value the ability to walk into a room and know that I belong there — not because of a title, but because of the presence, the resilience, and the calling God placed on my life. I value being able to stand as a woman, a soldier, a warrior, and a daughter of a great God who brought me through things I never thought I’d survive.
What matters most is using my story to lift others up, to break cycles, to create safe spaces, and to remind people — especially women who served — that we are worthy, loved, and chosen. This work may not be what I planned, but it is exactly what I was built for.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thebeliefcenter.org
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1HM2NvmPoK/?mibextid=wwXIfr
