Who We Are

Stefanie Goebel graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with the first gender integrated class in 1980.  She served for over twelve years as a General Unrestricted Line Officer.

Stefanie has over 30 years experience in the field of gender equity work. Her focus has been developing and implementing leadership, mentoring, and advocacy programs for girls and women in both government and nonprofit organizations.  While on active duty, she led the tri-service Women Officer’s Professional Association (WOPA) in Hawaii.  In the mid-90’s, after leaving the Navy, she helped implement several leadership and networking workshops for high school girls through the American Association of University Women (AAUW) to include organizing a high school wide sexual harassment training.  In the late-90’s she created a small e-mentoring program that paired women cadets at two private military colleges with women graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy.  From 2002 to 2006 Stefanie served as an assistant program manager at the Aurora Foundation, helping to develop a leadership and mentoring program for high school girls with disabilities and high school girls at risk funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Stefanie then served as the director of the AcademyWomen eMentor Leadership Program from 2007 until 2016; the eMentor Program initially served uniformed and veteran military women and later included men. AcademyWomen is a networking and professional development organization for current, future and former military women officers.

Most recently Stefanie has been active with U.S.N.A. Women, a Shared Interest Group (SIG) of the U.S.N.A. Alumni Association. Since 2021 she has served as the Chair of the Survivor Advocacy Network (SAN). The SAN’s mission is to 1) support the healing of and advocate for uniformed and veteran women officer and service academy alumnae survivors of sexual assault and 2) support the USNA Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) Office in their mission to prevent and respond to midshipman sexual assault.

My motivation to create the SAN was and is to create opportunities for survivors of Military Sexual Trauma to find one another and thereby, create a safe and loving community where they can find healing together.

Kristen served as a behavioral scientist in the Air Force: human factors engineer, professor and leadership counselor at USAFA. She has a Master of Science degree in Experimental Psychology and a PhD in Social Psychology. After medical retirement, Kristen focused on family and volunteer work in school associations and therapy dog organizations. 

I joined the SAN in 2023 to help support the multitude of survivors from all the military academies who went to college to serve their country and graduated with untreated scars that are still not acknowledged. I want them to know they are seen, they are heard, they are not alone, and it was not their fault. The problem of sexual assault at the Academies has not improved in the 40 years since I was assaulted as a freshman at USAFA; in fact, 2022 and 2023 were record high years for reports of sexual violence. Only morally courageous leaders can change those numbers. But through working with the SAN, I can help empower survivors like me to reclaim our bodies and reimagine our lives.

Alyssa is a graduate of West Point for the Class of 2017. She was in the first wave of women into the infantry branch in the U.S. Army. She served as the first infantry company commander for the 4th Infantry Division. 

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I choose to work with SAN because it offers a safe, judgment-free space for survivors to share their experiences. The unique challenges faced within the academies and military can be difficult for many to understand, but SAN creates an environment where these experiences are acknowledged and supported. I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with other resilient women who have faced similar struggles and emerged stronger. I firmly believe in the power of women supporting women, and I hope to make a meaningful impact through my work with SAN.