Our Mission
The mission of Life Skills for Soldiers is to improve service-members' and their families' lives through life skills education. Our vision is to create a platform and leverage the train-the-trainer methodology to equip all military leaders with skills to teach their troops valuable life skills.
Meet the Team
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Brendan Duebner
Founder, Chief Executive Officer
Brendan started Life Skills for Soldiers in 2019 while on Active Duty as a Field Artillery Officer. He is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business, a Captain in the Army's 75th Innovation Command, and a serial founder.
Brian Bell
VP of Marketing
Brian currently serves as an active duty officer in the US Army, and gives his free time to help Life Skills for Soldiers grow. He enjoys investing and learning about smart financial options. He joined LSFS to help his soldiers do the same.
Isaiah Suggs
VP of Operations
Isaiah Suggs is an Active Duty Field Artillery Officer. He joined Life Skills for Soldiers as an operations team volunteer in 2020. Isaiah has a passion for personal finance and seeks to create high-quality and engaging educational content to help military leaders improve financial readiness within their formations.
Nick Marfongelli
VP of Community
Nick is currently serving as an active duty officer in the US Army. He joined Life Skills for Soldiers in 2021 as the Vice President of Community. Nick enjoys testing his durability while skydiving, scuba diving, and snowboarding.
Peter Paychev
VP of Technology
A technology driven organization needs technology first leadership. Peter brings over five years of growth company technology leadership to Life Skills for Soldiers and leverages his experience to ensure LSFS is consistently ready to keep scaling.
Curren Kulkarni
Head of Growth
Curren leads LSFS Growth and Strategic Finance initiatives, leveraging his vast experience as the Head of Strategic Finance for Apex AI, and Investment Banking experience with Goldman Sachs and Citi Group. Curren is an Alumni of the University of Pennsylvania.
Brian Holahan
Deputy VP of Marketing
Brian is a 2021 graduate of Temple University with a BA in Finance who utilizes his graphic design and financial modeling expertise to further LSFS's educational mission.
Marley Redd
Head of Community Outreach
Marley Redd joined the Life Skills for Soldiers team in the fall of 2020. Prior to that, she was a program and community outreach coordinator for a Michigan-based nonprofit, provideInc. She has a passion for connecting communities and creating cohesive content and outreach materials. Marley plans to bring a different perspective to the table as a young professional female.
Joebie Mijares
Head of Finance & Accounting
Joebie is a global Finance expert. He has over 5 years of Financial experience under his belt. He takes what he's learned from EY and his current role at Whittaker's as a Financial & Commercial Analyst and adapts it to serve LSFS's non-profit needs.
Jeremy Boka
Operations Volunteer
Jeremy serves as an active duty officer in the US Army. While studying business at Cornell University, he worked as a tutor, educational consultant, and teaching assistant. His diverse background in education helps the operations team create effective content.
Joshua Winston
Partnership Analyst
Joshua is a recent graduate of the University of Maryland where he was an ROTC Cadet and the President of the Black Students in Public Policy Organization. He helps the LSFS team with all things partnerships.
John Teh
Analytics Specialist
John is an Economics graduate from the University of California, San Diego and currently works in Autodesk's finance department as a data analyst. For Life Skills for Soldiers, he brings clarity and insight to messy data for the community and technology team. In his spare time, he enjoys building data visualizations and reading about investment trends and opportunities.
Ellie Duebner
Social Media Volunteer
Ellie helps the LSFS team maintain a strong social media presence and is a graduate of New York University.
Pablo Arroyo
Advisor
Pablo is an active duty Psychological Operations Officer in the US Army. He joined Life Skills for Soldiers as the Chief Marketing Officer in 2019. During his time as Chief Marketing Officer he successfully made the jump from an Adjutant General to Psychological Operations Officer.
Kyle McCormick
Advisor
Kyle is a former Active Duty Army Artillery Officer who has been working with Life Skills for Soldiers since the beginning. During his time as Chief Community Officer he completed his MBA at Fordham's Gabelli School of Business and began his career in consulting.
Bill McNamara
Advisor
Bill is a former Active Duty Army Officer. He joined Life Skills for Soldiers team in 2020 as the Chief Operations Officer. During his time as COO bill completed his MBA at UNC's Kenan-Flagler School of Business, did an internship in investment banking, and began his career in equity research.
In the Media
In the News
03/30/2021 - "Former Fort Bragg officer creates nonprofit to educate soldiers on budgeting, finances... FORT BRAGG, N.C. (WTVD) -- When Brendan Duebner served on Fort Bragg, he noticed that many fellow troops were falling victim to poor financial decisions."
NBC KCENTV 6 Military Matters
01/29/2021 - "TEMPLE, Texas — Life Skills for Soldiers is not just a passion project, it's a way of life for a group of Army veterans who too often saw the best soldiers fall through the cracks and were ill-equipped with valuable skills to survive, not only in the Army but in the civilian world."
FOX 7 Care Force: Life Skills for Soldiers
12/31/2020 - "AUSTIN, Texas - Many organizations work to make sure veterans have the skills they need to make the transition from military life to the civilian world.
However, many work toward that goal through financial or career training. Life Skills for Soldiers takes a more basic approach."
Article Attention
"Non-profits Worth Your Time" - Jonathan Lee
"Today we’ll feature another military nonprofit that is worth your time if you are a junior leader in the military. Life Skills for Soldiers presents a unique train-the trainer construct that empowers junior leaders to teach their formations about better decision making..." Keep reading here.
Podcast Presence
The Unwavering Podcast
“We interview Army Junior Captain, Brendan Duebner about his military non-profit, Life Skills For Soldiers (LSFS). He discusses the 'train the trainer' method that has made his organization so successful in improving the lives of soldiers..." Listen on Spotify
American Valor Podcast - Founder and CEO of Life Skills for Soldiers LT Brendan Duebner, USA (Ret.)
“While serving as an Army platoon leader, [the Life Skills for Soldiers] Founder realized there are far too many soldiers who lack basic life skills causing additional stress and burden on themselves and their families. He began teaching a diverse set of everyday life topics including how to make a budget, how to start investing, and how to meal plan in the belief that doing so would help the individual and the unit..." Listen on Spotify
The Llama Lounge - Essential Life Skills w/ Brendan Duebner
"In this episode, Joe welcomed Brendan Duebner to the lounge. Brendan is a commissioned officer in the US Army and currently is the CEO and Founder of Life Skills for Soldiers, a non-profit organization created to deliver essential life skills to service members. During their discussion, they talked about the gaps our service members have when it comes to life skills such as managing finances, investing, etc. and Brendan talked about how Life Skills for Soldiers plans to resolve some of those gaps." Listen on Spotify
The Veteran - Semi Professional Interview with Mark & Brendan
"Mark and Brendan discuss the following: Quarantine workouts, upcoming start of their MBA programs, [and] travel. We also go in-depth on Brendan's new project: Life Skills For Soldiers, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to arm military officers with the instructional tools needed to serve their soldiers." Listen on Spotify
Get Involved
Interested in joining our team of volunteers, or want to contribute to the cause?
