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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.

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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, a Captain in the Army's 75th Innovation Command, and a serial founder.

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Nick Marfongelli

Vice President 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. Recently Nick received a scholarship from and will be pursuing his MBA at the Wharton school.

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Isaiah Suggs

Vice President of Operations

Isaiah Suggs is an active duty officer in the US Army. 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. Recently Isaiah received a scholarship from and will be pursuing his MBA at the Kellogg School of Management.

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Brian Bell

Vice President 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. 

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Peter Paychev

Vice President 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.

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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.

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Jack Pinnell

Operations Lead

Jack is a graduate of West Point with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and a CFA level 1. Jack utilizes his finance expertise to further ensure the quality of LSFS classes. Recently Jack was accepted and will be pursuing his MS/MBA at Harvard.

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Evan Holahan

Community Associate

Evan joined Life Skills for Soldiers in 2020. He is currently an Army ROTC Cadet and Finance Major at Illinois Institute of Technology. Evan hopes to continue utilizing LSFS as an officer to promote a well-rounded, financially stable future for soldiers.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Ellie Duebner

Social Media Volunteer

Ellie helps the LSFS team maintain a strong social media presence and is a graduate of New York University. 

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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. 

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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.

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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.

Meet the Team

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."

Keep reading on ABC 11 Eyewitness News

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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."

Keep reading on NBC KCEN TV 6

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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."

Keep reading on Fox7 Austin

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Article Attention

Military Money Matters
"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

Drive On with Scott Deluzio

“Brendan Duebner is the founder of Life Skills for Soldiers, whose mission is to improve financial literacy among US service members." Listen on Spotify

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

Media
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Get Involved

Interested in joining our team of volunteers, or want to contribute to the cause?

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