Eries L.G. Mentzer

Colonel USAF (Ret.) Principal, The Freedom to Serve Solutions

After nearly three decades in the U.S. Air Force, Eries launched The Freedom To Serve Solutions to ensure rising Americans can join and remain in service, believing when every service member has the right to fight in the military and pathways to voluntarily share their talents, our armed forces — and our nation — are strengthened.

Her military experiences include serving as a Congressional Liaison, a Commander in the Middle East, a Joint Staff Officer who prepared top military generals to advise the President and National Security Council during the War on Terrorism and the Ebola crisis, a Vice Commander of Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, D.C, a Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Fellow, and a Director for Air Force Special Operations Command.

The first Black woman to command Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, she launched the first Top-Tracer – Top Golf on a military base, repurposed underutilized military land to launch the new $75-million Montgomery Whitewater, and honored Rosa Park’s World War II service on the base that sparked her Montgomery Bus Boycott activism with the Rosa Parks “Opening Eyes” Sculpture.

A graduate of the University of Nebraska with advanced degrees from the University of Oklahoma and George Washington University, she is featured on NPR, in the National World War II Museum’s film “Our War Too: Women in Service” and as a TEDx Speaker.

A community leader, she serves on the boards for Operation Lifeline, Kansas City Girls Preparatory Academy, and the Truman Library Institute to inspire rising leaders through President Truman’s legacy.