October 23, 2015

Karen Golden, deputy director of Government Relations for military family issues, left MOAA this week to accompany her husband, Col. Bob Golden, USMC upon his retirement and relocation to New Jersey.

Karen’s professional expertise and people skills made her an extraordinarily effective ambassador for MOAA and advocate for military families. She’s been sought out personally for consultation by defense, White House, congressional, and media leaders.

Among her many, many accomplishments, she led the charge to:

• win major improvements in health care and other protections for military children with special needs;
• protect the commissary system from steep cuts;
• win all 50 states’ participation in agreements to ease children’s school transitions between states; and
• win 49 states’ approval of laws to ease licensing inhibitors for military spouses moving between states on military orders (get with it, New York).

Though it’s difficult to say goodbye to Karen, MOAA is fortunate to have found another extraordinarily qualified replacement in Brooke Goldberg.

Brooke is an Air Force spouse and a mother of two. Her husband, Maj. Jason Goldberg, USAFR, has served ten tours in Iraq with special operations units.

As a lawyer and educator, Brooke has extensive experience working with military families in a variety of key positions. For the past two years, she served as deputy director of Government Relations for the National Military Family Association. Before that, she served as Squadron and Major Command Key Spouse for the USAF Special Operations Command.

We’re very excited to welcome Brooke to the Government Relations team.