A former Air Force officer and military brat promotes a key N.C. economic engine.
Jocelyn Mitnaul Mallette, the secretary of the North Carolina Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, has a job that touches the lives of 95,000 active-duty warfighters stationed in North Carolina. It also includes their families and the 615,000 veterans who live in the state.
Mallette’s background is well-suited to the position. She came from a military family and attended eight different K-12 schools as her father’s assignments took him to new bases. A U.S. Air Force Academy graduate, she spent a decade as an intelligence officer and lawyer in the Air Force.
She also experienced the challenge of finding a job after leaving the military. Each year, 20,000 service members transition out of North Carolina’s bases. Even with a law degree and professional connections, Mallette describes her transition as “terrifying.”
When she left Goldsboro’s Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in 2016, a law school friend helped her get a job after a few anxious months as a state Supreme Court clerk. That led to a career at the McGuireWoods law firm. Many separating service members have far fewer advantages.
HUB FOR MILITARY AND VETERANS
The General Assembly created the cabinet-level agency a decade ago, reflecting the defense industry’s role as the second-largest industry sector in North Carolina, behind agriculture. It’s intended “to serve as a hub for all things military and veterans and [their] families,” says Mallette.
Military families constantly come and go because the services move members to new assignments. This means getting kids into new schools and dealing with military spouse professional licensure issues. Many veterans need help navigating healthcare and other benefits, transitioning into careers or colleges. North Carolina wants veterans to settle here, join the workforce and attend colleges after leaving military service.
THREE PRIORITIES
Collaboration, transition support and economic opportunity top Mallette’s priorities in a job she started in January 2025.
“Sector collaboration is first,” she says.“It took me just a couple of weeks in this job to realize there are so many groups and organizations that are doing wonderful work to serve and support military veteran families, but they aren’t all talking to each other or sharing best practices.”
Mallette draws upon her bumpy experience when looking at military members transitioning to civilian life. Currently, the agency’s transition support department consists of a single staff member. The department has asked the General Assembly for funding to expand, with the goal of closing what service organizations call “the deadly gap,” the year after a service member leaves the military.
Active-duty service members have higher suicide rates than civilians, and veterans have a higher rate than active duty, she says. “We can make the deadly gap less deadly or close it altogether,” Mallette says. “But when we treat transition like a one-size-fits-all approach, it’s just not helpful or productive.”
One goal is for every transitioning family to have a one-on-one appointment with a veteran service officer.
“So that you sit down and someone can say, ‘OK, thanks for your service. What do you want to do now? Do you want to start a veteran-owned business? Does your spouse want to go back to school? Let me tell you about the GI Bill. Let me tell you about the schools you can apply to in North Carolina for free, that will give you in-state tuition.”
ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY AND WORKFORCE
The department works with Commerce and the state’s Military Business Center to ensure federal defense contracts continue to come to North Carolina, but it also wants to help veteran-owned businesses.
She wants employers to understand the transferable skills veterans bring. “You don’t hire infantrymen at Cisco, and you don’t hire aircraft mechanics at SAS,” she says, “but you hire people who are punctual and professional and work well under pressure, and are good team members and are mission-oriened.” The same applies to military spouses.
Even if employees stay only a few years, she says, companies benefit from their resilience and leadership. ■
