Leadership

Natalie is a Case Manager. She is responsible for meeting with each client, assessing their need and helping them to find a path to self-sufficiency. She provides financial assistance and referrals as needed. Her drive to help each client is birthed out of her personal pain and struggles, so she turned her pain into her passion and decided she would do her best every day to ensure no female Veteran would have to go through what she did.

Natalie served in US Navy honorably for 11 years. She began as undesignated seaman and ended her career as an Operations Specialist. She traveled around the world with the Navy and served on board four fine Naval Vessels; USS Emory S. Land AS-39, USS Eisenhower CVN-69, USS Chancellorsville CG-62, she was the first junior enlisted female on board the USS O’Brien DD-975, and four shore commands; Navy Legal Service Office, Commander Seven Fleet Administration, Submarine Group Seven, Commander Seven Fleet Brigg.

Natalie went back to school after her time in the service and obtained her Associates in Health Administration and went on to get certification in Professional Coding and Billing. Natalie is a Mentor with TAPS, Volunteer Child Advocate with the Guardian ad Litem Program, Fourth Judicial Circuit, Presidential Member of the American Association of Christian Counselors, and is currently pursuing her BS in Human services.

Natalie is married to her wife, Tebony. Together they have 4 children.

Natalie believes that it is a disservice to not honor those who served and that their discharge status doesn’t always tell their actual story!

Zakkiyah “Kiyah” Jackson is a case manager. She is responsible for providing clients with referrals to outside services as needed and facilitate their progress; assisting clients in creating a plan and monitoring them to ensure goals are met; ordering military records; assisting clients with resolving barriers; submitting and reviewing reports or problems with supervisor; maintaining confidentiality files; developing trusting relationships which encourage and motivate clients to achieve personal, financial, and behavioral goals while respecting relationship boundaries; conducting regularly scheduled one to one sessions to establish goals and monitor progress; and creating and reassessing clients’ progress regularly and modifying service plans as necessary.

Kiyah was born and raised in Birmingham, AL. Kiyah entered the military right after high school, where she served in the United States Navy. She started as a Deck Seaman, then went to “A” school for Operations Specialists. Kiyah served on active duty for five years, then went on active reserve for another 2 years.

After being out of the military for a while, Kiyah found out about Northeast Florida Women Veterans. She wasn’t aware that Jacksonville had an organization exclusively for women veterans. After learning about it, she was excited to jump in to learn of all the ways this organization could help her. Kiyah is an alumnus of HerTOTALWellness, Cohort 22. Northeast Florida Women Veterans has truly been a blessing to Kiyah, and it helped her to see that there are people out there who care about women veterans and will do what they can to help you move forward. The organization has also helped Kiyah to step into her purpose and pursue goals that she thought she couldn’t achieve. Kiyah is now working as a Case Manager for the organization, where she is determined to give back and help other female veterans.

Amy Collins is a Case Manager. She is responsible for meeting with each client, assessing their needs and guiding them on the path to stability. She provides financial assistance and referrals as needed. Her passion to help each client stems from her personal experiences of hardship and difficulties. She believes that no woman veteran should navigate through life’s difficulties alone.

Amy is a veteran of the US Navy and US Navy Reserves. She was part of the first implementation of women onboard USS O’Bannon DD-987 where she served 5 years as an Electronics Warfare Technician. After fulfilling her obligated Active-Duty time, Amy transferred to the US Navy Reserves reporting to MIUW and Harbor Ops out of NAS Jax.

Amy is married to Derek, a US Marine Corp veteran. They have been happily married for over 22 years and they have homeschooled 4 sons. Amy and her husband are active in the veteran community and the entire Collins family are heavily involved in various ministries at their church. Amy believes that veterans are geared for service, and that doesn’t end when we get our DD-214.

Sanya Mackenzie (Mackie) is the Program Coordinator for the organization’s signature program, “HerTOTALWellness.” She is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the HerTOTALWellness (HTW) program, including scheduling facilitators and workshops, recruiting participants, managing timelines and tasks, maintaining the spend-down budget, producing accurate and timely reporting of program status, and compliance with policies and procedures.

Sanya retired from the United States Air Force after 24 years of service. She spent her career in the dental and medical fields, Protocol, and various leadership roles. Sanya moved to Jacksonville from England to be near her sister and realized she strongly desired to serve her fellow veterans. This led her to Northeast Florida Women Veterans and, as a graduate of HTW Cohort 22, experienced firsthand the impact of this program. She is excited to have direction and a purpose for this next chapter after the Uniform.

RADM Patricia Wolfe retired from the US Navy in 2013 following a 32-year career as a Supply Corps Officer specializing in expeditionary logistics. She was born and raised in northern New Jersey and is a 1981 graduate of Villanova University. She received her commission in the United States Navy through the Villanova Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps Program. She holds a Master of Business Administration from Brenau University.

RADM Wolfe’s accomplishments included a number of first assignments that help break the gender barrier for women in the Navy, including duty at sea in 1982 aboard the USS Piedmont (AD 17) and command assignment as the first female Commanding Officer of a Navy Cargo Handling Battalion in 1994. She was promoted to Rear Admiral in 2007 and served in flag officer positions in the US Pacific Fleet, as Commander of the Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Group and in multiple Executive capacities at the Defense Logistics Agency.

Patty currently serves as the Chair of the Northeast Florida Women Veterans Board of Directors, as a Trustee for Brenau University and is on the Board of Directors for the and the Navy Supply Corps Foundation. Her post-Navy retirement activities include small business consulting, non-profit work and travel.

Charles Fields is a Bank Manager for Woodforest National Bank in Jacksonville, Florida; a community bank built upon the needs of the customers they serve. Charles, originally from Chicago, Illinois served on active duty in the United States Marine Corps. His assignments included tours in the Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm), as a Marine Embassy Guard for the United States Department of State and various other foreign assignments in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

Since leaving the military, Charles has served in a Leadership/Management capacity in the automotive sales, finance, banking, and mortgage industries. His current role continues to afford him the opportunity to work directly with the community here in Northeast Florida as both a Community Banker as well as volunteer. Charles currently serves as Board Member and Treasurer for Family Foundations of Northeast Florida since 2014. Charles has volunteered as a business mentor for small-medium sized women business owners for the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce Women’s Business Center and also volunteers his time to conduct financial education classes with Junior Achievement of North Florida.

Charles is a graduate of Central Texas College (2000). Charles is married to his wife of 24 years, Laurette and they have two daughters, Madison 13 years old, and Morgan 9 years old.

Penelope L. “Penny” Justice is well-known and accomplished Military Employment Advocate/Coach in the Florida Region. With a strong background in creating successful recruiting and placement platforms throughout the eastern United States, the Florida National Army & Air Guard asked her to create an employment platform for them in 2011. This program was so successful that she was awarded the Governor’s Florida Commendation Medal for decreasing the unemployment level from 17.1% to 3.3% in 4 years! She continues work with this program and is the Northeast Florida Employment Coach for the Florida Guard Employment Support Program.

As the Employer Outreach Coordinator for the Department of Defense Agency, The Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) for the past 17 years in northeast Florida, Penny has helped many military members obtain meaningful employment with proven Patriotic Employers who have been awarded for their commitment to our military community.

In 2015 Penny became a committee member with the Northeast Florida Women Veterans Association and is very honored to serve on the Board of Directors. “Our women who have served deserve our very best effort to help them transition successfully to their new career and life path!”