Hopefully women can work with [Ivanka Trump ] to influence up the chain of command. I think it's good for us, for women. It's a glimmer of hope.

When I get this kind of support, I feel validated in my decision to stand up for myself.

I want to serve. I love my country. I love service above self and I don't want my talents to go to waste. I also want to send a message to other men and women who've tripped over themselves, or over life: that you need to serve your time in purgatory.

I was in such a state of mental shock and quickly spiraled into a depression at the multitude of loss. My husband, I thought, was going to leave me. I was cut off from this mentor and someone I cared for very much, David Petraeus, who also did nothing to stand up for me and in fact, empowered his surrogates to throw me under the bus, and that was devastating.

I had been sort of a rising star - an athlete, a scholar, a leader. My dream was to become a high-level national security adviser.

I don't have the advocates. I don't have a good old boys network. Part of what I want to do is to create a good old girls network.

I was a Ph.D. student at a very reputable university, I was a Harvard research associate at one of the world's premier leadership institutions.