An early failure that once filled Melissa Fulmore-Hardwick with shame became the spark that ignited her success. Today, the Army Veteran and technology executive channels that same determination into helping others reach their own potential.

Fulmore-Hardwick is the chief information officer for CSI Companies, currently working as an executive workforce strategist for the global parent company. She provides education, training and employment to underserved communities—including U.S. military Veterans and military spouses. Her work has helped thousands of Veterans and their families navigate career transitions, build job-readiness skills and connect with meaningful employment.

She is also the founder of Brown Girls in the Boardroom, a nonprofit that mentors and empowers young women and girls, especially from marginalized communities.

That combination of professional excellence and service to others earned her the title of 2025 Veteran
of the Year^®, a national honor presented by Military Friendly^® to recognize Veterans who are changing lives for the better. She was chosen by public voting to represent Florida before being selected as the national winner.

“I’m certainly humbled by it. I just want to make a difference in the world,” Fulmore-Hardwick said.

A Rough Start

Fulmore-Hardwick’s path to success was anything but easy. She grew up in South Florida as the youngest of 12 children. Her mother died when she was just 3 years old, leaving her father to raise the family on his own.

“He was an amazing man,” she said. “And it was our faith that carried us through.”

After high school, she enrolled in college—but quickly learned that freedom came with consequences.

“Having to come back home was extremely embarrassing for me,” she said. “I was a very bright student,so there was no reason that I should not have excelled.”

That failure might have derailed her future, but fate intervened at a gas station one day when she met an Army recruiter. He told her the military could help pay for college.

“It sounded very appealing considering I didn’t have a plan,” she said. “And so I joined the military, and it literally changed the trajectory of my life. Today, I stand with a bachelor’s in accounting, an executive MBA, and I serve as a chief information officer.”

Fulmore-Hardwick served eight years in the Army and Army Reserve, where she realized early on that she could be a leader. She earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of South Florida and an MBA from Jacksonville University. Fulmore-Hardwick climbed the corporate ladder with companies such as BearingPoint, Oracle and Acosta before landing in her current role.

Although she’s passionate about technology, Fulmore-Hardwick’s true strength lies in leadership.

“I’ve been successful as a technology leader because I understand technology greatly—how it’s supposed to work, how to transform systems—and I’m a people leader,” she said.

Building a Pipeline of Empowerment

Throughout her career, Fulmore-Hardwick noticed a troubling trend: Many college students she mentored weren’t prepared for the professional world.

“That experience showed me this work was needed, and it inspired the nonprofit,” she said.

In 2020, she founded Brown Girls in the Boardroom, sparked by a moment of realization.

“I was sitting in the boardroom one day in just a world of unrest … I looked around the room. There was nobody in the boardroom that looked like me,” she said.

The organization now helps young women “level up” in whatever “room” they occupy—whether that’s a boardroom, a classroom, or their own business. Through mentorship, Brown Girls in the Boardroom teaches professional development, emotional intelligence, workplace skills and confidence.

“And, basically, we just pour back into this next generation of young women, and it has been very fulfilling for me,” she said.

Leading With Grit

Fulmore-Hardwick has been married for 20 years to her husband, Gerald, and is the mother of a 13-year-old son, Jax. This year she published a book titled From Grit to Greatness and created the G.R.E.A.T. Framework, a leadership model built on Grit, Responsibility, Equity, Action and Transformation.

Her advice to others is simple: Embrace failure as part of the journey.

“Because for me, things could have gone a bit differently in my life when I didn’t finish college the first time around,” she said. “And I think once you make up your mind that failure really is not an option, you go hard. You have a chip on your shoulder.”

Fulmore-Hardwick plans to continue her mission of helping others.

“I want to be able to encourage them and give them tools and a framework to be able to overcome. And I can see myself doing that probably for the rest of my life,” she said.

Read this full article and more in the October 2025 Issue of G.I. Jobs magazine.