Realize Your Value

Holly Petraeus, assistant director of service members’ affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, gave audience members a brief lesson on financial security on Monday at AFA’s 2013 Air and Space Conference in National Harbor, Md. At the Spouse and Family Forum, she called herself “sort of the poster child” when it came to volunteering for military spouses. Petraeus, wife of retired Army Gen. David Petraeus, said she found herself taking a more public role after her husband left for the Iraq war in 2003 when they were in Fort Campbell, Ky. She said she relocated 24 times in 37 years and took on a “smorgasbord of jobs.” “Realize the value of what you’re all doing,” she told the audience. From her time assigning government housing in Italy, to working at a dental clinic as a management assistant, everything has been a learning experience, she said. Petraeus has also worked at the Better Business Bureau’s Military Line, which provides consumer education and advocacy for service members and their families.