Carolyn S. Stevens

Director, Office of Military Family Readiness Policy

Carolyn S. Stevens assumed the duties of director for the Office of Military Family Readiness Policy in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy June 25, 2017.

As director, Ms. Stevens is responsible for programs and policies that promote military families’ well-being, readiness and quality of life. In this capacity, she has oversight for Department of Defense child development and youth programs, which serve 700,000 children annually at more than 300 locations worldwide. Ms. Stevens has purview over military family readiness programs, including military family lifecycle and transition support, and community capacity building to support geographically dispersed military members and their families. She also has oversight of the Family Advocacy Program and Exceptional Family Member Program.

Prior to assuming her current duties, Ms. Stevens served as senior program analyst in the Office of Children and Youth for the Office of Military Family Policy beginning in January 2007; she became the associate director in January 2013. In this capacity, she was responsible for programs and policies that support the availability of quality child care for military families worldwide, as well as the team leader for the Office of Children and Youth with oversight of Department of Defense child development and youth programs.

Ms. Stevens has more than 36 years of experience working with children, youth and families in nonprofit, for-profit and federal child care systems. Her work within the federal system includes direct care and management experience in home-based and center-based child development programs at the installation level. An ardent advocate for support to geographically dispersed military families, she served as the first child and youth specialist for the Air Force Reserve Command Headquarters where she provided oversight of programs that served the children, youth and families of Air Guard and reserve families. Her experience in the civilian sector includes work as the primary caseworker for the foster care program in a state Department of Social Services and work in various nonprofit family recreational programs. Ms. Stevens has also served as an adjunct professor for Georgia College and State University graduate students in nonprofit management studies.

Ms. Stevens’ awards include the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service in 2015, an Air Force honoree in 2009 at the 20th anniversary of the Military Child Care Act of 1989, and the Air Force Senior Civilian Manager of the Year Award in 2001. She was an integral part of the installation team that won the General Curtis E. LeMay Award 2001 and has received numerous installation-level program and performance awards.

Ms. Stevens graduated cum laude from Bridgewater College, in Bridgewater, Virginia, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology. She completed a Master of Public Administration at Georgia College and State University.

The Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy is directly responsible for programs and policies, which establish and support community quality-of-life programs for service members and their families worldwide. This office also serves as the focal point for coordination for a broad range of quality-of-life issues within the Department of Defense.