Andrea Allard

Born in Germany to a US Army officer and his German bride after WWII, Andréa Allard comes from a family of military service. Her older brother is a retired CW4 who flew helicopters in the Army, her sister was a Russian linguist, and Andréa was a Polish linguist/Interrogator and Psychological warfare specialist. She enlisted in the Army in 1983 and was discharged honorably in 1986 with the impending birth of her first son. Andréa is a mother of 2 sons, Zac and Sam, and is married to Don, a disabled US Marine Corps veteran she met while at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. After spending the next 20 years raising and homeschooling her children, she went back into the workforce. She worked part-time in retail while obtaining her bachelor’s degree in psychology and her master’s in human services counseling: Marriage and Family. When her husband became unable to continue working due to his service-connected disabilities, Andréa started working full-time to support their family. She took what jobs were available at that time and eventually came to the state of North Carolina for employment where she currently serves as Outreach and Transition Support Director for the North Carolina Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. Her work with veterans focuses on the transitions of life such as seeking education or employment, becoming a caregiver or widow, leaving active duty for veteran status, empowering minority and women veterans in benefits attainment, accessing housing for homeless veterans, and advocating for greater availability of mental health resources in the prevention of suicide.