Home Programs Goizueta’s Veterans: Meet Bren Lemoine

Goizueta’s Veterans: Meet Bren Lemoine

November 13, 2024

748

Celebrating Veterans at Goizueta

Join us in celebrating Veterans Day throughout the month of November, as we profile three remarkable veterans in the Goizueta community, each on a unique path but united by their shared commitment to excellence, both in service and beyond.

At Goizueta Business School, supporting veterans and active-duty military members has long been a core value, woven into the school’s identity. Goizueta welcomed its inaugural class of the new Master in Business for Veterans program earlier this year. The fully accredited 11-month program is designed for active-duty military, veterans, National Guard, and Reserve personnel. It provides tailored resources and experiences to help veterans transition into business leadership roles.

The new program is only the most recent testament to Goizueta’s enduring dedication to those who have served our country. This year, Goizueta also celebrates its largest cohort of veteran students across all programs.

Meet Bren Lemoine 25MBV

Bren Lemoine 25MBV doesn’t fit the typical profile of a U.S. Army veteran. An immigrant and a woman, she is “proud to have served this country, whether or not I was born here,” she says. “There are so many amazing, diverse veterans who have accomplished so many things.”

The Journey Begins

Lemoine’s journey to the U.S. Army began in Haiti in late 1991, when a military coup overthrew President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the first popularly elected president in Haitian history. When the new military regime took power, one of the first groups it went after was the press. Lemoine’s father was a broadcast journalist. So, in 1993, when she was eight years old, Lemoine and her family fled Haiti. “You had to choose safety,” she explains.

The family moved to Canada, where Lemoine’s grandmother lived and where Lemoine’s mother, who was battling a cancer diagnoses, had relocated to receive treatment. In 1994, Lemoine’s mother passed away, and her father moved the family to Uniondale, New York, a town on Long Island. In less than three years, Lemoine had left her homeland, lost her mother, and made two major moves.

It definitely built up a strong sense of resilience in me—which I’m very grateful for. I can do hard things.
Bren Lemoine 25MBV

From Adversity to Resilience

Lemoine’s grandmother became one of her greatest sources of support and inspiration. She instilled in her granddaughter a sense that “service connects you to things,” Lemoine says. After high school, Lemoine attended college, but struggled. “I was consuming information with no sense of direction,” she explains. With her grandmother’s blessing, Lemoine left school and enlisted in the U.S. Army. “I was on a journey to discover myself and how I could connect more to this country,” she adds.

While serving in the Army, Lemoine found the connection she longed for, as well as camaraderie and a sense of fulfillment. When she deployed to Iraq, she had the opportunity to learn just how much she was capable of. As a financial soldier, Lemoine occasionally ran pay missions to exchange U.S. dollars into the local currency. At times, she walked through villages with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in her backpack. “In those moments, your training tells you to put aside fear and focus on the mission,” Lemoine says. “I think that can serve you sometimes.”

After the Army

After her time in the Army, Lemoine earned a degree in nutrition science and dietetics. She became a registered dietitian, and put her experience in the Army to work.

My deployment to Iraq gave me firsthand experience managing resources and planning under pressure. These same skills now guide my strategic contributions in the business world.
Bren Lemoine 25MBV

“This background drives my mission-focused work today, whether through business strategy or community engagement,” Lemoine says.

For close to a decade, her private practice has focused on medical nutrition therapy, a treatment that uses nutrition to help manage health conditions in acute and long-term settings. Applying the mission-oriented mindset and adaptability she learned in the military, Lemoine has worked with the City of East Point, Georgia, “to equip people with essential tools and knowledge to improve health literacy and wellness.” She also volunteers with two Atlanta-based nonprofits, Urban Oak Initiative and Soul Food Cypher. Both organizations aim to enhance health and community.

Her experience in healthcare has shown Lemoine that “healthcare requires strategic decision-making—similar to the high-stakes responsibilities in my military experience. Our healthcare systems need innovation and systems-based thinking to truly serve communities and people best,” she says. That’s one of the reasons she decided to pursue a business degree.

Goizueta was the best environment to acquire the tools to create real change in community and health-focused projects, just as I worked to create positive outcomes during my deployment.
Bren Lemoine 25MBV

Back to Business School

When Lemoine began the Masters in Business for Veterans program earlier this year, she discovered the same camaraderie she felt in the Army.

With service members there’s just an unspoken, instant connection. Everybody wants to see everybody else succeed.
Bren Lemoine 25MBV

Lemoine adds that everyone involved in the new program—administration, staff, leadership, and faculty “play a pivotal role in preparing every veteran to excel and make a difference at the highest level of their respective fields.”

Lemoine’s sense of service has rubbed off on her 14-year-old daughter, a freshman in high school and a current member of her school’s Navy JROTC program. “She loves it,” says Lemoine. She and her daughter have even talked about her applying to the Master in Business for Veterans program one day, continuing “a shared path of service and leadership,” Lemoine says. “She’ll likely outperform me in any of the program’s courses, but her love for math and numbers makes her especially drawn to finance!”