Dare to Rise:  Navy Captain Jenn Donahue on Leadership Insights from the Battlefield to the Boardroom episode artwork

EPISODE · Jun 9, 2026 · 34 MIN

Dare to Rise: Navy Captain Jenn Donahue on Leadership Insights from the Battlefield to the Boardroom

from Wings of Inspired Business · host Melinda Wittstock

Jenn Donahue PhD is an entrepreneur, civil engineer, author, and retired US Navy Captain whose company JL Donahue Engineering works on large scale, high profile geotechnical projects for clients ranging from PG&E and Duke Energy to the Tennessee Valley Authority and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). Over her military career, Jenn has built a bridge across the Euphrates River in the midst of the Iraq war, commanded an 800-personnel Battalion in Afghanistan, and constructed combat outposts in the middle of deserts filled with insurgents. Jenn has designed the seismic plans for a bridge over the Panama Canal and built roads by drilling and blasting in Ketchikan. She's the author of The Warrior Framework and the founder of Dare to Rise. 🔑Key Takeaways🔑 🎖📈 From Battalions to Boardrooms: What military leadership can teach us about entrepreneurship, and why entrepreneurship is a lonelier, more uncertain journey. Plus, how Jenn uses her experience as a commanding officer to shape multiple contingency plans in her successful business: "You need plans B through L", she says. 💡🤝 Finding Your Mentor: Why mentorship is vital to success, and how to muster the courage to simply ask for help from those at the top of their game makes all the difference. Hint: The most successful are often the most generous.   🚀💪 From Combat Zones to Fault Zones: How to handle uncertainty and make decisions when the data is unclear or contradictory, and what the military and assessing seismic engineering risk taught Jenn about the necessity to gather all perspectives, rely on your own experience and never let fear paralyze you.   🎙️Subscribe to Wings and get the full Show Notes at https://bit.ly/Wings985 More about Jenn at Jenn Donahue www.jenndonahue.com Read her new book, The Warrior Framework

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Jun 9, 2026

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Dare to Rise: Navy Captain Jenn Donahue on Leadership Insights from the Battlefield to the Boardroom

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