Rebecca (Becky) Halstead

Biography

Rebecca Becky S. Halstead founded her own leader consultancy company, STEADFAST Leadership, after having been the Executive Director for Leader Development with Praevius Group, Inc. Becky specializes in inspirational and motivational speaking, developing leader training programs, leader coaching, and mentoring; she is currently authoring her first book.

Becky is a 1981 graduate of the United States Military Academy and achieved an historic milestone by being the first female graduate of West Point to be promoted to General Officer. She was the senior Commanding General for logistics in Iraq, and was the first female in U.S. history to command in combat at the strategic level. In this capacity she was responsible for leading over 200 multi disciplined units (20,000 military and 5,000 civilians) located across 55 different bases, providing supply, maintenance, transportation and distribution support to over 250,000 personnel serving in Iraq.

Becky served 27 years with the U.S. Army and retired as a General Officer in 2008. She culminated her career as the first female Chief of Ordnance and Commanding General of the Army's Ordnance Center and Schools (equivalent to President of a University), responsible for the leader development and institutional training for the second largest branch in the army with over 100,000 members of the Ordnance Corps.

She served in Europe as the Deputy Commanding General (Chief Operating Officer) for the 21st Theater Support Command and has experience leading a multi national team in wholesale level logistics operations. Prior to Europe she served as the Chief Advisor to the Combatant Commander (Four Star General) for Southern Command, whose responsibility encompassed military training and operations for South America; she was responsible for coordinating directly with high level organizations like Office of the Secretary of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Department of State, U.S. Congress, U.S. Ambassadors and equivalent foreign military and civilian organizations.

Becky has over 15 years of executive level leadership experience developing and training high-performing, complex and diverse teams capable of strategic planning and execution. She has a proven record of leading change, building successful teams in demanding environments (Afghanistan and Iraq, Germany, South America), and creating innovative solutions, systems and programs to complex problems. She is an experienced leader and logistician, a highly effective communicator, and a strategic planner with exceptional organizational skills.

Becky earned a B.S. in Engineering from West Point, an M.S. in National Resource Strategy (Advanced Manufacturing) from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University, and an M.S. in Advanced Military Studies (Visionary Leadership) from the Army Command and General Staff College.

She is on the Board of Directors for the West Point Association of Graduates, a lifetime member of the Association of the United States Army, and President of the Ordnance Corps Association. Becky is also an active spokesperson for the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress.

Becky is a recipient of the 2007 National Women's History Project award for "Generations of Women Moving History Forward."