Tee Marie Hanible is a Southside Chicago native and enlisted into the Marine Corps in 1996. In 2003, Tee deployed as the only woman in one of the first units to Iraq.  During her time in the Marine Corps, she served as a Military Recruiter, Legal Chief, Operations Chief, and as the Marine Corps Diversity Chief.

In August 2011, she founded Operation Heroes Connect, an organization partnering veterans as full-time mentors for at-risk youth.  Her organization facilitates an annual summer youth sleep-away camp program. 75-100 local youth from the D.C., MD, and VA areas attend a week-long “away” summer enrichment camp for free. Tee’s organization also provides homeless dinner services and adopt-a-family programs to local individuals in need.

Accolades, Activism, and American Grit

In 2012, President Barack Obama honored Tee Marie Hanible at the White House for her work during active duty, as well as for her off-duty volunteer service throughout her community. Newsweek featured her on “Heroes Edition.” Daily Beast also featured her on Heroes Summit.

Tee is also attributed for assisting and assembling the Marine Corps’ first-ever “Marine Week” Youth Academy program for 250 Cleveland, Ohio-area youth. The mayor of Cleveland honored the program. She is also the first military recipient of the prestigious “Washingtonian of the Year” award. This award is normally coveted by doctors and other such humanitarians.

Upon retirement from the Marine Corps, Tee went on to co-star on FOX’s American Grit alongside John Cena. She was the only military female expert on the show.  This was the first national television role to ever spotlight a military woman of color. In addition, she went on to co-star in the Lifetime documentary What I Signed Up For. She also went on to found the clothing company Gritty Apparel, which empowers others by their bold graphic statements.

Her service didn’t end upon retirement. Tee was the National Veteran’s Chair for “Women’s March on D.C.,” which drew an estimated 250,000-plus people to Washington, D.C. and has been labeled the largest protest since the anti-Vietnam War protests in the 1960s and 1970s, with an additional estimated 3,300,000–5,600,000 people in the United States and 5 million people worldwide. She went on to become a board member for Women’s March D.C. and the founder of the national “Veterans For Kaepernick” movement against racism and racial injustices.

Along with being the author of the bestseller The Warrior Code: 11 Principles to Unleash The Badass Inside of You, Tee is the mother to two beautiful daughters, Destiny and Jasmine. Additionally, she is a graduate student at Harvard University studying creative writing and literature.