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A War Hero Continues to Serve Others

Oyoana Allende became an occupational therapist after suffering severe injuries in Iraq

Oyoana Allende became an occupational therapist after suffering severe injuries in Iraq
A look at how post-military services helped one veteran recover from severe injuries and pursue a career helping others

Extraordinary circumstances inspired Oyoana Allende to become an occupational therapist. Allende was serving in the Marine Corps in Iraq in 2005 when her convoy was hit by a suicide bomber. She underwent extensive medical treatment, including reconstructive surgeries and occupational therapy sessions.

Allende credits Operation Mend for being instrumental in her recovery. “They help military service members or veterans with surgeries or constructive surgeries, medical treatments. They have programs for mental health targeted to the military veterans, but also to their families.”

Receiving occupational therapy helped Allende be able to do things for herself. “It was great to be able to be as independent as I could during the recovery process,” she says.

Allende returned to school to get her college degree and a Master’s in occupational therapy. “I’ve worked at two different hospitals. I worked in the acute care setting. I work with people that are recovering from hip surgery to heart transplant, lung transplants.”

“I help people to be able to be as independent as they can with their new condition – to where they’re recovering. To be able to be as independent with their self-care, and be able to do what they need to do.”

With her rewarding career in Texas, Allende says others should not be hesitant to seek out post-military services.

She says, “I know that can be very difficult because one might think, ‘Well, you were in the military, you could be strong. If you were able to go to war, then you should be able to face life after the military.’ But that’s not the case. It’s not always the case. So I think that having the courage to seek that help, I think that’s what helped me.”

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.