Carole Turner, wife of Lt. Gen. Roger Turner, commander of the III Marine Expeditionary Force, speaks to military spouses during the Okinawa Leadership Seminar at the Rocker Enlisted Club on Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, May 7, 2025. (Creative Volunteers for the OLS )
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Air Force spouse Liudmila Frank credits the Okinawa Leadership Seminar with helping her land her current job.
Frank, wife of Air Force Tech. Sgt. Eric Frank, attended the biannual seminar in October. It ended on the same day she interviewed for her current job as a workers’ compensation administrator for Marine Corps Community Services.
“That confidence I got through the seminar is assisting me in everyday work when I interact with my coworkers, with my leadership, with our employees,” she told Stars and Stripes by phone Friday. “It definitely gives a lot if you’re willing to get it.”
The spring seminar, aimed at helping military spouses learn leadership skills and build community, runs April 14-16 at the Butler Officers’ Club in Plaza Housing near Camp Foster. Registration at okinawaleadershipseminar.org is free but capped at 40 participants, with a deadline of 11:59 p.m. Thursday.
The Okinawa organization started in 2016, spokeswoman Chandra Singletary told Stars and Stripes during a meeting at the Yomitan public library on Thursday.
It grew out of the Leadership Education Seminar that launched at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in 1990 and has since moved to Camp Pendleton in California. Seminars are also held at Camp Lejeune, N.C., Twentynine Palms, Calif, and since 2024 at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan.
The seminars also help spouses navigate the challenges of military life, including finding employment or volunteer opportunities.
Military spouses photographed at the Okinawa Leadership Seminar at Rocker Enlisted Club on Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Oct. 8, 2025. (Creative Volunteers for the OLS )
Military spouses reported an unemployment rate of 23% in the 2025 Military Family Lifestyle Survey conducted by aid organization Blue Star Families. That’s five times as high as the average nationwide figure of 4.4% last year.
Singletary, wife of Air Force Staff Sgt. Rasad Singletary, left a job with Coca-Cola in Warner Robins, Ga., to move to Okinawa on her first overseas tour in March 2024. Volunteering with the Okinawa Leadership Seminar has allowed her to connect with the local community, she said.
“Just being that person to say, ‘Hey, I can help out. Hey, I can assist, I can ease that load,’ has been really, really valuable to me,” she said. “And it’s shown a different side of me that I never expected.”
Presenters at the spring seminar include Col. Warren Cook, chief of staff for the III Marine Expeditionary Force; Navy Chaplain (Lt. Cmdr.) Antony Kaniaru, supervisory chaplain for 12th Marine Littoral Regiment; and Carole Turner, wife of III MEF commander Lt. Gen. Roger Turner.
Fourteen organizations, including the Department of Labor’s Employment Navigator Program, the MCCS Education Center and the Okinawa Enlisted Spouse Club, will participate in a resource hour on April 15.
Alisa Seeda, an occupational therapy specialist, life coach and wife of Navy Chaplain (Cmdr.) Aroon Seeda with the 4th Marine Regiment, will deliver a presentation April 14 on mindful leadership. She credits the seminar in 2024 with giving her the push to start her own business, Calm Corner.
“I really felt that it has helped me to not only clarify about my own values,” she said by phone Friday, “but also look at leadership in a different light, not only in the paid employment sector, but internally within myself, within my home.”
AloJapan.com