Career military leader and ‘humanness’ advocate DeDe Halfhill to speak at women’s leadership dinner

DeDe Halfhill / Photo by Heather L. McKinney

A compassionate, direct, and somewhat unorthodox approach to building teams and challenging norms during her 24 years in the Air Force has made DeDe Halfhill a sought-after leadership coach. Next week, she will bring her message to Chattanooga as the keynote speaker at the Chattanooga Women’s Leadership Institute’s annual dinner.

“Chattanooga doesn’t yet know the gift we are about to receive from one of the most effective leaders in our military,” said Kim Shumpert, the institute’s executive director. “We expect that DeDe is going to open up important conversations for our community that will benefit women and men alike.”

Halfhill’s work coaching and developing teams got the attention of famed leadership researcher and author Brené Brown, and her story became part of Brown’s bestselling 2018 book, “Dare to Lead.” Halfhill took her team through training developed by Brown, and it’s not an exaggeration to say it changed their lives, Halfhill said.

“She’s giving us a language to lead us down a different path, to talk about leadership and language and some of the really hard things we do,” Halfhill said.