Military Spouse Initiative

Award-Winning Military Family Support

Deloitte’s commitment supporting, recruiting, and retaining military spouses, families, and veterans has been recognized with several awards and accolades:

• DoD Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP)
• Military Spouse of the Year (MSOY) Sponsor 
• Hiring Our Heroes Military Spouse Employment Working Group and Advisory Council
  
• Hiring Our Heroes
  Deloitte was named the 2018 winner of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation Hiring our Heroes - Lee Anderson Veteran and Military Spouse Employment Award. This award represents the highest annual honor an organization can receive in the field, and honors overall excellence in hiring and retaining veterans, transitioning service members, and military spouses.


• Military-Friendly & Military-Friendly Spouse Employer
  Deloitte has once again been certified as a Military Friendly Employer and Military Friendly Spouse Employer by VIQTORY, a veteran-owned business. This annual certification is based upon the benefits, programs and development opportunities we offer to active-duty, retired and veteran employees and their spouses.


• Best for Vets
  Deloitte was named a “Best for Vets” organization in 2018 and 2019, due to our commitment to recruiting veterans and service members, company culture, policies, and reservist accommodations.

MSI In the Marketplace

Deloitte’s Military Spouse Initiative is a differentiator in the marketplace and has contributed to success in the marketplace and client project wins:

• MSI collaborates with client engagement teams via focus groups and interviews to help teams better understand the military spouse family experience and challenges associated with employment

• Check out Deloitte’s recent report, Military Spouse Unemployment: Exploring solutions to a local problem of national importance

Meet our Deloitte Military Spouses

Jennifer Deutsch

Jennifer Deutsch’s journey to partner has not been a straight line. She graduated from the University of Michigan. Moved with her Marine husband to San Diego. Graduated in 1996 from San Diego State University with a Masters in Accountancy. Then took a position with Deloitte Tax LLP. She says of Deloitte Tax LLP, “I loved the people; I loved everything about it.”

She would also come to love that the Deloitte network has an international presence and entrepreneurial culture, because she proceeded to advance her career even as her family moved “at the discretion of the US government.” They’ve lived in San Diego, Washington DC, Emerald Isle, NC, Orange County, CA, and even Frankfurt, Germany, all coinciding with her husband’s military assignments. For most of that time, Jennifer held positions across the Deloitte network, though she did leave for a period to take a position in course development and instruction for the Becker Professional Review.

Fittingly, Jennifer understands that professionals go through different career cycles and that it’s important to own your career. “I still see a lot of folks who narrowly look at their skill sets as opposed to seeing how they might be applicable in different situations.” Through the twists and turns of her career, her own mentors have often helped her get past similar hurdles, showing her that she’s capable of even more than she thinks. She works to do the same for others.

Read more about Jennifer's career journey. 

Sylvia Taylor

In 2006, five years into her first stint at Deloitte, Sylvia left Deloitte when the military relocated her husband Patrick, a US Navy pilot, to rural California, where she opted for a local industry position. “Despite being a Navy base, many are built out in the middle of mountains and desert, rather than near the coast.” After California, they moved again to the high desert of Nevada, placing her hundreds of miles from the nearest Deloitte office. Forced to leave her industry job, she took advantage of this time to start a family while pursuing a professional certification as well as her master’s degree.

Still, Deloitte remained on her radar. “I always said that I’d like to try to come back.” So when circumstances took her family back east to the DC area, Sylvia applied to Deloitte’s Encore program, an 11-week course for people who’ve left the professional world for an extended period of time. Encore hones skills, builds professional confidence, and prepares people for the return to a high-performance environment. The program rekindled Sylvia’s passion for Risk and Financial Advisory and for Deloitte. Following it, she immediately stepped into a senior consultant role in Deloitte’s Richmond, Virginia office.

Her return to Deloitte has been far less turbulent than when she first walked into the Houston office back on September 10, 2001. Yes, the day before 9/11. A short time later, after several industries experienced a regulatory fallout and their bankruptcies created more turbulence, auditing and consulting were changed forever. That combination of events shaped her work, with much of it being focused on early compliance with the 2002 federal law known as Sarbanes-Oxley.

Read more about Sylvia's career journey. 

Quiana Downie

Quiana Downie’s career path has been a journey full of twists, turns, and pivots. After graduating Summa Cum Laude with her Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting, her first career was as a Wall Street investment banker in NYC. After the Great Recession drastically changed the industry, she relocated to Nashville to start anew. Years later, as the Army Wife of an active duty officer with experience in banking, accounting, insurance, and government, she still struggled to find a fulfilling role that utilized her education, experience, and skill set. While stationed in Oklahoma, Quiana drove 140 miles daily to pursue her Master’s in Business Administration (MBA). She chose to specialize in Information Systems, as she knew this could provide her with an ideal trifecta of marketability, with accounting, finance, business, and technology training and experience.

Upon graduation, Quiana and her family relocated to Washington DC, where she jumpstarted her career as a Cyber Security Federal Consultant for Deloitte & Touche LLP. Eager to prove herself quickly before her family’s next move, Quiana was promoted in a little over a year, leading teams to provide clients with security governance and strategic direction.

During her first few months at Deloitte, she began conversations with leadership that would ultimately lead to Deloitte’s national effort, called the Military Spouse Initiative, a network of hundreds of military spouses, veterans, and supporters, who are committed to improving the ability of military spouses to pursue and sustain rewarding careers. “We started Deloitte’s Military Spouse Initiative to establish a blueprint on how to support and develop an untapped talent pool of military spouses. Armed with a unique skill set, we can thrive at Deloitte as career-focused, game changers, while supporting soldiers who serve this great country.”

Heather Kuzio

Heather Kuzio is an Army veteran, a military spouse, and a mom. She joined the Risk and Financial Advisory practice of Deloitte & Touche LLP during the summer of 2015 while her husband was deployed to Afghanistan. Heather went through a unique journey to find Deloitte.  

Heather’s career began in 2002 when she commissioned as an active duty Army finance officer. Her first duty station was Baumholder, Germany where she deployed to Iraq in 2003-2004 and again in 2005-2006. Heather met her husband Chris, an Army infantry officer, during their first tour to Iraq and married shortly after their second tour.

In 2009, Heather left the Army to support her husband. From 2009-2015, Heather and Chris moved 5 times, lived in 4 different states, endured 5+ deployments, learned French, and had a son, Daniel. Heather worked as a defense contractor, directly for the government, and attended a federal linguistics program during this time.

Heather found Deloitte during their short assignment in Northern Virginia. She found a home in the Federal Advisory practice supporting Department of Defense (DoD) clients.  Summer of 2016, the Army moved the family to New York City where Heather found a role within Talent as a business analyst supporting the Client Experience and Marketing organizations allowing her to expand her career and network within Deloitte. In the fall of 2017, Heather moved into a role on the Chief Growth Officer PMO team where she continues her work with the Military Spouse Initiative (MSI).

During Heather’s journey, she has learned to have courage, be resilient, say “yes, I can do this” as changes and challenges are presented, and to always give back.   

Disclaimer: The Military Spouse Initiative (MSI) is a volunteer-supported community created for military spouses by military spouses. MSI does not guarantee military spouse employment. MSI is happy to connect you with a Deloitte military spouse who can offer support and help you search for opportunities. Please reach out to militaryspouse@deloitte.com with questions, and view our careers site for more information about jobs at Deloitte.