E. Sean Lanier, Founder & Executive Director, Resolve Solutions, Inc.

E. Sean Lanier was born in McDonald Army Hospital, Fort Eustis, Virginia and raised in Petersburg, Virginia. After attaining the grade of E-5 in the Virginia National Guard and upon graduation from the Virginia Military Institute with a Bachelor of Arts in History, Sean was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Aviation Branch. In 2010, Sean earned a Masters of Science in Business: Supply Chain Management & Logistics via the University of Kansas. PhD , Corporate Learning Officer, University of Pennsylvania, expected completion December 2021.

Sean initially served as a UH-60 A/L Flight Platoon Leader, HHC Executive Officer/ III-V Platoon Leader, and Flight Company Executive Officer in the 1-52nd Aviation Regiment, Seoul, Korea. His subsequent assignment to Fort Bragg, North Carolina included a variety of leadership and staff positions: Flight Company Executive Officer L/1-159th (Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina), Assistant S-3 (Brigade Training and Current Operations Officer) XVIIIth Aviation Brigade, Assistant S-3 (Battalion Flight Operations Officer) 2-82d Aviation Regiment, Assistant Division Transportation Officer 82d Airborne Division, and the Combined Joint (CJ-4)Theater Rail & Sea Operations Officer (SFOR) in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Sean Lanier served as the Assistant S-2/3 (Highway Operations Officer) for the 28th Transportation Battalion, Mannheim, Germany prior to assuming command of the 70th Transportation Company, 28th Transportation Battalion, 37th TRANSCOM, 21st Theater Support Command. Sean Lanier subsequently served as the Battle Captain/Current Operations Officer, 14th Transportation Battalion (MC), 1st Theater Movement Control Agency, 21st Theater Support Command, Vicenza, Italy which then was forward deployed as part of Southern European Task Force’s CJTF-76, Joint Logistics Command Movement Control Battalion in Afghanistan in support of OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM. Sean served as the SETAF Fielding Support Team’s Operations Officer and was responsible for overseeing the transformation and restructuring on the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Caserma Ederle, Vicenza Italy. Sean served as the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division S-4, FOB Hammer (Butler Range Complex), Zatiah, Iraq OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM V and then as the 203rd BSB, Support Operations Officer (SPO), 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Benning, GA. Sean previously was the 1st Theater Support Command, Support Operations Distribution Integration Branch Chief and subsequently the 1st TSC Secretary General Staff while deployed to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait in support of OPERATION NEW DAWN & OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM and recently redeployed from OEF as the ARCENT Support Element (ASE-A) Logistics Sustainment Planner. Sean served as Operational Energy (OE) and Contingency Basing (CB) Executive Officer of the Headquarters Department of the Army G-45/7 Strategy & Integration Directorate and then the G-43 Director of Operations and Logistics Readiness XO, Executive Officer / Military Assistant to the Director for Logistics Strategy and Integration, G-45/, Headquarters Department of the Army G-4. Sean served as the Senior Analyst/Chief of Staff with the Test Resource Management Center, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (OUSD(AT&L)).

Sean is currently an independent agent with Long & Foster, Old Town Alexandria and Founder and CEO of Resolve Solutions, Incorporated an educational non-profit. Sean social activates include serving as President of the Rotary International (Springfield, VA), the VMI Alumni Association Board of Directors, The University of Kansas Alumni Association, the Petersburg City Public Schools Career & Technical Education Advisory Board and a number of other activities that help to create STEM & Diversity outreach, advocacy for higher education and service to country through military and civil service.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
M and T Bank presents CEOs youshould know powered by iheartnet Guy. Let's
beat Sean Lanier. He's the founderand executive director of Resolved Solutions, providing
educational and financial support along with earlycollege preparation, student mentoring, and bridge
programs. We'll talk about all thatand more, but first I as sean

(00:21):
to get us up to speed onwhat's been happening at RSI. Well,
it's it's been a pretty busy summeractually, you know, whilst my summer
was spent going out to Notre Dame, I started an executive master's in Nonprofit
Administration at the University of the Dame'sMendoza School of Business, and that was
primarily to improve some of the processesthat we have here at RSI, to

(00:45):
get better, to figure out whatwe don't know how to get better at
it, also develop a networking impeergroup with the like minded peers that are
in nonprofit profit space, and thenalso started formally our travel schedule for the
fall. Because of the pandemic,the educators and folks that have been a
local champions, there have been alot of changes to the pandemic. A

(01:07):
lot of people retired so are movedon, and so what we're doing this
year this fall is going out toreestablish some of those relationships, see who's
new out there, and find somenew friends and kind of build on from
there. I love that, andI know everybody is so busy with work
these days, but about personally,what are you up to personally? Just
trying to trying to stay healthy.I think the one thing that pandemic has

(01:30):
really helped out on just to focuson the personal wellness and mental illness,
and that's requires some type of exerciseof activity, even though we were kind
of confined, but just learning howto eat better, develop some positive lifestyle
habit things, you know, eatingwell, working out regularly, and just
trying to stay healthy and stay competitive. And to my point about how busy

(01:53):
we are and trying to do anythingpersonally with friends, family, or just
having some downtime, I know volunteeringis also very important. You what are
you doing for volunteering lately? Well, A lot of volunteering is a lot
of efforts that I already do withRSI kind of details in it, you
know, being part of the WestWest Point Field Force where you go out
here and be representative for the UnitedStates Military Academy in our area helping out

(02:15):
through that process. Also a careerTechnical Education chair for my ALBA Mada Petersburg
High School, so developing different pathwaysfor kids to post high school graduation from
there. And then just you knowwhat, other activities, whether it's Prince
George's County Maryland j RTC get involvedthere. And I've spent a lot of

(02:38):
time on my alma made as aBoard of Visitors member for Virginia Military Institute,
so that consumed a lot of timeas well for volunteering. Well that
leads me into my next thing aboutyour story, and you have such a
very cool story. You've served.Thank you for your service, and I
know the military and being post militaryvery important to you. So I wanted
you to talk about a couple ofthings when it comes to your personal and

(02:59):
professional journey and where you are todayand why do we start with being a
nonprofit executive and what that like andyour story. Well, it's kind of
an interesting journey because I didn't Imean, I grew up. You know,
if you can imagine a two yearold little boy going to an air
show and you know, staring atthe aircraft and the mom is tugging him
trying to get to, you know, a better vantage point to see the

(03:19):
aircraft or just get into the shade. And I was a kid, so
I knew very early on in lifewhat I wanted to do, and I
was to become a pilot. AndI was very fortunate to achieve that.
Going on to the Virginia Military Institute, graduating, I was commissioning in Nited
States Army as aviation officer, wentthrough flight training and ended up being an
uh sist Black Hawt Palette and lateron multifunctional logistician and serve for twenty four

(03:43):
years total, you know, forwhile In's college and the National Guard of
Army Reserves, but twenty years atthe duty service and did the whole you
know, CIS deployments, you know, been to about thirty five countries,
learned to speak five languages. Butwhen I got to my last duty assignment
here and our nation's capital here inWashington, d C. Assigned to the
Pentagon, I started getting more involved, you know, and figured out that

(04:05):
my childhood dream was uh, youknow, aviation, but what my real
passion was, you know, wasactually helping kids and then tying that to
military service where I can continue toserve that A lot of my passion for
helping kids came from my mother,uh missus uh Miss Alice de Lanier,
who since passed, professionally known asMiss Peaches, and she was the type

(04:29):
of person that everybody in the neighborhoodknew or she took care of kids and
she always thought of, you know, had this phrase to take you think
about the children, and that kindof resonate me. Resonated with me a
little bit later in life as Imet, uh the former Chairman of the
Joint Chief of Staff, Admiral MikeMullen, and then later the Army Chief
of Staff, you know, GeneralRay Ordinario, who since passed, and

(04:51):
these were key leaders at d Dlevel, and they talked, went to
a couple of conventions and met themthere and they looked at us in the
audience, and each one of them. These were separate events that they say,
hey, you know we're gonna beretiring, we're the old guys,
and that you votes out there.And I was a senior captain about depend
on major at the time, sayyou're going to be the future leaders and

(05:12):
it's you know, driving diversity,driving you know, creating future leaders.
And for some reason that kind ofresonated with me. And then, you
know, a little bit later,I had an opportunity where I got asked
by the super former superintendent of vm I uh General Ben for p and
he you know, I asked himthey had some problems with recruiting, retaining,
graduating and commissioned African American males,and I asked them specifically, Hey,

(05:35):
how can I how can I helpout? And you know, from
there, it started off helping outvm MY and at recruiting efforts, but
working at d D, I gotto see it from a much more strategic
level. And when I was workingin a community, I started realizing that
it wasn't just about v m I, but if I could help kids period,
uh getting to serve on that trackwhich traditionally for African Americans, you

(05:59):
know, that was a way toget for a lot of folks to get
into the middle class. It juststarted making sense. So for every kid
that I would get into vm I, I will find two the five kids
that would go to the service Academyor go to a historically back college university
like Virginia State of Hampton University andthe more kids that I helped, basically,
the more people would help me findkids that would be a betefit for
VMI, and it just kind ofgrew from there. Sean, you mentioned

(06:23):
a couple of people in the military, and I'm curious any other heroes that
come to mind that are really importantto you and gave you words of wisdom
or maybe a life lesson that wasvery important to you to where you are
now. Aside from my grandmother,missus Peaches MS Peaches, we had a
lot of I mean, I grewup in Petersburg, Virginia, so we
had a We hear stuff now say, well they're looking for recruiting black male

(06:46):
teachers, but we had black maleteachers. We also had white teachers.
But the consistency between all of them, these are folks who cared about us
as kids and were consistently president intheir lives when you know, not around
your parents. You know, whenI think about my gr tc O Sargeant
Major Jack Frost, who was anArmy Special Forces Vietnam era you know,
Ranger Green Break, and then hehad Lieutenant Colonel Cyril Archibald Hawkins who went

(07:12):
to UVA to get his PhD.While he was a g RTC instructor but
later become the assistant principal and principle. So there were a lot of people
that, you know, we didn'tdeemed them as heroes. These were just
you know, the folks that werethere, you know, kind of with
their you know, not with theirnear on a net, but you know
it was kind of kicking us ina handpots and we needed, gave us
a hug and needed but they werealways optimistic about our future and our ability

(07:36):
to contribute to a better society.So those folks were just like, I
say, a different breed of cat, but they were just consistently present.
Whether they were there when we gotoff the bus to school, or they
were there to see us off onthe activity bus when we went home.
They were just there. We're hereto talk a lot about resolved solutions or
RSI, and we'll use that asour acronym and make it a little bit

(07:58):
easier on me today. But whenwhen it comes to that, and you've
already talked about some of the studentsthat you work with, so when it
comes to some of the underrepresentative studentswith college prep and financial support, what
are some of the projects and successstories that you would like to talk about
today. Well, the biggest thingthat I'm pretty proud of right now is

(08:18):
that we've helped over five hundred andfifty kids from twenty three states to earn
about sixty one million dollars in offersthat's oll TC scholarships and or service academy
apointments to the schools, the schoolsof their choices. And when you look
at that, you know, we'reextremely proud of those individual success stories,
like you know, doctor Bethany KingWhite who just graduated from West Virginia University

(08:39):
Dental School, president of her class, and now she's in her residency back
home and Bonds of Course Hospital inRichmond, Virginia. But then that's the
present. But then you look atthe future. We have Mss Tiana Firston,
who's a rising senior at Ohio StateUniversity and she's you know, going
to summer campus summer UH, you'reready to take her MCATs and looking at

(09:03):
going to medical school, so thatpipeline is continuing. Or the you know
Jonathan Gray who is from Stafford,Virginia, who graduated undergrad he'll start Penn
State Law UH this fall. Andthen you know, of course as a
former aviator myself. You know,I have seven kids that got pilot slots.
You know, you got Jasmine Hallwho just graduated from the Air Force
Academy, Nate Yinges who is actuallyat Fort Rucker, Alabama right now,

(09:28):
and Jasmin went to the Air ForceAcademy. Nate went to Virginia Common With
University. Or Jordan Washington who wentto i U p I and then a
university in Pennsylvania. He's in fightschool and just completed his Nickel ride,
which is his first flight. UhHu Gupta who's a Virginia Tech grad who's
down in Pensacola, Florida, Floridachasing the his aviation, his the Wings

(09:50):
of Gold, the Naval aviators callit that. He started his flight training.
But then we had Sarahbella Marsh whojust graduated in May and she started
getting the pipeline. You know,Scott Hayes who went into the Air Force.
And then Jordan Williams who graduated fromEast Carolina University several years ago and
he's actually out now flying show calicoptersat Fort Bragg and working on his pilot

(10:13):
and command. So when you lookat the evolution and the pipeline where we've
been you know, started from andwhere we're at now, where we have
kids that have gone through I shouldn'tcall him kids, but students that have
gone through become commissioned officers are nowserving. But more important, you have
a fresh new croper students is comingin behind them, and those kids become
role models. So for us atthis point, the biggest thing, you

(10:37):
know, it's not just proud ofthat, but we're constantly asking ourselves,
how can we get better? Youknow, how can we you know,
could we have sent Jonathan Gray overseasto get language immersion and training so when
he goes to law school? Andhow do we you know, Jasmine Hall,
she was from Prince George County,Maryland and she susassinated Air Force Academy.
But she she had some struggles andshe would have admit that. And

(11:01):
but you know it was there stuffthat we could have done to prepare her
better for those transition. Or anotheryoung lady that Holliday Japo who's working her
master's right now and then she'll beapplying to go to medical school. But
was there could we have raised enoughmoney to send her to summer school before
and after the freshman year, soshe you know, got her academic confidence

(11:22):
up sooner because she you know,started off his struggle. But she came
off like a freight train in herjunior senior year. But what if we
had the funding to send her tosummer school before her freshman year, so
she would have come on like gamebustersher sophomore year or freshman year. So
those are the things that we're extremelyproud of, but we're this is this
huge desire for us to get betterand refine our model. Well, Sean,

(11:45):
I can see why you're proud.What you're doing for all these young
men and women is extraordinary. AndI know you have a team of people
that you work with too, butit's absolutely amazing what you're doing. And
I did want to talk a littlebit about the ROTC and a couple of
points, and maybe you could explainthe program for a listener of what it
is to those in the audience thatmight not be familiar with it. Well
for the audience out there, RTCis simply the Reserve Officer Training Corps.

(12:09):
It started about after World War Oneas a group of college and universities that
officer offers officer training UH to fillour ranks to the United States r M
forces. So essentially it's like acollege class. It's not about going out
to the woods and you know,you know, there's a little bit of
that. You go out to acouple of field training. THATTIONCIES has another
two training, but eighty percent ofthe coursework is about leadership and that's what

(12:31):
we try to explain the kids that, you know, even if you want
to be a doctor, a lawyer, or palot, ultimately, at the
end of the day, you gotto be a leader. You know,
someone has to be in charge andirresponsible, so it might as well be
you. But the RTC is thelargest commissioned source of officers in d D.
About fifty six percent of the officersthat come out come from ROTC,
about another twenty five percent from theservice academies, and then there's some other

(12:54):
programs like Direct commission and Officer CandidateSchool. So but our CC is the
largest producer of officers in DD.So speaking of that, I'm glad you
brought out the Department of Defense Andfor people don't know, an extraordinary amount
of money is spent about seven hundredand fifty million on ROTC scholarships. But

(13:15):
I'm to understand that there's only afifty two success rate, Sean, why
is that? Well, the fiftypercent success rate, that's largely the Army,
but they're the largest scholarship provider.Their budget is around nearly four hundred
million dollars a year, and alot of that is based off of when
I define success asss as a studentthat gets an RTC scholarship out of high

(13:39):
school, that goes to college,actually graduates college and becomes a commission officer.
And a lot of that of successrate at forty percent failure rate is
you know, is like a mentorshipand like a like a wraparound support from
there, you have some kids thatyou know, medically disqualified or make it
an injury from it as a partof it. That lack of mentorship is

(14:01):
huge, the lack of support,and that's also financial. RTC scholarships cover
are not full rise. They coveredfor tuition, uh tuition fees, room
and board. It's some book coststhose type. I mean, it doesn't
pay for room and board. Sodepending on the school and the cost of
the schools, some schools costs ofroom and board. It sees the costs

(14:22):
of you know, in state schoolfor tuition. But what we try to
emphasize for kids ideally we prefer thekids to go to the students to go
to the school of their choice,not uh, that's the best fit for
them, not who offers the mostmoney. Doesn't always work out that way,
but typically where it's the best fit, they're going to have the most
successful Sometimes those those costs can bea challenge and create an additional what we

(14:46):
call environmental factor or stressor UH thatcontribute to that failure rate Sean, can
you tell us about the process thatr SI is established to help unrepresented students
including mentorship, SAT A c Twhich my kids been through so that's grueling
in itself and the improvement in thatarea, language immersion and summer bridgers.

(15:07):
So many different categories, but canyou tell us about the process. Our
sides really are really small and helpingto grow. We have about four part
time and employees. We like togrow that to about for full time and
seven part time members, but wedepend on largely on volunteers and volunteers that
you know, coaches that we've metto you, RTC instructors that we met

(15:31):
UH superintendents, you know, folkswho have assets to kids, and what
they do is identify the kids whohave a certain amount of great potential,
sometimes potential that they don't see inthemselves. So we help them, you
know, working with the with thestudent, UH, with the parents and
also that local champion to make surethat they know they're taking the SAT on
time. They know the requirements foreach individual branch of service so they're competitive

(15:54):
for that UH for that scholarship,and then once they get to the RTC
scholarship, we try to connect themwith some type of mentor and organization.
There's several mentoring organizations professional mentor organizationsthat are aligned with each branch of service.
You know the ROTS Incorporated, whichis aligned with the Army, the
In and a Way which is alignedwith the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast

(16:17):
Guard, and an Air Force fCOMA which is aligned with the which is
the Air Force. KIT offers amentoring association which is lined to the Air
Force. So partnering the student,the parent with folks that have served and
been there, done that, understandingthat they're only about two percent of our
nation is served as critical to bridgingthat gap. Then What we also do

(16:40):
is about eighty six percent of ourfunding is focused on retention and improving the
graduation rates. So we try toraise funds to provide funding to go to
some type of summer bridging program wherestudent gets on campus before the freshman year,
takes three six credit hours, becausewe've noticed that there's about an eighty
two percent retention rate. You geta kid on campus, start some type

(17:02):
of summer bridging program, get theiracademic confidence up, build a relationship with
the Falconty member, meet some localalumnis so it's an easier transition when they
come back in the fall. Thenafter the freshman year, because most kids
cannot get an internship by their freshmanyear because they simply haven't gotten enough college
credits, we prefer for this doayon campus, take an additional three to
six credit hours, and if theyhave a two point five GPA or better,

(17:26):
we prefer for them to go toa country the choices some type of
language immersion opportunity, and what thatdoes is provide an additional six to nine
credit hours in addition that helps thembe much more competitive for internships after their
sophomore year and junior year. Andthen ultimately assessed because if you talk to
a student and say, hey,I'm interested in doing cyber and they say,

(17:48):
well, why, well, Isaw this commercial on TV where there
was this young lady and her momand yeah, my heart teared up and
that was great. It works outa little bit better if you know,
major in the computer science or ITsomething like that, did well academically after
freshman year, then maybe you goto China and you know, to do

(18:08):
a language merging program in China.Then after your sophomore year you get an
internship. It's a Hilton Worldwide workingon cybersecurity for a national hotel change or
international hotel chain. Then after youryou know, sophomore year, your military
training and junior year, you goto another internship at a Fortune five hundred
company or something along those lines,or even back back at home with the

(18:32):
locale of the local companies or onyour university. So when you get assessed
by the military, they can seethat you, you know, majored in
IT or computer science, you've beenoverseas, guess a language emerging experience,
and you've done a variety of jobs, and that you're comfortable doing it.
So ultimately, at the end ofthe days about showcasing the kids talent and

(18:52):
making sure that they're well versus possible. Well, Sean, that kind of
is a great segue into my nextquestion about what would you say to anyone
and who's interested in being involved inresolve solutions and how they can make an
impact in their own special way.Well, again, for us, it
really depends on what what what theindividual giver or donor U is passionate about

(19:15):
and how they make you know,So we what we consider ourselves is that
there's a collaboration of private funding,you know, small donors, large donors,
public funding you know, grants,donory advised funds, corporate sponsors,
academic partnerships, dal D relationships,government UH and then also high network individuals.

(19:37):
So a lot of those, allof those folks have different passions,
of different interests and different abilities togive at their level. So if they
just reach out to us, youknow, through our website website Resource solutions
dot org or email me directly atE. S. Sean Lanier E S.
E. A. N. Lanierat result solutions dot org and drop
us a note and let us knowwhat you're interested. We can start the

(19:59):
discussion from there. Because no donationis too small, and I haven't met
I found the donation is too large. But let's have that conversation, because
if you look at the entire process, there's funding opportunities and sponsorship opportunities.
Is sponsoring individual kids with summer schoollanguage emerging programs. Obviously we're sending the
kids overseas. You know, you'dlove to have corporate sponsors to provide a

(20:19):
kit for them to standardize a uniformor you know, provided iPad or some
type of that're trying to k equipmentsso they can record the session to interviews
and streamline their experiences overseas. Alsogiving kids two different opportunities for internships,
you know, being able to providefunding for them if necessary. It's one

(20:41):
thing to get an internship, isanother thing to have living expenses that's often
not associated with internships. So youknow, there's a whole host of range
of ranges that people can get involved. So I just recommend just reach out
to us and just have that conversation. Sean, I think we've done a
great job, especially you about talkingabout RSI, but I'm just curious,
I'm sure for our listeners to you, what is next for resolved solutions.

(21:02):
What's coming up. The biggest thingright now is is recruitment, staffing,
and fundraising and in my own personaldevelopment. When I say recruitment, we
spoke about that earlier, just goingout here beat you know, beat the
streets and develop some new relationships andnew sources and they have kids and assets.
We like to grow our staffing fromfour part times to four full time

(21:26):
positions. The seventh part time becauseour goal is to get up to about
five hundred kids per year that's aboutforty million dollars and offer us angling.
So we like to tell those storiesand highlight those how to look those individual
stories of growth. Like I mentionedbefore, kids going through fight school and
doing their training and going overseas.We're continuously fundraising. And then also you

(21:47):
know, on the personal side withthis, I spoke about the Masters and
not to day. But my ultimategoal is to do and pursue my doctorate.
There's a program at the University ofPennsylvania that I'm interested in competing for.
But we have enough kids that wecan actually do a study and look
at and do a quantitative and qualitativestudy on how we can be more effective.

(22:08):
And I think that ultimately that willhelp serve Doo d In much better
and kind of say, hey,look, you know we have this process.
We can provide value addit by savingand also saving task payer and then
produce more well rounded officers. Andwe're not expecting kids to go out here
to be the Nase Colin Powell orSecretary Law at Austin. We do expect
them to go out graduating on time, not waste our test period dollars,

(22:30):
and become future leaders. And whetherthat's serving for twenty years or doing it
three to four year commitment and comingback to the communities and being you know
and contributors leaders in the community oras entrepreneurs, I think that's what we're
really aiming after. Outstanding well Sean, as we wrap up and put a
bow and everything, I always liketo ask all of our leaders out there
about how do you define success asa leader? How do you do that?

(22:53):
I think when I define successes whenI see my childhood dream is a
fly. So when I get atest message of like Jordan Washington and flight
school going to his first his firstflight, and I'm probably more giddy than
he is about flying for twenty yearsfrom now where you know you're looking on

(23:15):
CNN. We may be deployed somewhereand you may see a kid as a
leader of doing an interview a CNNor FoST News or something like that,
and you know that's a kid thatyou know. So I'm you know,
I noted our nation of being ingreat hands because we continue to be a
part of developing great leaders. Sean. I can't tell you how much I
appreciate your time and thank you somuch for joining us on CEOs. You

(23:36):
should know, Hey, thank youso much Jennis for having me. Kevin.
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(23:56):
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