Major Angela Salinas

When Angela Salinas took over as CEO of the Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas in 2015, she was uniquely qualified to serve as a role model for girls and young women, inspiring them to be leaders and serve their country and communities. Not only was the Texas native of Mexican ancestry once a Girl Scout herself, but in 2006 she became the first Hispanic female brigadier general in the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) before being promoted to major general in 2010. When Salinas retired in 2013 after a 39-year career in the military, she was the highest-ranking woman in the USMC. “Serving in the Marines ignited in me a passion for wanting to do something greater than myself. And that was the foundation for the next 39 years of my life,” she told PBS. As of August 2022, Salinas is also a member of the Veterans Justice Commission, an initiative by the Council on Criminal Justice to examine why so many military veterans end up in the criminal justice system.