About
Kayla M. Williams is an author, veteran, and advocate. She was most recently a Senior Policy Researcher at RAND, where she focused on military personnel and veterans’ policy. Ms. Williams previously served as Assistant Secretary of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), where she was formerly Director of the Center for Women Veterans. Kayla was also a Senior Fellow and Director of the Military, Veterans, and Society Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Ms. Williams was enlisted for five years as an Arabic linguist, serving in a Military Intelligence company of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). She authored the memoirs Love My Rifle More Than You and Plenty of Time When We Get Home, published by W.W. Norton. Kayla graduated cum laude with a BA in English Literature from Bowling Green State University and earned an MA in International Affairs from American University. She is a former member of the Department of Labor Advisory Committee on Veterans Employment, Training, and Employer Outreach; the VA Advisory Committee on Women Veterans; and the Army Education Advisory Committee; a 2013 White House Woman Veteran Champion of Change; and recipient of the 2020 Student Veterans of America Distinguished Public Service award.
Featured Work
Love My Rifle More Than You: Young and Female in the US Army
Kayla Williams is one of the 15 percent of the U.S. Army that is female, and she is a great storyteller. With a voice that is “funny, frank and full of gritty details” (New York Daily News), she tells of enlisting under Clinton; of learning Arabic; of the sense of duty that fractured her relationships; of being surrounded by bravery and bigotry, sexism and fear; of seeing 9/11 on Al-Jazeera; and of knowing she would be going to war.
With a passion that makes her memoir “nearly impossible to put down” (Buffalo News) Williams shares the powerful gamut of her experiences in Iraq, from caring for a wounded civilian to aiming a rifle at a child. Angry at the bureaucracy and the conflicting messages of today’s military, Williams offers us “a raw, unadulterated look at war” (San Antonio Express News) and at the U.S. Army. And she gives us a woman’s story of empowerment and self-discovery.
Other Works
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Plenty of Time When We Get Home: Love and Recovery in the Aftermath of War
2014
