Texas Lottery Veteran Recognition: Molly Mae Potter

Since she concluded active duty in 2013 as an Air Force captain and flight test engineer, Molly Mae Potter has continued to rise as a unifying leader committed to solving problems and enhancing systematic value in service to others. Potter has grown into a national advocate and voice for veterans.

Through her work during 2016-18 with the Veterans Commission in Austin, Texas, Potter connected communities, raised awareness and identified resources and solutions for improved veteran healthcare and professional transition services. In 2016, Potter was selected as Ms. Veteran America, and she translated that honor into a platform to involve more women veterans in community decision-making, as well as to identify root causes for the growing number of women veterans who are homeless.

Molly Mae Potter

Potter champions veteran-led coalitions to advance policy change and address mental health stigma and displacement crises that affect so many.

"Veterans are glue for bringing people together," Potter said. "We all start at the same place in the military, and we know how to solve some of the hardest things by working together. Politics is not what this is about. It's about focusing on a mission and what we can accomplish for the greater good with threads of selflessness."

Ironically, this was never part of Potter's plan. She joined the Air Force primarily because she wanted to become an astronaut.

The daughter of two Army nurses who served during Vietnam, Potter grew up drawn to community service and giving back. She was in high school when the September 11 terrorist attacks occurred, and said she knew at that time she wanted to continue her service in the military. She initially earned an ROTC scholarship but did not finish the program. After studying engineering and physics in college, she entered Air Force Officer Training School in 2007.

Molly Mae Potter

As a flight test engineer, Potter was the designer and driver for flight test programs on high performance aircraft. Her primary role was the conductor of large-scale test programs that tested and simulated the performance of new technology on aircraft and tactics in a mock war environment. Developing and directing state-of-the-art tests for the world's best test pilots, Potter was usually the only woman in her flight environment.

"I felt that I had to be 10 times better to be seen as average," Potter said.

If a flight test failed, all blame went to the engineer, so Potter developed a resilient mindset and confidence, guided by the notion, "What would you achieve if you could not fail?"

In 2010, because of her demonstrated expert ability and resolve under pressure, Potter was asked to serve on a special mission in Afghanistan with the Joint Special Operations Command to solve some difficult technology challenges. Potter's team encountered an explosion during the mission, and she sustained a traumatic brain injury.

"At that point, I lost the moon," Potter said of realizing her dream of becoming an astronaut was no longer possible.

She continued active duty for three more years, yet navigated post-traumatic stress and other health issues that significantly impacted her quality of life. Potter was honorably discharged in 2013 with a service dog at her side.

Potter describes the next few months as "deflating" and "defeating," as she could not find comparable civilian employment and was working for an hourly wage at a running shoe store. She decided to pursue a doctoral program in Colorado, when she got a call from Dell Technologies, which found her resume online and asked if Potter would consider working as a test manager. She relocated to Austin, and yet experienced cubicle life as a strange new reality compared to fighter jets and Navy Seals operations. She reached out to local veterans groups for community and to share common experiences, and thus began her journey into public policy and advocacy, and ultimately the reclaiming of her passion and purpose.

"If I had become an astronaut, I would have been looking down on Earth and disconnected from those life experiences," Potter said. "My life did change, and ultimately it is what allowed me to be a voice for veterans."

Thanks to the Texas Lottery, great things are happening all across Texas. The Texas Lottery now consistently contributes more than $1.6 billion of lottery revenue each year to good causes like public education and veterans' assistance programs. Beginning with the first veterans' dedicated scratch ticket game in 2009, the Texas Lottery has now contributed over $194 million to the Fund for Veterans' Assistance.

Since 1992, the Texas Lottery has generated more than $35 billion in revenue for the state of Texas. Through strict adherence to their vision, mission and core values, the Texas Lottery is dedicated to ensuring that this support continues.

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Texas Lottery Veteran Recognition: Molly Mae Potter