Ms. Polson served as one of the first women to fly the Apache helicopter in the U.S. Army. In addition to her military service, she earned her MBA at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and spent five years leading and managing in the corporate sector, at Guidant and Microsoft. She is the founder of the Grit Institute and speaks frequently on topics related to leadership, courage, resilience, and grit. Her book, The Grit Factor: Courage, Resilience, and Leadership in the most Male-Dominated Organization in the World (Harvard Business Review Press), is forthcoming in September 2020.