First Served

Alumna Lorna Mahlock becomes the U.S. Marine Corps’ first Black woman to lead as brigadier general

Marquette University
We Are Marquette
3 min readSep 7, 2021

By Lauren Sieben

Lorna Mahlock arrived in the United States from Jamaica in 1985 at 17 years old. Just three months later, she enlisted in the Marine Corps.

Her older brother had been thinking about enlisting, but he decided the process sounded too difficult. “So I said OK, let me go talk to the recruiter,” Mahlock says.

That tenacity took Mahlock from enlisted Marine to commissioned officer. Today, she serves as brigadier general; she became the first Black woman promoted to the position in 2018.

During Mahlock’s decades-long military career, she has worked as an air command and control officer around the world, directed the Marine Corps Instructional Management School and earned multiple master’s degrees. Mahlock earned her bachelor’s degree in broadcast and electronic communication at Marquette in 1991 before becoming an officer.

“I went to an all-girls Catholic school in the Caribbean, and then coming to the Jesuit construct was very helpful to me,” Mahlock says. “The professors at the NROTC unit at Marquette really embraced the idea that in order to make folks better, you had to know their story, meet them where they were and help them on the journey.”

Over the years, Mahlock has witnessed major changes for women in the Marines: Up until 2016, women were barred from serving in combat.

“I’ve seen that barrier lifted in my career,” Mahlock says. “We’ve got women flying strike aircraft, women in the infantry and artillery and tanks. … Regardless of where you’re from or your color, gender or ethnicity, we’re just trying to figure out how to build the best fighting force.”

Today, Mahlock serves as the director of the Information, Command, Control, Communications and Computers Division, and deputy commandant for information leading the Office of the Chief Information Officer for the Marine Corps. She oversees the organization’s servers and IT equipment at bases around the world, and she is at the helm of tactical communications systems, IT compliance and cybersecurity missions.

Those behind-the-scenes systems are crucial for Marine Corps operations.

“Our reason for existing is to enable command and control and information technology that will help Marines be successful in their missions,” she says. “There are Marines going in harm’s way across the globe, so quite frankly, there is no other option here but success.”

Mahlock says she is inspired by young Marines and her conviction that “Ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they’re part of a team.”

“Every day I meet young people who reverse mentor me,” Mahlock says. “I want to help ensure that the bright young Marine with the best idea has a voice, an opportunity or a seat at the table.”

The views presented by Brig. Gen. Lorna Mahlock, USMC, are hers alone and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Department of Defense or any of its components, nor do they represent an endorsement of the Diederich College of Communication.

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