Spc. Lisa Crawford - A woman in a military uniform in front of an american flag

Specialist Lisa JoDean Crawford serves as the editor for the Prairie Soldier, the joint newspaper of the Nebraska Air and Army National Guard. She was born in Norfolk, Virginia, and moved multiple times during her youth, until her father officially retired from the Army and settled down in LaVista, Nebraska. She is a 2005 graduate of Papillion-LaVista High School, Papillion, Nebraska.
Crawford earned her bachelor’s degree in English with an emphasis in journalism, a minor in literature and a minor in French from Missouri Western State University in 2010. While earning her degree, she served as Editor-in-Chief of the university’s newspaper The Griffon News. After graduation, she was hired as a general assignment reporter for the St. Joseph News-Press in St. Joseph, Missouri. A year later she moved back to Nebraska to be closer to family where she worked the next five years as a Marketing Communications Specialist for Securities America Inc., an independent broker-dealer.
Crawford enlisted in the Nebraska Army National Guard in October 2014 at age 27, and completed basic combat training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, the summer of 2015. She completed her advanced individual training at the Defense Information School at Fort Meade, Maryland, as the course’s distinguished honor graduate. While completing AIT, she served as a platoon guide and a student officer at the Army’s student detachment.
As a traditional Guard Soldier, Crawford is currently assigned as a broadcast communications specialist in the Nebraska Army National Guard’s 111th Public Affairs Detachment in Lincoln, Nebraska. Her work has been published in the Nebraska National Guard’s newspaper The Prairie Soldier and the National Guard, the official publication of the National Guard Association of the United States.
Crawford served active duty state orders starting July 2016 working as a photojournalist for the Nebraska National Guard Public Affairs Office, before being officially hired as a full-time federal technician. In this position, she contributes photographs and stories, designs and edits the Prairie Soldier Newspaper. Crawford also manages the Nebraska National Guard’s official social media channels and shoots, produces and edits videos at the request of the Nebraska National Guard’s Command Team.
Crawford has covered a variety of different stories including annual training events, marksmanship competitions, changes of command, officer and warrant officer graduations, and send-off ceremonies for Nebraska National Guard units deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan. She participated in an overseas training exercise, providing public affairs support for the first phase of U.S. Southern Command’s Tradewinds 2016 on the island of Grenada, West Indies. She also accompanied the mobilization of 100 Soldiers for a hurricane relief and recovery mission to Florida in 2017.
An avid runner, Crawford volunteers with and participates in charity races year round and is a member the Greater Omaha Area Trail Runners and Team Red, White and Blue. She is an active member of Lions Clubs International and the Nebraska chapter of the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States. She is also a member of the Association of the United States Army and the Historical Army Foundation.
She resides in Lincoln, Nebraska with her husband, and is currently completing two a master’s degree in professional journalism from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.
(Official U.S. Army photo)