My Why: Lisa Lannon

Described as a “protector with compassion”, Lisa has a bold passion in building businesses and providing world class healing environments for our nation’s warriors struggling with addiction and co-occurring disorders such as PTSD, moral injury, grief and mild psychological effects of TBI.

She leads Warriors Heart’s public relations campaigns, advises on human resources and insurance billing and is active in the operations of the company. She has worked on getting the team and Warriors Heart featured in People Magazine, A&E Intervention, MTV, USA Today, Fox News, The Today Show, Dr. Drew, Psychology Today, Black Rifle Coffee and many other media outlets. Warriors Heart has been chosen for 4 years in a row as one of the 100 Top Impact companies in the US by Real Leaders magazine.

Lisa is a former commissioned Law Enforcement Officer for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, where she was on the frontline to addiction and crime. She is the granddaughter of a WWII Veteran and the daughter of a Vietnam Veteran and Deputy Sheriff.

Lisa has been interviewed on Fox News, PBS, AZ Family, CBS News, among many other media outlets & has written for many different print media.

She is the Founder of Brooke Property Management with an investment portfolio including residential real estate, apartment complexes, hotels & commercial buildings.

Lisa and Josh have been inseparable since 1995 and are proud parents of two amazing young adults. Lisa and Josh have dedicated themselves to building a business that makes sense and addresses social problems.

My Why:

I am committed to doing what I love and loving what I do. To follow my why.

Why am I so passionate about assisting our Warriors in healing from addiction and PTSD?
Looking back and connecting the dots, like in Steve Jobs’ commencement speech to Stanford University in 2005, was easy. I didn’t have to look very far.

Sometimes we know our path and other times we get to look back to see if we are on the right track. Looking back also is key when healing from PTSD and addiction. We know the pain, the trauma and this is one way in clearing it so we can move forward.

My grandfather, Clint, was a WWII Army Veteran. He served in the South Pacific for 3 years earning the American Defense Ribbon with Star, 5 Oversees Service Bars and 2 Bronze Stars. After the military, he was Postmaster for the local Post Office, served as Commander and Quartermaster of the VFW, was a member of the Masonic Lodge and President of the Mitchell’s Shriners Club.

My father, Larry, is a Vietnam Army Veteran. He met my mom, who is Vietnamese, while serving in Saigon (now called Ho Chi Minh City). She was an interpreter working in the Army Command Office. I am a product of the war.

Both my grandfather and father struggled from PTSD and drinking. Neither talked about the war with the family.

My family has said my dad never came back the same. He was and is a loving, caring father. He went into Law Enforcement and was a Deputy Sheriff during my childhood and early adult life. I only noticed that he drank too much growing up. Occasionally I can ask him a question about Vietnam and he will give me a short answer, usually a sentence or two. And while I would love to know more, I also understand he is not ready to talk about it, although the last year or so, the answers have been longer, including his being on the front lines during the Tet Offensive.

During my first year in college, I almost left and joined the Army. I took all the tests and spent hours with the recruiters, it felt natural to me. My test scores were high and I wanted to go into human intelligence. Both my parents, based on their experiences with war, discouraged me and said to finish college first and then if I chose to still go into the Army, to do it then.

I ended up getting my degree in Criminal Justice and joining the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department as an officer. I am a Warrior and Protector at heart; it’s who I am. I’ve had my own incidences that I have had to heal from.

When Josh, Tom and I decided back in 2013 to open a facility for Warriors, I was excited to be back in the space of “my tribe”. Josh and I had addiction facilities since 2002 and sold those in late 2013 to solely focus on Warriors Heart.

I love healing families and serving all that deal with addiction but when we had Vets and LEO’s come into the former facilities I saw it was harder for them to relate with the group on a peer to peer level. So expanding to another facility was our natural next step as Josh is a Warrior at heart too.

Selling the other facilities gave us the great opportunity to really focus on building exactly what our Warriors deserve. We were also able to start building a great team of other Warriors that we may not have met if we just expanded. The relationships, networking and teams are remarkable.

I am passionate about this Mission. When I hear the stats of 22 Veterans commit suicide a day and 1 Law Enforcement Officer (including Corrections and Firefighters) commits suicide every 17 hours, I know something has to be done. I have known some of these Warriors and their families and it’s heartbreaking. It also angers me that the government does not have the capacity to assist them quicker.

The Warrior in me comes out to protect them, to serve them as they have served us. To be back on the front lines in a different capacity, is an honor.

So looking back and connecting the dots was easy, coming from a line of military and law enforcement, It’s MY WHY.

My grandfather, Clint, was a WWII Army Veteran. He served in the South Pacific for 3 years earning the American Defense Ribbon with Star, 5 Oversees Service Bars and 2 Bronze Stars. After the military, he was Postmaster for the local Post Office, served as Commander and Quartermaster of the VFW, was a member of the Masonic Lodge and President of the Mitchell’s Shriners Club.

My father, Larry, is a Vietnam Army Veteran. He met my mom, who is Vietnamese, while serving in Saigon (now called Ho Chi Minh City). She was an interpreter working in the Army Command Office. I am a product of the war.

Both my grandfather and father struggled from PTSD and drinking. Neither talked about the war with the family.

My family has said my dad never came back the same. He was and is a loving, caring father. He went into Law Enforcement and was a Deputy Sheriff during my childhood and early adult life. I only noticed that he drank too much growing up. Occasionally I can ask him a question about Vietnam and he will give me a short answer, usually a sentence or two. And while I would love to know more, I also understand he is not ready to talk about it, although the last year or so, the answers have been longer, including his being on the front lines during the Tet Offensive.

During my first year in college, I almost left and joined the Army. I took all the tests and spent hours with the recruiters, it felt natural to me. My test scores were high and I wanted to go into human intelligence. Both my parents, based on their experiences with war, discouraged me and said to finish college first and then if I chose to still go into the Army, to do it then.

I ended up getting my degree in Criminal Justice and joining the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department as an officer. I am a Warrior and Protector at heart; it’s who I am. I’ve had my own incidences that I have had to heal from.

When Josh, Tom and I decided back in 2013 to open a facility for Warriors, I was excited to be back in the space of “my tribe”. Josh and I had addiction facilities since 2002 and sold those in late 2013 to solely focus on Warriors Heart.

I love healing families and serving all that deal with addiction but when we had Vets and LEO’s come into the former facilities I saw it was harder for them to relate with the group on a peer to peer level. So expanding to another facility was our natural next step as Josh is a Warrior at heart too.

Selling the other facilities gave us the great opportunity to really focus on building exactly what our Warriors deserve. We were also able to start building a great team of other Warriors that we may not have met if we just expanded. The relationships, networking and teams are remarkable.

I am passionate about this Mission. When I hear the stats of 22 Veterans commit suicide a day and 1 Law Enforcement Officer (including Corrections and Firefighters) commits suicide every 17 hours, I know something has to be done. I have known some of these Warriors and their families and it’s heartbreaking. It also angers me that the government does not have the capacity to assist them quicker.

The Warrior in me comes out to protect them, to serve them as they have served us. To be back on the front lines in a different capacity, is an honor.

So looking back and connecting the dots was easy, coming from a line of military and law enforcement, It’s MY WHY.

When Josh and I decided back in 2012 to open a facility for Warriors, I was excited to be back in the space of “my tribe”. We had addiction facilities since 2002 and sold those in late 2013, we still knew we would open one for Warriors but got to build a new team since we no longer had the other facilities.

I love healing families and serving all that dealt with addiction but when we had Vets and LEO’s come into the former facilities I saw it was harder for them to relate with the group on a peer to peer level. So expanding to another facility was our natural next step as Josh is a Warrior too. Selling the other ones put this one on a longer delay.

That additional time gave Josh and myself the great opportunity to really focus on building exactly what our Warriors deserve. We were also able to start building a great team of other Warriors that we may not have met if we just expanded. The relationships, networking and teams are remarkable.