Shoot Like a Girl
One Woman’s Dramatic Fight in Afghanistan and on the Home Front
Lavin Exclusive Speaker
Major MJ Hegar is a force to be reckoned with. While piloting her third tour of Afghanistan, she was shot down. Badly injured, and under heavy fire, she still flew her team to safety, conducting a near-impossible landing. She received a Purple Heart and a Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor, an honor awarded to only a handful of women. When her injuries barred her from service, she fought a policy that excluded women—a historic victory for female military members. An incredible story—set to be a major motion picture—Hegar’s bravery inspires audiences to persevere through change, hardship, and any obstacles in their way.
In 2018, Hegar ran for Congress in Texas, and struck a meaningful chord across the nation. Beautifully depicted in her moving and wildly-viral campaign video, “Doors”—which Lin-Manuel Miranda called “the best political ad anyone’s ever seen”—Hegar told her story “about opening, pushing, and sometimes kicking through every door in my way.” In electrifying keynotes, she discusses the importance of teamwork as well as individual advocacy, highlighting the doors that each of us have in our paths—and how to open, push, or kick your way through. Hegar’s bestselling memoir, Shoot Like A Girl, is currently being adapted to a major motion picture.
Hegar has worked as a medical consultant, mentored cadets, and serves on the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps Advisory Committee. She is on the Board of Directors at the Texas Advocacy Project, an organization that provides legal representation and advocacy for victims of domestic abuse. Hegar has taught at the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business, as well as at UT in the ROTC and Women’s Studies Departments. In 2015, she was inducted into the Army Women’s Foundation Hall of Fame, and in 2013, was named a Leading Global Thinker by Foreign Policy.