Our nation’s Veterans deserve the very best health care and services. TriWest Healthcare Alliance (TriWest) has proudly provided access to health care for our military and Veteran communities since 1996.
To provide that high level of care to its customers, TriWest understands that its employees must believe in and support its mission. Doing “Whatever It Takes!®” is a TriWest motto that resonates throughout the company from the top down. Employees have a deep-rooted desire to go above and beyond for their customers, as many of the TriWest team members are Veterans or military family members themselves, who understand the power of service and what it means to sacrifice.
“Service is who we are. The work we do here is not just about insurance or making appointments. It’s about truly serving our own.” – Angie Martinez, TriWest Behavioral Health Service Representative
TriWest has a long history of hiring Veterans and military family members, and it begins with its strong recruitment and hiring process. When you join the TriWest team, you join others who understand your experiences and are committed to serving our nation’s respected Veterans.
To highlight TriWest’s pledge to hire military-connected people to fulfill its mission, we talked to two TriWest employees, Lakia Brown and Angie Martinez, both of whom are military spouses.
Lakia Brown is married to her high school sweetheart, Airman Dejuan Dompreh. She says, “We’ve been stationed in Alaska for two years now and we enjoy everything this beautiful state has to offer.” Lakia and her husband have definitely taken advantage of their time there.
“Living here we’re closer to places we’ve never been like California and Las Vegas,” she says “In 2020, we drove the Alaska-Canadian highway in the dead of winter, seeing plenty of animals on the way.”
Alongside opportunities for travel and new experiences can come some challenges, too. Both Lakia and Dejuan grew up in Michigan and “feel the distance.” “My husband misses his siblings and I miss my mom, nieces and nephews,” she says.
Finding work that provides you with a purpose, a network of like-minded people, and a sense of service is an important part of making military and Veteran families feel less isolated and more connected. When Lakia was recruited for the job at TriWest, she recalls, “Upon learning my husband was active duty, the CEO of the company thanked my husband for his service and asked all about his job in the Air Force. After that, I could feel the military vibes.”
With a background in customer service, Lakia was a great fit for her role in Contact Center Operations, providing customer service to both Veterans and providers over the phone. She says, “Having a husband who is active duty, and two grandfathers who were airmen and soldiers, I treat each Veteran I speak with the same way I would want someone to speak to my family. I want to ensure our Veterans always get the best care.”
Lakia understands the TriWest motto “Serving Those Who Serve”® and does her best to empathize and provide excellent customer service. Her trainer, also a Veteran, taught her about the importance of a military connection. She reflects on that by saying, “Those who have not experienced the military cannot truly understand what it means to serve your country unless they or someone they love has made the sacrifice.”
Angie Martinez is a Behavioral Health Service Representative at TriWest, and service has always been a part of who she is. Angie’s love of the country and dedication to serve started young. She grew up in a small town in Idaho and as a little girl, she spent time looking through her father’s medals and thinking how cool he was. Angie says, “My dad is a Veteran from the Vietnam War. He was a Marine and didn’t talk about his experiences because they were hard.”
When she met her husband Anthony, she felt extremely lucky to be married to a military man. “But honestly, in the beginning of our marriage, I was really clueless about military life,” she says. Her husband Anthony served as an active duty Reserve soldier for most of their marriage. She notes, “He just retired with 34 years enlisted, 24 of those being active.”
Angie and Anthony have four children and the first three moved around a lot when they were little. “We have moved a total of 15 times in our 18-year marriage,” she says.
Like Lakia, Angie understands the sacrifice that goes into this. “Our family has never lived close to relatives and have spent most holidays away from ‘home’,” she says.
Having children can make this even more challenging. Angie says, “Our kids have struggled with feeling connected to any one place or making friends at school.”
But Angie’s positive spirit doesn’t allow her to dwell on this too much. “The blessing of military life is that you can find ‘family’ wherever you are. We have been blessed to find forever friends in every place we have been,” she says.
When Angie’s husband retired, she wanted to find a way to help supplement their income. She recalls, “I was nervous because I had been a stay-at-home mom for 17 years and out of the workforce for so long, but I was interviewed and hired that same day.”
During the interview, Angie was encouraged to share about her experiences. “I felt comfortable talking about my role as a military spouse and some of the experiences my husband had while deployed,” she says.
In her job as a Behavioral Health Service Representative, Angie gets the opportunity to talk with Veterans directly and help them find providers to see in the community. “It is very rewarding when you know someone is struggling and you are able to get them some help,” she says.
It’s important to Angie that she can speak to the Veterans with honesty because of her background. “I can honestly say from my family to yours, we know of sacrifice, and it is truly sincere, sometimes even with tears in my eyes,” she says.
She appreciates the focus TriWest puts on hiring military-connected individuals and believes it enhances personal connection. “When you hire Veterans and those who understand the life of a military family, you bring back the compassion and relatability to the business,” she emphasizes.
Angie feels her purpose deeply. “Service is who we are. The work we do here is not just about insurance or making appointments. It’s about truly serving our own.”
Check out what employees like Lakia and Angie are talking about. Visit the Careers page on TriWest today.
- Explore current job openings.
- Listen to employees share their stories.
- Learn why TriWest has been honored as one of the top Veteran-friendly workplaces and named one of the top 50 inspiring workplaces in the United States.
- Check out a wide variety of career options, including project management, administrative, customer service, IT and more—with both in-person and work-from-home options available.
- Explore TriWest’s many benefits, including tuition reimbursement, health insurance, 401(k), strong training programs, chances to grow and excel, paid time off to volunteer and give back to Veteran and military communities, and much more.
TriWest is proud to serve Veteran and military communities, and it is just as proud to recruit and hire from within those same communities. It’s who we are. It’s what we do.