Air Force wife Adrianna Domingos-Lupher said she was "floored" when she learned she is being honored as a White House Champion of Change, but she didn't become an entrepreneur for the recognition.

For the 33-year-old, it was a matter of carving out a career when her initial plan to be a teacher didn't exactly mesh with the Air Force's decisions to move her and her husband first to England, then to Florida.

She and another military spouse, Carmen Grant, founded MSB New Media in 2012. It's a network for military spouse bloggers, where companies pay spouses to write about their brands in order to market their products to the military community. An outgrowth of their work is Nextgen MilSpouse, an online magazine. She and Grant will meet for the first time at the White House ceremony, Domingos-Lupher said.

Domingos-Lupher also played a role in the development of the Military Spouse CEO Experience for military family entrepreneurs, and Homefront Rising, a nonpartisan political training event for military spouses interested in becoming involved in politics. She was nominated for the Champions award by Josie Beets, a military spouse and attorney.

The White House will honor 11 veteran and spouse entrepreneurs at the "Champions of Change" event on Wednesday. These are people "who are doing extraordinary work across the country as leaders in the veteran and military families entrepreneurship community," according to the White House website.

Sandra P. Gonzales, a former Army nurse who has been a military spouse for almost 20 years, has also been named a Champion of Change and will be honored at the ceremony. She is president and founder of Docere eLearning Solutions, an educational consulting firm in southwest Oklahoma. Gonzales is a founding member of SOAR Mentoring Program, an international online community for women veteran entrepreneurs and military families.

Domingos-Lupher said she met business partner Grant online when she asked about breaking in to writing.

"She taught me the ropes with blogging," Domingos-Lupher said. Later, she said, "She told me of blogger networks that earn money writing. I thought it would be cool to have a network for military spouses, and she said she'd wanted to do it but didn't have the time."

So their business was born.

"She's a great visionary, and I'm a great drill sergeant. We work well together," Domingos-Lupher said.

The award is important to her because it's a sign that she is making an impact, Domingos-Lupher said. "I feel a great responsibility to continue to be a champion of change, to continue to find new paths for us to grow as individuals and to grow as the larger military family."

What's next? "We keep doing what we're doing, keep connecting spouses with opportunities to grow careers," she said.

And to military spouses who have goals, dreams and aspirations, she says, "Don't let the military lifestyle stop you. It's not an excuse, just a reality.

"Now we have to work around it."

Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book "A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families." She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.

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