Women Who Inspire: Alumna Stephanie Rotolo ’13 Reflects on Journey from Montgomery College to Warrior Diplomat

When Montgomery College alumna Stephanie (DeRiso) Rotolo ’13 first enrolled at Montgomery College in 2011, she struggled academically and lacked direction. She attended high school at Our Lady of Good Counsel, where the expectation was for her to attend a four-year college or university. “Attending community college had a certain stigma coming out of high school,” she says. Rotolo’s experience at MC motivated her to push back against that stigma. “I’m grateful for the experience I had at MC after almost failing out of high school.”

At MC, Rotolo pushed herself outside of her comfort zone. She realized quickly that success in college would mean finding direction and taking ownership of her decisions—for the first time. After enrolling in the criminal justice program, she discovered a new sense of purpose. Inspired in part by the mentorship of former professor Martin Stone, a retired Montgomery County Police Department officer, she became determined to pursue a career dedicated to public service and security.

After graduating from MC, Rotolo enlisted in the U.S. Army, where she rose through the ranks before commissioning as an officer and joining the special operations community. Alongside her military service, she continued her academic journey, earning degrees in criminology and intelligence analysis from George Mason University and emergency and disaster management from Georgetown University. At Georgetown, she was named valedictorian of the program.

Today, Rotolo is a strategic operations and crisis management leader with over 12 years of experience in interagency and multinational environments. Her career has taken her across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, where she has supported security cooperation, crisis response, and humanitarian assistance efforts. Most recently, she spent two years in a senior planning and executive support role at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) Allied Joint Force Command in Naples, Italy. 

Reflecting on her journey, Rotolo credits Montgomery College as the place where it all began. She highlights the diverse curriculum and student body that she experienced as key factors in her success. 

“The military is the ultimate melting pot in the U.S. The exposure I had to different backgrounds and cultures at MC set me up well to go into the Army and not have a bunch of preconceived notions.”

Now that Rotolo is back in Maryland, she looks forward to re-engaging with the MC community and getting involved with the Alumni Association. She hopes her story will encourage more young women to serve in the military.