It took a few years for destiny to find Sally Ann Zoll (LA’72). When it did, she recognized it immediately. In 2003, Zoll’s son, Cory Henry (A’96), a US Army reservist with an 18-month-old son of his own, was called to active duty for the Iraq invasion. It was, she remembers, “just a horrible, crazy time.” As a mother and grandmother looking for some way to ease her family’s anxiety, she thought back to her time as an elementary-school teacher to find the best way her son could build a bond with the child he would soon leave behind. “I said to my daughter-in-law, ‘Before Cory leaves, get your video camera out, and have him read some stories to Ethan.’”

Taking that advice, Cory recorded a handful of videos of himself reading and talking to his toddler son; young Ethan would watch them nightly, comforted by his father’s face and voice. Cory came home in 2004, after a 14-month deployment, and Zoll will never forget that night at the airport. While many children sheepishly greeted the returning fathers they barely recognized, Ethan immediately picked his daddy out of the crowd.

When Zoll got a call two years later from United Through Reading, the power of that moment came rushing back. “They offered me a job,” she recalls, “and I said, ‘I think this is meant to be.’”

Zoll has now spent a decade as CEO of United Through Reading, the San Diego-based nonprofit that serves military families “by facilitating the bonding experience of reading aloud together.” The organization employs a simple approach, providing books and video-recording facilities at bases and on ships around the world. With the help of service members who volunteer their time, they record parents reading aloud and then send copies of the same books to the families’ homes so the children can follow along. Surveys speak to the work’s impact: 80–90 percent of parents report a decrease in their child’s anxiety about deployment and a reduction in their own stress during the period. 

Launched nearly three decades ago by the wife of a navy flight surgeon, United Through Reading has strengthened the connections of nearly two million service families in more than 200 locations worldwide. Zoll, who was running an education software firm when she was recruited, has been instrumental in expanding its reach — the organization has roughly doubled the number of facilities and families reached during her tenure. In that achievement, she says, her corporate experience has been instrumental. “In nonprofits, we often sell ourselves short by saying, ‘We’re a charity, we can’t do that,’” she says. “I run this like a business. Our mentality is, we can do this.”

Among the innovations Zoll has implemented are an expansion of United Through Reading to all branches of service, including the National Guard and Coast Guard, and efforts to find ways to include Navy SEALs and other special forces members whose mission precludes them from being able to participate while deployed. That growth and commitment has brought deserved attention. In February, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society recognized United Through Reading with its inaugural Community Service Hero Award for the organization’s “exceptional impact … in supporting our nation’s service member community.”

For Zoll, an army spouse of 30 years herself, it was an emotional moment. “I actually cried when they called,” she says. “Medal of Honor recipients have received America’s highest honor for bravery, so to be chosen as the first organization honored by them is beyond humbling.” She was similarly moved last fall when the Library of Congress recognized United Through Reading with its 2015 Literacy Award. It’s perhaps overshadowed by the emotional impact of their work, but feedback shows nearly 80 percent of United Through Reading families have children who are more interested, avid readers. “It’s an amazing honor,” Zoll says.

Indeed, about the only feedback Zoll receives that’s anything less than uniformly positive is a question: With free video-chat technologies like Skype and FaceTime so prevalent, is there really still a need for the service that United Through Reading provides? “We get asked that a lot,” she says. And the answer makes perfect sense. From time-zone differences between the United States and deployment locations to technical issues on such long-distance calls, prerecorded video is simply more reliable. Besides, says Zoll, “If you’ve ever tried to talk to a 3-year-old, there’s not always a lot to converse about.”

Ultimately, she says, what matters is the knowledge that that connection, both technological and emotional, is available 24/7. “We call it ‘Mommy or Daddy on demand,’” Zoll says. “That reliability, the fact that children can access it whenever they need their parent, is what makes it such a wonderful experience for them.”