On November 26th, 2025, the 58th Assembly District - spanning Corona, Eastvale, parts of Riverside, and Grand Terrace - came together to honor US Marine Corps Veteran, Heather Lee, as the 2025 Veteran of the Year. This award is given to one Veteran in the district per year. The award was presented by The Honorable Leticia Castillo, and in attendance were: Grand Terrace Mayor Bill Hussey; Council Members Jeff Allen and Doug Wilson; and Lee’s mother, Gail Seekins.
Lee’s journey began when she attended Officer Candidate School (OCS), between her junior and senior year, at San Diego State University. Unlike bootcamp, you do not have to complete OCS; if you want to go home, you can. The Marine Corps only wants leaders who want to be there to lead Marines, and there is typically a 50% dropout rate at OCS. However, Lee was not amongst those dropouts. Lee not only completed OCS, she also finished her degree, got her commission, and served in Quantico, Camp Pendleton, Camp Lejeune, and New River Air Station.
Lee was in the Marine Corps when Officers were 10% of the Marine Corps and women were only 3% of the total force. She stated that, “Every day was like living in a fish bowl, all eyes were on you to be perfect.”
She became one of the first women Marines to serve aboard a ship and, as a Captain, was the highest-ranking female among 2,000 Marines deployed during NATO operations in the Adriatic for Kosovo. It remains one of her proudest accomplishments, “The 25 women on that deployment were really going to pave the way for all women to follow. We could not fail.”
Between 1996 and 2001, Lee earned a Navy Marine Corps Achievement Medal and two Navy Marine Corps Commendation Medals for her work and leadership. Her service took an unexpected turn in 2003, when she was involuntarily recalled to support Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. Overseeing the mobilization and retraining of inactive reserve Marines, sometimes processing forty Marines a day, earned her a second Navy Marine Corps Achievement Medal.
That same perspective guides her work today at the VA hospital, where she feels most at home among fellow veterans. Lee’s commitment to service extends far beyond the military. She has been a Girl Scout leader for thirteen years, nurturing four generations of family tradition and modeling the quiet, consistent acts of care she learned from her parents.
Her daughter, Clare, now seventeen, is her greatest source of pride - an honors student, ASB leader, and Girl Scout. For Lee, family, community, and service are not separate threads but part of the same fabric.
Her story stands as a reminder that leadership isn’t confined to uniforms or titles. It lives in the everyday choices to uplift others, strengthen community, and leave a lasting example for those who follow.