Episode #44 Shelley Federico

In the fall of 2010, Shelley Federico moved to Norfolk, Virginia with her family, where her husband was to be stationed. They were placed into the Lincoln Military Housing complex. Within a year, they knew something was terribly wrong. The illnesses they began to experience pointed to a possible mold infestation. After testing revealed several toxic mold strains, Federico contacted an attorney who specialized in mold cases, who eagerly took her case.

Late in 2011, Federico contacted a local television news station, who interviewed her and agreed to produce a segment, which aired live in November of 2011. Federico became the first whistleblower around what would turn out to reveal a severely chronic issue of mold in military base housing facilities nationwide. After the segment aired, hundreds of military families contacted her, creating what would later become a cascade of lawsuits regarding the issue. Federico became a legend in the fight for families locally and then nationally. The producer for the original segment would go on to win an Emmy for her continued coverage of how mold affects military families living in base housing.

A month later, Federico initiated a town hall meeting on-base in Norfolk, which included Virginia senators whom she’d contacted directly. Each of them had seen the segment air on local television. Spokespersons from the Navy, the Lincoln Military Housing President, along with hundreds of military personnel and their families were in attendance. In that room, in what would later become a life-changing crusade for protection of her fellow military families, Federico described her own series of events, from relocation to Virginia, to the illnesses that she and her family endured. That town hall meeting would be the catalyst for what is now a nationwide movement to clean up military housing facilities.

In January of the following year, the Federico family’s case was filed and immediately remanded to federal court, after which CNN interviewed Shelley. That CNN report aired nationally, opening the floodgates for exposing more issues on various bases around the country. The work that Federico did then culminated in the first legislation being passed in April of 2012, entitled ‘Military Oversight and Accountability Act’, which was signed into law by President Obama.

Two years after Federico’s 2016 win in federal court, Reuters published the first in a series of articles on mold and related issues regarding privatized military base housing, soon opening the door for congressional hearings on the matter. Those hearings began in January of 2019, where both the House and Senate Arms Services Committees heard testimony from many families who suffered severe consequences due to their toxic mold exposure.

After completing her paralegal certification from Oklahoma State University, Federico went on to create the L14 Consulting Group, which specializes in all things mold-related. While she works tirelessly on an issue that took so much from her, she continues to give back to others, to assure that moving forward, families will live in a toxin-free environment while serving in the nation’s armed forces.