Behind The Mission

About Today’s Guest The Honorable James D. Rodriguez, MA is the U.S. Department of Labor’s Assistant Secretary for Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS). He is responsible for preparing America's veterans, service members and their spouses for meaningful careers. In this capacity and in Fiscal Year 2021, over 2,800 DOL Veterans’ Employment and Training Service staff, contractors, and gr...

About Today’s Guest Crystal is a dynamic, agile storyteller, who is passionate about speaking up for those who have historically been disenfranchised, systemically excluded and institutionally oppressed. She leverages her service to her country to ensure that those that have served, and those still serving, have a voice and a safe space. She is a fellow in the George W. Bush Presidential Center St...

This Episode Sponsored By:   This episode is sponsored by PsychArmor, the premier education and learning ecosystem specializing in military culture content. PsychArmor offers an online e-learning laboratory with custom training options for organizations. About Today’s Guest Kelcey Liverpool, Founder & Executive Director of Kids Rank, likes to take ideas and bring solutions that help build comm...

About Today’s Guest Joy Ashcraft is the Director of Maryland’s Commitment to Veterans, a program under the Maryland Department of Health’s Behavioral Health Administration. Under her leadership, her team has revamped their data collection system, launched new program initiatives, reinvigorated their social media presence, and developed new education and training collaborations and initiatives. Joy...

About Today’s Guest Mary Reding is a government affairs exec with diverse private sector, non-profit, and public sector experience. Government experience includes leading the Office of Executive Councils and managing the development, implementation, and setting performance standards for management initiatives across the center of government through the ten C-Suite Executive boards including the Pr...

About Today’s Guest Abby Malchow is the Sr. Business Development Manager of Small Business Partnerships for Small Business Empowerment at Amazon helps drive the success of small businesses and underserved business populations (including minority-, women-, and veteran-owned businesses). Additionally, Abby serves on the Global Board of Directors at Amazon for Mental Health & Well-Being (MHW) as...

About Today’s Guest Dave began his military career as a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and of the US Army Ranger School. He then served two tours in Europe during which he was deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom as an armor platoon leader. Dave's last active duty Army position was as an Assistant Professor of Military Leadership at the Massachusetts Institu...

About Today’s Guest Frank Larkin is a national advocate for veteran suicide prevention and military traumatic brain injury research. He currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer for the Feherty’s Troops First Foundation and the National Warrior Call Day campaign. Frank is also aligned with several other non-profit organizations working to positively impact the health and survivability of our...

About Today’s Guests Katie R. Ross, MSW, is the Director of Veterans Services at Summit BHC and creator of their specialized services for the military community, known as Tactical Recovery.  She worked in program management for the U.S. Navy for ten years before beginning in direct care as a clinical social worker at the Hampton VA Medical Center’s Suicide Prevention, Intimate Partner Violence, an...

About Today’s Guest Jaime Chapman is one of the original Co-Founders and Chief Operating Officer of the Military Spouse Chamber of Commerce. Her professional background is as a Sr. Military Talent Program Manager for Amazon Web Services and as a human capital entrepreneur where she successfully placed over 1,600 jobseekers in careers, creating an economic impact totaling over $112 million. Jaime h...

About Today’s Guest Mark Harper is CEO of We Are The Mighty (WATM), a digital publisher and entertainment lifestyle company creating authentic content that celebrates the military community. WATM’s website receives more than 16M monthly page views, and has over 1.5M followers across social media platforms. Additionally, WATM provides a range of agency services for major Hollywood studios, Fortune...

About Today’s Guest Kelly Finn Störmer is the Executive Director of Combined Arms Institute which elevates the military & veteran-serving ecosystem of support through professional development, collaboration and research. Combined Arms ensures that no veteran or military family member falls through the cracks by streamlining the connection for servicemembers, veterans and their families to serv...

About Today’s Guest Richard Casper is a United States Marine Veteran, Purple Heart recipient, Artist, and Entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and Executive Director of CreatiVets, a non-profit that provides art, music, and writing programs for wounded veterans with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries. Richard was named a CNN Hero in 2022 and named TIME magazine's Next Generation Lead...

About Today’s Guest Erin Fletcher, Psy. D. serves as the Warrior Care Network Director for Wounded Warrior Project (WWP). In this role, Erin ensures synergy across all WWP mental health programs.  Erin  collaborates with the four Academic Medical Centers that compromise WWP’s Warrior Care Network to foster Network alignment regarding program implementation and delivery. Warriors taking part in WCN...

Show Summary On this episode, we feature a conversation with Army veteran and military spouse Meg O'Grady, Senior Vice President for Military and Government Programs for the National University System.  About Today’s Guest Meg O’Grady has more than 25 years of experience creating outreach, transition, education, entrepreneur, and employment programs that engage the military community, transitionin...

About Today’s Guest Colonel (R) Sean Ryan is the Director of Communications for the Army Emergency Relief, the Army’s only nonprofit organization serving active duty Soldiers, retirees and their families. Sean  retired from service after nearly 30 years of active duty military experience and was the official military spokesman for the Combined Joint Task Force-Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) in Baghda...

About Today’s Guest Rebecca Nowatchik is a facilitator, community organizer and proud Air Force spouse who believes that military families have a critical role to play to preserve and deepen our democracy at this moment in our country’s history. Rebecca cut her advocacy teeth 20 years ago organizing for labor rights and LGBTQ families and has extensive background managing successful campaigns focu...

About Today’s Guest As the Executive Director of the Armed Services Arts Partnership (ASAP), Brian Jenkins draws on global experiences in community-building and social entrepreneurship. Under Brian’s leadership since 2019, ASAP has increased the annual number of veterans served by 75%, grown the organization's revenue by 54%, expanded ASAP Chapters from two cities to four, and launched a virtual p...

About Today’s Guest Aimee Johnson is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and has more than 20 years of experience, from direct clinical practice with youth, families and adults in crisis and working with military service members, Veterans and their families. Aimee has worked both in the private sector and for the federal government, most recently at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs where she...

About Today’s Guest Jeremy Butler is the CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the premier veterans advocacy and support organization that connects, unites, and empowers post-9/11 veterans through education, advocacy, and community. An experienced national security, military affairs, and non-profit management advisor, Jeremy joined IAVA with 15+ years of experience providing subs...

About Today’s Guest Umar Latif, MD is a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology with board certification in General Psychiatry, Geriatric Psychiatry, and Addiction Medicine. He was selected as a George W. Bush Institute Scholar as part of the 2021 Stand-To Veteran Leadership program in service of improving veteran outcomes....

About Today’s Guest Elisa V. Borah, MSW, PhD is a research associate professor at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work, and Director of the Institute for Military and Veteran Family Wellness, a joint initiative of the Dell Medical School Department of Health Social Work and the Steve Hicks School of Social Work. Dr. Borah conducts research to identify, implement, and evaluate treatments, programm...

About Today’s Guest Shannon Razsadin is an active duty Navy spouse, mom, and the executive director of the Military Family Advisory Network (MFAN).  Shannon’s leadership, authenticity, fresh approach, and focus on collaboration have set MFAN apart as an organization focused on making an impact and as a trusted conduit to military families globally. Under Shannon’s leadership, MFAN has become a pre...

About Today’s Guest Jen Goodale separated from the Marine Corps in 2009 after seven years of active duty service. Upon graduation from the University of North Carolina in 2002, she was commissioned as a second lieutenant. After completing Basic Communications Officers Course, she was assigned to 9th Communication Battalion in Camp Pendleton, Calif. As a platoon commander, Goodale deployed twice in...

About Today’s Guest Will Huff served for over 23 years in the U.S. Army as an Army Officer. He achieved the rank of Colonel and served fifty-four months deployed to Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. In addition to his military service, Will is a graduate of Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island and the National War College in Washington, D.C. Following his Army career, W...