Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the 2023 Women Veteran Seminar. Thanks for joining us. I am DAV Associate National Legislative Director Naomi Mathis and the moderator for the seminar today. A few housekeeping issues before we get started. First, please silence your cell phones. You're probably right. Second, for everyone's awareness, we do have staff from the Delaware VA's Vet Center here at the seminar this afternoon. Should anyone need assistance? The mobile Vet Center is located downstairs over there by the terrace. On the first floor, you'll see the Vet Center table. It's just right downstairs from where we're sitting right now. Readjustment counselor Julie is in the room. And Julie, we greatly appreciate your support throughout the convention this year. Thank you. One more thing, and it's very important, we do have time constraints in this room. We must end on time. So our guest speaker, and with our guest speaker lineup, we want to ensure that they get their information out to you. So we will see if there is time for questions after all of the presentations. Okay, we have a packed VIP program for you today, so let's get started. I would like to begin by introducing the members of DAV's Interim Women Veterans Committee. Ladies, as I call your name, please stand and be recognized. The chairwoman, Belinda Hill from Louisiana, Belinda. Kim Huberz from South Dakota. Kim, where are you at? She's in the back of the room working. Sheila, you know I can't get your last name right. Sheila from Massachusetts. And Miss Juliet Taylor from Connecticut. And I want to thank you, thank her. She's the one that got all that makeup and stuff and stuffed all your bags. So thank you. I want to thank the committee members for their work over the past year. Please, thank you, thank you, thank you. I think I just hit a button. Of course I did. All right. It's now my pleasure to introduce our first speaker. Mr. Michael Fisher currently serves as the Chief Officer of the Department of Veterans Affairs Readjustment Counseling Service and has been appointed in his position since May 2016. He has direct leadership and oversight of the 300 Vet Centers, 80 mobile Vet Centers, and the Vet Center Call Center, providing readjustment counseling to veterans, active duty service members, and their family. Mr. Fisher also advises the Under Secretary for Health and Policy Issues, affecting the readjustment of veterans and their families, and issues surrounding the combat experience. Mr. Fisher began his career with VA and RCS as an outreach specialist at the Baltimore Vet Center. Prior to his VA career, he served over 10 years with the Pennsylvania Army National Guard and was deployed to Iraq as an Infantry Non-Commission Officer in 2005. Following this combat deployment, he was medically discharged from the military. Mr. Fisher holds a Master of Social Work from the Catholic University of America. Please give a warm welcome to your Vet Center leader, Mike Fisher. Thank you. Thank you very much for that. Thank you for allowing us to come and spend some time with you this afternoon. We're going to spend a little bit of time talking about what Vet Centers are, some updates on our eligibility, and then we'll get into what are we doing specifically for women veterans. Before I do that, though, I want to thank you for the introduction. And I do this every time I get an introduction. I think what's most important to me is not what I did, but why am I here today? And that is, I am here because a Vet Center counselor wouldn't let me shut my barracks room door on him until I came and talked to him. In my time, when all I wanted to do was say no, he helped me say yes. And I submit to you, that is what Vet Centers do every day. We help people say yes when every fiber of their being wants to say no. Now, I'm going to use a non-social work term, and that is we're aggressive when we do that. Because I think that it's not enough to say, here's a phone number, call when you're ready. Because I think when we do that, we've probably given that person a reason to say no. Rather, it's, here's our phone number. We're also going to be there for you as you go through this journey. So today, we're going to talk a little bit about how we do that. So I'm going to start with, this is our mission statement. If you're not familiar with Vet Centers, we were created in 1979, because at that point, VA, with the help of Congress, recognized the Vietnam combat veteran was not coming into VA for services. Now, I'm sure many of you are aware of what was going on around that time. There was distrust of the VA service. There was quality concerns and things like that. But they created Vet Centers separate from VA Medical Centers as a way to start dealing with that to improve trust. It's actually staffed by fellow combat veterans. This is one of the beginnings of the peer-to-peer model in VA. And Congress set us up to do three things. Direct service or counseling, which we'll talk about in a second. Outreach, so going out and creating face-to-face connections and also care coordination or referral. And the idea was that we would go out and find every individual who wasn't using VA, make them comfortable with using VA, and we would work ourselves out of the job. Actually, in the beginning, the thinking was we weren't meant to last more than a year. We would go out and find everyone and everything would become amazing. Well, we know that's not the way the world works, especially when we're working with populations that are looking for those reasons to say no. Now, originally, we were created for those that served in Vietnam only, but we've expanded to really all combat areas, and we'll talk a little bit more about our eligibility in a second. The other thing I want to talk about on this mission statement is this idea of community, which is something very important to us. And this is something that we borrow from Native American tradition, which says it is your community that sends you to war. It is also your community's responsibility to welcome you home and to begin to give your experience meaning. And that's what we see our role at Vet Centers, is to help welcome everyone home and to begin to work to whatever meaning that individual is looking for, whether that's, I want access benefits or I want to deal with a year or two of hell and make heads or tails of what that meant. We also see our role as rallying the community together to welcome home those who serve. Now, our eligibility is really based around service in a dangerous place or experiencing certain kinds of trauma. And it does not matter where you are in your journey. If you're an active duty service member, if you're a veteran, if you're a member of the National Guard Reserve Forces, if you meet one of our eligibility criteria and that QR code will take you to the laundry list of things that make you eligible, you can come into a Vet Center now and for the rest of your life. What also is unique about our eligibility is it's just based on service in certain areas or experiencing certain kinds of trauma, like military sexual trauma or war trauma. We don't means test, we don't require service connection, we don't also require enrollment in VHA health care. And that goes back to being that safe place to begin that journey. Now, like we said, that QR code will send you to our full list of eligibility. The one thing that we also did not talk about yet is that Vet Centers will provide services regardless of discharge character. That includes individuals with dishonorable discharges. What we find is people serve honorably in war and maybe they come home and not make the best decisions. And then now they have bad paper, but it doesn't negate the fact they served honorably in war. So those individuals can come into Vet Centers. Now, I do want to talk briefly about two updates to our eligibility that just happened over the past couple of months with the passing of the strong act. The first one is now any individual who is currently using VA educational benefits can come into Vet Centers during that period of time when they're going back to school. And that can be GI Bill, it can be Vogue Rehab, it can be a list on our website of the different types of VA benefits that you can use while and also get Vet Center access. Now, this is time limited, which means while you're actively using those services, but what we've done within the policy that we've created is create some wiggle room to be able to deal with summer vacation or winter breaks, as well if an individual graduates or decides not to use their benefits. And that is there's a 180-day window right now that we have in place to help work on transition. The other eligibility expansion that just opened up to us is that we can now provide bereavement services to any family member, whether it's active duty or if that individual was a veteran who died by suicide. Now, like our regular readjustment counseling that we provide to veterans and service members, there's no time limitation to any of our services. But in this case, the focus has to be on bereavement. Let's talk a little bit about our approach. And in doing this, I'm going to talk about this idea first of, I think we're in the business of creating connection. That is going out and creating a face-to-face connection through our outreach program. And if you haven't had a chance to see our mobile Vet Center, that is one of the ways that we go out and reach out to the community. But our purpose of outreach is to create a face-to-face connection to make sure that people feel comfortable with the idea of using VA services. 99% of our outreach staff are combat veterans. And the benefit of that is you don't have to explain to me what an IED is. I know firsthand what an IED is. So we can create that instant connection and then create access to service. I also see this idea of connection is beginning to learn a little bit more about what that veteran or service member's goals might be. Our mission in Vet Center is in doing the individual group marriage family counseling that we do is really helping that veteran set a goal then create a support structure around themselves to accomplish that goal. And then once they accomplish it, identify another goal. And this is this lifelong process of doing that over and over again. As we go through an intake assessment and learn what those goals will be, we then start moving into this idea of camaraderie. That could be going out and creating those support structures, whether that is bringing the individual's family in. Now, our definition of family is a little bit different in that it's whoever that veteran, that service member, that member of the National Guard Reserve defines their family to be. Who are their loved ones? It could be aunts, uncles, parents, children, partners, same-sex partners. It really is whoever their loved one is. Or it could be creating veteran camaraderie or service member camaraderie through maybe one of our groups at a vet center. And the last idea here is community. Not only are we in the business of building community, whether that's veteran or family community, but then helping that veteran or service member to think about how they want to interact in their own communities wherever they might be and be a member of the larger community, if you will. We talked a little bit about access to vet center services and some of the things that we do to reduce bureaucracy, whether that is not requiring VHA, healthcare enrollment, not requiring service connection and those kind of things. We also don't charge for our services. Everything's been prepaid through that individual's military service. One of the other ways we reduce barriers is through our confidentiality, in that the only people who will know you're coming into a vet center are the people you tell, the people you allow to know through a signed release of information, if there's a serious intent to harm yourself or somebody else, we are mandated reporters so we will break confidentiality for that. The other thing that we do to help with this idea of connection or access is go out and partner with organizations within the community. In some locations, that could be a veteran service organization. I know we have DAV service officers at many of our vet centers. It could be also a lawyer doing pro bono work or someone helping us with a music group or an art group or equine therapy. And the idea is we've come that one stop shop for whatever the readjustment needs in that community might be. Now we are a non-medical model so in doing our individual group marriage family counseling what that really means is that we don't focus on a diagnosis. Rather we work on the symptoms associated with that diagnosis and the idea is to reduce the stigma associated with a label and it goes back to helping that veteran that service member set a goal, create a support structure around themselves to accomplish that goal and then create another goal in that lifelong process of doing that over and over again. Let's talk a little bit about how we provide services to women veterans and what this chart shows is that over the past couple of years more women are coming into vet centers. More women veterans, more women active duty service members. I think in part that is from going out and doing focused outreach as well as getting the word out about our services that are available. Now in providing our services we have 300 locations what we call vet centers across the country about average six or seven people, counselors, outreach staff, program support staff. We are in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa. We also have what we call vet center out stations and these are communities where we permanently assign at least one counselor. We have 23 of those right now. An example of an out station is on the U.S. Virgin Islands of St. Croix and St. Thomas. We also have what we call vet center community access points. This is donated space where we provide services anywhere from once a month to a couple of times a week. This number fluctuates right now. We have a couple hundred of those across the country and this is really an example of where we can partner in your local communities that if you have space that we could borrow for a period of time we can bring our services deeper into your communities. And we also have mobile vet centers which also allows us to get out into the community and like we said we have one in the back now if you get a chance to take a look. Talk a little bit about some legislation that was passed recently. A couple of years ago we were asked to get into a pilot to provide childcare at vet centers at a certain number of locations. It's been difficult to roll this out and it's been difficult in finding qualified childcare providers that we can then send veterans to and veterans children to. We do have one location in Spokane, Washington that's currently active and we're looking to get a couple more locations up for this pilot. Something that we're really proud of is that we've been doing women veteran retreats as part of a pilot since 2012 and it was really to help women reintegrate after life after deployment. The retreats focused on not only counseling but also doing outdoor activities and creating connection and community and camaraderie. We just got permanent authority to be able to provide these retreats not only to women veterans but also to any group that's eligible for vet center services. So over the past couple of years we have still and will continue to provide women only retreats. As you can see we've done a couple in the past two years and we'll continue to do that. This here is just some examples of how we go out and do focused outreach and focus services to women veterans. Whether that is a hosting with a local DAV chapter or celebrate her service event but really it's designed to create those safe places where women veterans can come in and learn about not only what's available for them but to get connected into services. Another example from our vet centers in Pennsylvania as well as Oklahoma. This here is our customer feedback. Now we use V signals which is you might have received a questionnaire about how VA is doing in your own private or your own receiving of services. And this here shows some of our scores and this is something that we're really proud of in that 92% of women who respond trust vet centers to improve the quality of their life. What's really exciting about that number is that is almost the same as what all veterans and service members who access vet centers what they respond with. And I see this, these scores as this is vet centers in a safe place, that confidential place where people can begin that transition of setting goals. And we're going to end our slides just with a couple of quotes from women veterans who've been receiving vet center services. These are examples not only of women, these are specific women veterans but we receive this in all of these kind of quotes and all of those that respond back to our customer feedback. Now once again another QR code that how we can get connected. We have a website. We also have a call center 24-7 call center that can get individuals connected directly into vet centers. Our website not only goes over our eligibility but also how to get connected into a vet center. And then here, and I know we're going to hold questions until the end potentially, if there's anything that I can do to be helpful. My phone number, my email address is at a vet center. We want to know about that right away so we can fix that. Thank you everyone for your time today and I'm going to pass it on. Thank you for that update Mike and that was an excellent presentation. The Biloxi Vet Center down in Biloxi, Mississippi holds a special place in my heart not just as a client but also as a colleague. They treated DAV very well as I was assisting transitioning service members from the surrounding area on them for a good cup of coffee and to hear some amazing stories so thank you. All right and now I'm yeah. All right I told you we have a packed program of VIPs and we are so honored to have our next guest who is coming in remotely. Unfortunately he got stuck and he is and there's some things going on with the airlines. We had the same thing happen this morning if you were at the My Journey workshop you saw that Tony Hightower had to come in remotely as well so just bear with us one second while we get this going. As a matter of fact I'll just read. Dr. Matthew Miller is the National Director of the Suicide Prevention Program Prevention for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Dr. Miller leads a team dedicated to the implementation and reinforcement of evidence-based community and clinical interventions addressing suicide prevention. Previously he served as the Director of the Veterans Crisis Line and under his leadership the VCL became the world's largest and most efficient Suicide Crisis Call Center. Dr. Miller is an Air Force veteran joining VA. He served as a clinical psychologist and the Chief of Mental Health at a joint services pilot training wing at Wright Patterson Air Force Base and was responsible for overseeing mental health operations for all active duty service members and dependents as well as head of the installation Suicide Prevention Program. I think you have to stop. Sorry. Dr. Miller received his PhD and a Master of Public Health from the University of Michigan. Let's give a warm welcome to Dr. Miller. Yes, we can hear you. I would love to be with you not because of Land and City but because of DAV and our critically important partnership and relationship with DAV. I really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today and they only appreciate your team's creativity and flexibility with finding a way to give me an airman what they're sought to do and other advice. From my perspective our relationship and partnership with DAV is critically important in suicide prevention forward veterans, all veterans and women veterans. Together I think that we shape the policy we encourage and produce research we implement innovative programs and we evaluate and report on results together. We've come a long way together over the past three to four years and beyond but as the data will show there's much more that needs to be done. So, in the spirit of partnership I hope to equip and reinforce you within your invaluable role by discussing key suicide prevention, DAV facts by sharing risks and protective factors specific to when you're veterans and highlighting key areas we can together address to fight veteran suicide. Next slide. And next the KCFO writing the slides. I appreciate that for helping. So, let's start by walking through key data points to equip and reinforce your role in fighting veteran suicide. To do so, I'm going to be heavily on our annual report. The annual report provides two decades of suicide information currently spanning 2001 through 2020. Our annual report highlighting 2021 data from the CDC will be released later this year. We start each annual report with what we call Avers of Hope and they're highlighted on the next slide for you. Avers of Hope help us to see within the data points of improvement, points of growth, reasons for optimism and that they also help to highlight areas of needed improvement. From our last report, there were five key Avers of Hope that were outlined. First, 343 human veterans died from suicide in 2020 and 2019. The number of veterans suicides decreased in 2019 and 2020 to the lowest number of veteran suicides since 2006. The third Avers of Hope when you talk about rates, age-adjusted rates over a period of veterans of a certain age, demographic and non-veterans of the same age demographic in 2020 suicide rates were lowest since 2016 for veteran men and they were lowest since 2013 for veteran men. It went down about 14% for veteran women overall and this gets to anger number four. Men and women the veteran suicide rates decreased by 9.7% almost 10% over 2019 and 2020. The last one highlights COVID within the first year of 2020 and we did not see a significant impact of COVID now. I think in 2021 I'm not going to be surprised to see a different story with how then 2021 played out with COVID what technically was year two and in a prolonged condition with COVID. Next slide highlights some key data points to video where these are key data points that people often go to so just refreshing them for all of us. 2146 veteran suicide deaths in 2020 and I said that's the lowest since 2006 but that's still 6146 too many. A lot of people often ask for the average per day and it helps to wrap your mind around and I know that 22 out for some 920 has also been a number of students cited frequently. According to the 2020 data the number is additionally 16.8 per day and that converts to already about 31.7 per 100,000 for veterans. This is higher than non-veteran populations about 1.5 per day. The difference between veteran and non-veteran suicide occurred in 2018 and then in 2019 and 20 we were able to see a decrease. Next slide highlights some data according to key variables within a veteran population and beyond. For example you see if you were to consider the data from a race perspective veteran suicide rates for all race groups decreased from 19 to 20 if you look at it and slice it by age suicides to the second age because of that non-veteran ages 18 to 44 but the highest rates were in 18 to 34 highest count was in the 55 and plus. Here you see if you were to slice it by sex you see what I was talking about women veteran rate falling by 14 percent from 2019 for 2020 and we also take a look at this is going to be an important point to our discussion today in that 71% of veteran suicide deaths are by viral compared to 50% of suicides in non-veteran US adults. The next slide brings this down a bit more for you in a really important way I think it's important to drive home. What you see within this table of information is how critically important firearms are within suicide prevention for women veterans if you go to the last two columns and you take a look at non-veteran and veteran you can see that non-veteran firearm first row about 33% of suicides and that's down 2% but veteran 48% of suicides are by firearm and it's the leading cause and that's up 11% this is why when I say to you in a couple slides I'm going to talk about a key challenge I want you to remember this data as a foundation to that key challenge Next slide we've talked about progress made we've talked about there's much more to do so where do we start beyond the data suicide prevention entails risk of over simplification but it entails minimizing risk maximizing protective factors women veterans have unique and important risks and protective factors so let's get to number next slide we'll offer two slides that are relevant for risk factors the research has demonstrated particularly for women veterans the following list of variables that I'm going to provide are really important to consider self-directed violence when you attempt to suicide more often than that and guide my suicide rates lower than that recovery from self-directed violence and suicide attempts differs by gender women veterans focus on developing connection with others and wanting to increase their self-knowledge and self-work compare that with male veterans and they were focused on trying to live to their ideal selves by living to do the right thing and also finding a stronger sense of purpose number two, substance abuse current diagnosis of any substance use disorders associated with increased risk for suicide for both male and female veterans but the strength of that association two to three times higher for women veterans than for men mental health conditions the link between mental health conditions and suicide risk is stronger on women veterans than male veterans women veterans are more likely for male veterans for oral and time diagrosis of depression anxiety or PTSD military sexual trauma one in three members respond yes to having experience MSP and it's associated with increased suicide risk even when in fact they're out of depression and PTSD or PTSD risk is particularly high among women veterans eating disorders are associated with increased risk for suicide or inflation attempts and deaths the prevalence of eating disorders among veterans is at least this high in the general population and rates are higher than that next slide adverse childhood experiences women veterans are more likely that women are certainly military for experience specific adverse childhood experiences in their needs including emotional fears and exposure in partner violence that leads to another risk factor which is intimate partner violence it is associated with increased risk for suicide women veterans are higher risk for experience in interpersonal violence than civilian women during their lifetime there's various important research that links the important aspects of the developmental process reproductions sexual health to suicide risk suicide radiation and suicide attempt for death and those are important to consider and immediately so as well now from a protected perspective women are and women veterans are much more likely to ask for help they're much more likely to use telephone outlines and visit or access doctors or trusted others or discuss issues with others frequent attendance and face-to-face activities reduces suicide risk spirituality reduces suicide risk feeling that others are dependent on you such as that which can be experienced through motherhood lowers suicide accounts and deaths and really connect extremely important and important aspect of protective factor we see that that's what I was getting at from 21 that this COVID continued this was for a long we saw more and more impact on that connectedness than any of the impact of that in any case and therefore that's what I'm saying people that have some things to look at within 2021 so the key data is demonstrated for the points of progress as well as spiritual needs we learned about risk we learned about protective factors based on these foundations now I'd like to show a challenge what will do to the most to save the most most rapidly the answer to that is lethal in safety particularly around firearms now let me explain just a bit more since I said I was going to get to this point next slide it's nice to look forward to did you know that the space the space metaphorically speaking between a thought a decision and an action when it comes to suicide can't insist of less than 60 minutes as a matter of fact almost 75% of the time that space between those critical internal points 60 minutes or less now did you know as well that when a firearm is the means that is used it leads to death 90% of the time here's what we know from the research when lethal means such as a firearm are made less accessible during critical points in time 60 minute windows suicide leads by those means that are so we know that in person time and space between individuals facing a suicide crisis and a firearm and an admission has been shown to prevent suicide and again that time and space between those points on the triangle between self and admission and firearm it could be as little as 60 minutes at its need it's not something that requires a relinquishing permanently in many ways there's parallels here in the thought and process to hoping to go again as a society with driving other vehicles in setting away for a period of time when the risk calculus changed to a point where you were a risk to yourself and to others just for a window of time so decisions had to be made to engage different forms of protection space between the same general principal undermines what we're talking about here with firearms and the elements to save save storage of firearms and medications in the space of which I speak are keep it secure campaign which we've appreciated the support for this campaign encourage it focuses on understanding firearm and suicide prevention understanding the connection with firearm and securing firearm during certain periods and recognizing we're not trying to get into that we're hoping to sort of set out for the firearm hearing or overall it's suicide prevention specific that leads to a screenshot you may recognize from the security of the campaign you can see all of the assets that we've developed several of them are specific to and actually driven by the veterans from there I'll conclude on this now what we do more broadly from a broad perspective in the context of saying first step in challenge firearm and safety it's a public health approach of suicide prevention a public health approach of suicide prevention is founded on research belief all together that suicide is preventive it then says that prevention is necessarily going to entail clinical applications and access to services as well as community based we know from a community based perspective veterans are an higher risk for suicide when credit card debt is higher when credit scores are lower when occupation is not stable when food source when supply is not stable then there's broader policy issues that have to do with equity and equitable access in care and services so addressing those as well and that's what we need to do together so we've talked about the starting point from a data perspective that highlights the fact that there's signs of hope there's reason for optimism but at the same time it highlights we have a lot of work left to do and while finding the size therein we can't do it without you we're going to start continuing to partner together on firearm, eco, and safety we see that that is particularly a good starting point with women veterans compared with non veteran women in suicide prevention we then work together broadly and more generally from a public health approach knowing suicide is preventable and knowing that we're going to have to focus equally on clinical and community based applications across research policy and programs I conclude with that and we have several resources that are available for you this Monday hopefully none of them will access to that and the additional information that was included thank you and so much appreciate it Thank you so much Dr. Miller I think it goes without saying that your work is absolutely critical because every single veteran in this room takes very seriously we will not be satisfied until we can achieve and maintain zero veteran suicides and now I told you I have some treats for you our next guest Ms. Lourdes Teglau is the Executive Director of the Center for Women Veterans and serves as the primary advisor to the Secretary of the Department of Health to discuss the policies, programs and legislation that affects women veterans before joining the Department of Veterans Affairs, Ms. Teglau was the Global Partnerships Manager at Airbnb overseeing a portfolio of 70 plus non-profit, private sector and international aid agencies across six continents prior to that working with intergovernmental agencies like the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. She is an Air Force veteran with deployments to Afghanistan, go blue, with deployments to Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, and more. And once we get our tech going, there we go. All right, let's give a warm welcome to Lordess Tigla! Folks, see me? That's the first question. Maybe I will. Can you hear me? You see me? All right, it's been a long, probably 30 minutes. So stretch for a second, you know, like, don't hit someone beside you, but just stretch. While you're stretching, I'm gonna just a little, I'm gonna deviate a little bit from my slide because you know I do that all the time. So my name is Lordess Tigla. I'm the executive director for the Center for Women Veterans and hopefully folks can see me over here. I'll tie a tiptoe. So for those who don't know, I'm actually an immigrant from the Philippines. And so for those who know the temperature into Philippines and the temperature in Indiana, you can say that transition started very early. I also came from the Philippines not knowing the language here in the United States. I understood English, didn't speak it, so the first couple of years of my life is a little rough, shall we say. And then a few years, sorry, I'm not trying to chase you. And so after that, I tried to join the Air Force after going through and as you can tell, I'm a little bit high challenged. So when I tried to join, I was first denied because I was too short and I had to get a waiver. Several years later, 9-11 happens. And when I was in the Air Force, I was in the critical carrier transport team. Anyone know the CCAT teams? Great. For those who don't know, think flying intensive carry unit, we're trying to make sure that you stay alive in the back of a plane. So when 9-11 happened, I had the high suspicion that there's a high probability I'm not going to come back because three weeks after 9-11 was when I got deployed. Remember, I was an immigrant when I joined the Air Force and so before I left, I made sure that I put my application in to become a citizen of the United States. However, when I came back after my deployment in 2002, I had a telegram that said I was denied. I was denied my citizenship because I missed my DOJ interview. So I was a little bit temperamental when I was younger and I called the INS office and asked what this was all about and they said, we're sorry, those are the policies and we cannot do anything about it. Anyone heard that one? Yeah, okay. So me the way I am, I went and drove down to the INS. Someone said Wright Patterson, anyone know where that is, right? Okay, Wright Patterson, INS office at Cincinnati. So I drove over to Cincinnati and I asked very fervently to speak to someone who was in charge. And so I was still met with, we're sorry, that is the rules. That's the policy. We can't do anything about it. But I didn't leave until I spoke to someone. Fast forward two weeks later, I'm getting my citizenship at Dayton, Ohio to courthouse. Why do I tell this story? One, because, you know, who's Lord is? Like maybe I know a handful of folks here, but many of you don't know who I am. So why should you listen to me? I tell this story because I'm not just a person in this seat. I'm also that person who walked that walk. I'm also the person who has had to go through some of those trials and tribulations that some of our women veterans have faced during their service and after. So this is personal. Thank you. And so this is personal. This isn't just a job for me. This is for those young girls who are trying to serve this nation as well and think that they can't. Because I assure you one summer, all of the questions thinking I'm not smart enough. I'm not good enough. I have I served enough?  Have I done enough to be called a veteran? One summer, all of those questions are being asked by our women veterans across the nation today and all the way around the world. And that's part of the reason why the Center for Women Veterans exists. So we not only advocate for the women veterans around this nation. We also advocate for the service members who are transitioning out. We make sure that we provide the outreach by our amazing outreach team. But also we help manage the advisory committee of women veterans. It's a federal advisory committee that provides advice to the secretary and how better to serve women veterans around the nation. Another part of the work that we do is making sure that we are providing research. I'll talk a little bit about the research that we've done for the last two years in a little bit. And then also making sure that we are advocates for cultural transformation, not only internally inside the Department of Veterans Affairs, but also externally. I mean, how many of you have heard a woman veteran say, well, I didn't deploy. So I'm not a veteran. I did not retire. And so I'm not a veteran. I wasn't at the tip of the spear. I wasn't there long enough. I wasn't catastrophically injured. All of those things, all of those questions are eating away and eroding at the self identity of women veterans because they do not feel that they deserve to be called a veteran because society has sometimes reinforced that. So aside from cultural transformation, I also advise the secretary on many things that impact women veterans, not just from a policy perspective, but also on programs and initiatives internally within the Department of Veterans Affairs. We also work on making sure that from a campaign perspective, we elevate and highlight women veterans not only again internally in VA, but also externally. The last part I'm going to talk about is about PACT Act because I will not leave here without talking about PACT Act. The secretary might not like that and then tell you a little bit about how to reach us. So when I was talking about those little questions that erode that sense of self identity, some of you have probably seen this, this little sign says this is for veterans. I mean, that still happens today. That literally still happens today, 2023. I mean, you would think we've gone farther, but we haven't. And so that's why we cannot let up and making sure that we are lifting up the voices of our women veterans, that we are lifting up the voice of the voiceless. So the mission, so the last time I saw some of you when I spoke, our mission statement was along the lines of monitoring and coordinating VA's administration and healthcare and benefits and services and programs for women veterans to service an advocate for cultural transformation, to raise awareness of the responsibility to treat women veterans with dignity and respect. Those are the tactical aspects of how we do it. However, the larger aspect of what the Center for Women Veterans do, does is to make sure that we are advocating to make sure that there is equitable outcomes for all the programs and all the benefits and the services and equitable access for our women veterans, both through education, through information awareness, outreach and collaboration. And it's part of the reason that we're here at DAV. It's this collaboration and outreach and information sharing that makes sure that we are giving all of our stakeholders the most up-to-date information that comes out of our office and out to the field. The vision has changed a little bit as well. It is about empowerment. It's not about what can VA do for you, but it is about empowering our women veterans to make sure that they achieve their life goals in partnership and through the programs and benefits that VA provides. So the mandate for the Center for Women Veterans is to make sure that we advise the programs and policies that's related to women veterans, making sure that we disseminate some of the research and support the Independent Advisory Committee. So from an advocacy standpoint, you've probably heard that several VA medical centers have been named after women veterans. Out of all of our 150 VA medical centers, only five have been named. Why is that important? Because you cannot be what you cannot see. If you do not, if our young women, our young girls, do not see that their service, their contributions, that their sacrifices are being acknowledged in the same way, why would they want to join the military? This is part of why it is a national security issue as well. How we treat our women veterans is part of that conversation. Why this is important though is because in the last two years, even though in that number five, there's three that were named in the last two years. In between that first and second, second and third, there's 12 years in between. It is because of the renewed effort and the focus, not only of the Center, but the Secretary empowering us to make sure that we get that message across. From a policy perspective, not only we're working on the White House initiative on A&H PI, making sure that our women veterans in the territories in different countries all get the same services and benefits that our women veterans here enjoy, but we're also now part of the White House interagency group working specifically on gender, ending gender based violence. The last one we're working on is actually on STEM scholarship. We know that when women get into STEM fields, there's a higher likelihood for a higher salary wage. So that means that gives them options and so we're trying to make sure that we're working with partners to open up those avenues for women veterans to get into STEM careers and that's to open up those STEM scholarship that we have. The outreach we have, I'm not going to belabor this point, but we have done quite a bit in the last few years, FFRDCs, our conferences, our webinars. One of the things that I want to make sure that I highlighted though that in the last four weeks we did three webinars on PACT Act and we engaged almost 3,000 women veterans in four weeks. A focused approach gains a lot of rewards and gains for our women veterans and so that's part of the work that we're doing. On the research side we've been, you've heard about the NDAA unemployment study on women veterans, the IPV research study on intimate partner violence which is part of the Debra Sampson Act. We delivered in March, we're working on the National Task Force and the last one is the women veterans survey. We are revamping the women veterans survey. Do not quote me but we are hoping to get that over this year by November. I'm not going to go through all of these slides but the important point of this slide in particular is that women veterans post 9-11 are finding that they are more or less underemployed than their civilian counterparts and that making sure that we are providing the support for women veterans in unemployment and underemployment more robustly. I will not read you all of this if you want to take a screenshot you can but one of the things that's important to note on this is that physical trauma, mental MST, mental health and military transition are critical areas for our women veterans to make sure that they have a healthy transition especially also in getting gainful employment. So partners and stakeholders I love this monthly engagement that we have because this is our ability to reach across the nation and around the world by having these monthly partners and stakeholders meetings right now we do it virtually sometimes we'll do it in person but this is an opportunity for our stakeholders to be able to not only receive the information up to date straight from the office and secretary but also for us to hear from our community on the great things that they're doing and also to share with the community how they can uplift each other on the work that they're doing among them Ms. Naomi which we love seeing her face on our little squares and the other part is also we do the webinars I talked a little bit about what we've been doing with the PACT Act webinars we've we're engaging in the conference this engagement Ms. Anna Claudio who is out in our booth out here please stop by her booth we have an amazing outreach team that comes out to all of these events and then the partnerships and relationships through formal MOUs those are hugely important because that's the only way we can do it we can do the work for women veterans is to do it together. You've heard about probably the Trailblazers initiative where we uplift the women veterans who are doing amazing amazing things out in the community we're proud this year to have women veteran Trailblazers from Puerto Rico from Germany but that also shows that our women veterans are everywhere so we have to make sure that we are not overlooking those other areas because we don't see them so the women veterans authors book that's an opportunity for us to be able to highlight women veteran authors all kinds of genres so any of you who are artistic in nature please let us know we would love to highlight your book this is and I'm not invisible campaign made your hand if you've heard of it right okay so I'm not invisible campaign started back in 2017 and it is a campaign a photographic campaign to highlight and show where women veterans are at in our communities in 2023 we are sunsetting it not to go away forever but we're giving it to the VA medical centers because we are I'm going to preview it to you now because this is not yet public but we are starting the I am campaign so for those of you who heard me earlier one of the biggest areas that we have as a hurdle is women veterans self identifying and associating with their veteran status so how can we overcome that so with the I am campaign it will still be a photographic campaign in full color but on one part we're going to ask our women veterans to tell us what is the most positive adjective actually three someone tell you but your most positive adjective you have for yourself that you can label yourself okay okay the conqueror one more descriptor what is excellent right and then at the bottom part it'll say I am a veteran or I am a woman veteran we haven't decided yet but part of the reason for that is to make sure that we associate positively our status as a veteran with the most powerful positive word that you can give to yourself it is grace to yourself but it's also associating your veteran status in a positive way so watch out for that it's coming the advisory committee I talked a little bit already about this one of the things that I will highlight is we are employing some sophisticated technologies to take all of the reports that have happened since 1988 this is when the first advisory committee take all of those reports find the trend lines and then figure out how can we attack the issues that are pervasive and perennial about women veterans so we're not only looking at the reports themselves but we're looking at it in a sophisticated fashion the cultural transformation I'll just highlight the bystander intervention training because it is amazing it is a way for you if you see someone being harassed someone being harangued you this is a way for you to be able to make sure that you can intervene you can use this not only via medical centers but also in the grocery stores these are just some of the on our ongoing transformation efforts the medallion of strength is something that you can download from our website a lot of times we don't have like the DAV you have like the your regalia your hats for some of the women veterans out there who are not part of DAV they don't have another way to show that and so the medallion of strength is one way for them to show have it a t-shirt have it in a mug a pin but this is a way to show that they are a woman veteran the my journey workshop this is created by the EO in collaboration with us and this is a way for women veterans to be able to look through and work through their transition process in a facilitated way so that they can access VA benefits and programs by show by letting us know what it is that they're trying to accomplish the last thing is this economic empowerment which is really getting women veterans money there's six hundred billion dollars in contracting be billion five percent is what we're trying to get for women veterans are women owned small businesses so any of you who are entrepreneurs out there there's a lot of money out there so this is one way that we're trying to get this through the VAX this is the last thing the Pacific Region VAX for women veterans is happening August 31 to September 1 in Hawaii this is our up a one-stop shop to get any issue that you have any issue is it your claim is your health care is it an appointment any issue that you have to be resolved not in months not in days not in weeks but that same call so it's happening August 31 to the September 1 the PACT Act as you know August 9th deadline that just means that you have to make sure to apply for your intent to file or file your claim before August 9 so that you have the opportunity to get the one year's worth all the way back to August 2022 for your benefits make sure that you don't fall to scams you should not ever have to pay these are ways that you can engage VA some of the resources and here's how to reach us thank you so much thank you so much Lordess okay let me tell you Lordess and I are constantly running into each other on the hill at round tables events and hearings we even ran into each other at the White House so she works very hard for our women veterans and we thank her all right we're switching it up a bit this year I know we don't like change but it took a lot to get you three leading guest speakers for today so in the interest of time on your DAV app if you select today's seminar you are able there's a chat function in there you are able to put a question in the chat if you put your question in the chat we will look it over and just put in there this is for Mike this is for Dr. Dr. Miller this is for Lordess and put the question in the chat and we will forward that on to their teams and get them their questions all right so again if you select today's seminar in the in the DAV events app there's a chat function and go ahead and put your question in there and we will get it to them so while some of you are working on that one common issue we frequently hear is I've been appointed as the women veterans committee advisor for my chapter or department but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do and my commander isn't sure either so where do we start that is not an uncommon question you must go to DAV.org if you click on get help now veterans resources and then click on women veterans there you will see an advisors guide I also we also gave it out to you as you walked in the door there's also a plethora of other information there to help you another way is to just go to the search function on our website type in advisors guide or women veterans and it'll come up for you another question we hear how do I become a women veterans committee committee advisor for my chapter or department does anyone know speak to your chapter or your department adjutant or command or your commander and if they have any questions have them contact me and we can get them squared away in the room right now will all of the women veteran committee advisors please stand are you if you're in the room go ahead and stand if you are a committee at a woman for your department or for your chapter it's not just the interim committee there you go so if you have any first of all let's give them a hand thank you for what you do and if you have any questions on how to become an advisor for your state your chapter please go ahead and ask one of these fine ladies all right I want to also thank the active duty Air Force personnel the two women back there go ahead wave your hand I want to thank them they're hauling boxes they're handing out bags they're giving out flyers they're answering questions so I want to thank them so much for their assistance today that's right Air Force all right and Army and Navy and Coast Guard I was waiting for it and Space Force I want to thank each of our guest speakers for the candid conversation and for being the leading subject matter experts in your respective fields I have tremendous respect for each and all of you and I want to personally thank you for working so well with us and I look forward to continuing our work together I want to thank everyone for joining us today and I hope the presentations and conversation helped everyone who attended this session as well as the my journey workshop from this morning everyone should have received one bag per attendee when they came in if we ran out I'm sorry we do not have any more on hand or in supply don't forget that the vet center is here on site for you Julie is standing right here if you need her and now we need to skedaddle and get out of here so thank you