Virginia Tech Innovation Campus announces director of veterans center

Deborah Bradbard has been named as the founding director of the Boeing Center for Veteran Transition and Military Families, effective May 6.

Bradbard will lead the center and work alongside its partners The Boeing Company, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and Virginia Tech Innovation Campus leadership. She will provide strategic and operational leadership for optimal partner collaboration, engage stakeholders, and lead strategy to expand access to economic opportunities for veterans and military families across the greater Washington, D.C., metro area.

“In her new role as director of the Boeing Center, Dr. Bradbard will revolutionize the way the university serves its military and military-connected communities,” said Lance Collins, vice president and executive director of the Innovation Campus. “Her breadth of experience and relationships in this community makes her the ideal candidate for this position.”

Prior to joining the Innovation Campus, Bradbard was a senior researcher at the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University, where she developed key thought leadership and policy research that has shaped best-practices in veteran hiring and military spouse employment. A licensed clinical psychologist, she has managed enduring stakeholder partnerships, led multidisciplinary teams, and is a recognized subject matter expert on topics including military and veteran hiring, transition, financial readiness, military spouse employment, and military mental health. Previously, she served as the director of research and policy at Blue Star Families, the nation’s largest chapter-based organization focused on serving military families. Her work there highlighted enduring issues facing military families including child care, financial readiness, and spouse employment. As a military mental health consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton she developed evidence-based clinical support tools utilized across the military health system.

“The Center is key to Boeing’s commitment to ensuring our military-connected communities have the opportunity to build successful careers in aerospace and STEM fields,” said Linwood Ham, Boeing director of military and veteran affairs. “We look forward to working with Dr. Bradbard to serve our veterans and military families and realize the vision of the Boeing Center.”

Bradbard holds a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Auburn University and a master’s in public administration from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

Veterans are nationally underrepresented in graduate STEM education, comprising only 4 percent of enrolled graduate students. The Commonwealth of Virginia is home to more than 700,000 veterans, more than 20,000 are discharged from service in Virginia each year, and these individuals and their families need both career and college advice as they transition from national service to the next phases of their lives. Expanding the access of this community to STEM opportunities is crucial to the mission of the Innovation Campus, which aspires to be the most diverse graduate technology program in the nation.