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Show Summary
On today's episode, the 100th episode of Behind the Mission and the first podcast of 2023, we feature a special guest: Marine Corps Veteran and Assistant Secretary of the United States Department of Labor, the Honorable James D. Rodriguez, MA. Mr. Rodriguez joins the show to talk about the Veterans' Employment and Training Service and the benefits offered by the federal government to support employment for transitioning service members, veterans, and military spouses.
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 grantees served more than 331,000 veterans and military spouses across all Agency programs.
Mr. Rodriguez is an executive leader and proud veteran with more than 30 years of experience in the U.S. government, corporate sector, and 21 years in the United States Marine Corps. He possesses a comprehensive background in program management, interagency collaboration, and policy development. He also has extensive senior-level experience building and managing multi-million-dollar budgets and large diverse teams while meeting the expectations of the President of the United States and large corporate enterprises. Additionally, he has demonstrated experience with developing and leading large scale international and national programs with a commitment to operational excellence, risk management and quality assurance.
Mr. Rodriguez’s recent executive experience includes leadership roles within Deloitte LLP’s Government and Public Sector practice and BAE Systems, Inc. Government Relations department. He also previously served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Office of Warrior Care Policy, Office of the Secretary of Defense from 2014 through 2017.
Mr. Rodriguez earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Maryland, University College and a Master of Arts in International Commerce and Policy from the George Mason University, School of Public Policy. He also serves as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Government and Political Science in the University of Maryland, Global Campus.
PsychArmor Resource of the Week
This week’s PsychArmor resource of the week, is the PsychArmor course, Using the National Labor Exchange to Find Veterans to Hire. In this course, employers will learn how to utilize the national labor exchange to amplify their online recruiting strategy, gain access to special talent pipelines, and how to utilize other trusted partners to reach the maximum number of job seekers. You can find the link to this resource here: https://learn.psycharmor.org/courses/Using-the-National-Labor-Exchange-to-Find-Veterans-to-Hire
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Theme Music
Our theme music Don’t Kill the Messenger was written and performed by Navy Veteran Jerry Maniscalco, in cooperation with Operation Encore, a non profit committed to supporting singer/songwriter and musicians across the military and Veteran communities.
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.
Producer and Host Duane France is a retired Army Noncommissioned Officer, combat veteran, and clinical mental health counselor for service members, veterans, and their families. You can find more about the work that he is doing at www.veteranmentalhealth.com