Columbia University Center for Veteran Transition and Integration Announces Interim Executive Director

The Columbia University Center for Veteran Transition and Integration (CVTI) has appointed Jason Dempsey Interim Executive Director of the Center. Dempsey has served as Senior Advisor to CVTI since 2017, joining soon after its launch.

The Center’s former Executive Director, Michael Abrams, has stepped down from his position to pursue expanded opportunities in civic service.

“After working closely with Jason for the last three years as we made great strides in advancing the mission of CVTI, I am confident he is perfectly positioned to assume the role of interim executive director and lead the Center as it enters the next phase of growth in expanding its support for transitioning military veterans and service members nationwide,” Abrams said.

Dempsey is one of the nation’s leading experts on military demographics and civilian-military relations. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, and holds a PhD in political science from Columbia University. During his military service, he deployed twice to Afghanistan and once to Iraq.

Between his tours to Afghanistan in 2009 and 2012, Dempsey spent two years in the White House, where he initially served as the First Lady’s White House Fellow and helped take the broad concept of military family support and turn it into Joining Forces, the First Lady and Dr. Biden’s comprehensive national initiative to mobilize all sectors of society to support our service members and their families. Among other initiatives, he also created and led an interagency data group to increase information sharing and analysis among government agencies seeking to improve transition services and to increase post-service employment opportunities for America’s veterans.

These experiences bringing together diverse individuals and organizations in support of veterans and service members—particularly in their transition to civilian society—positioned Dempsey to provide expert guidance to CVTI as it worked to aggressively establish and expand programming after its initial launch. 

Abrams has served as executive director of CVTI since its opening in the fall of 2017. Under his leadership, the Center has grown significantly, launching three free online MOOCs available to veterans nationwide—Attaining Higher Education, designed to facilitate the successful transition of active duty service members and veterans to postsecondary education, Find Your Calling: Career Transition Principles for Returning Veterans, providing guidance to help veterans succeed in the civilian workforce, and University Studies for Student Veterans, a course led by a team of Columbia University academic advisors with more than 20 years of experience that offers strategies for academic success in navigating the transition from military service to the college classroom. 

In addition, the Center offers several mini-courses and microlessons, designed to allow students who may not have the time or resources to engage with the full curriculum and achieve meaningful learning outcomes in a fraction of the time it would take to complete the more comprehensive MOOC series. 

“Mike Abrams has done a tremendous service to our nation’s veterans in standing up CVTI and building such a robust program,” said Dempsey. “It is an honor to step in and help expand the Center’s reach as Mike moves on to his next chapter of service.”

###

About the Columbia University Center for Veteran Transition and Integration
Columbia University launched the Center for Veteran Transition and Integration to have a direct and lasting impact on the issue of veteran transition and upward mobility by creating and providing access to the best-in-class tools and programming veterans need as they transition from active service to college and the workforce. By drawing on the lessons and experiences gained working with service members in transition over the past fifteen years, the Center is a national center of excellence, focused on ensuring transitioning veterans receive access to world class programming and support designed to maximize their potential in education and the workforce.

Contact
Christina Gray
Associate Director of Communications
(212) 851-4386
[email protected]