Summary:
Kristina (Kristy) Kaufmann is the CEO and co-founder of Code of Support Foundation. During her 11 years as a wartime Army wife, Kristy recognized that the mental impact on soldiers and families was not being appropriately addressed. Her determination to improve the approach for providing the support needed to endure repeated deployments often ruffled feathers among senior leadership but Kristy pressed on. Upon realizing that driving change from inside the system was ineffective, she wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post, titled “Army Families Under Fire.” The piece resulted in a platform upon which she and her co-founder, Major General Alan B. Salisbury, USA (R) built the Code of Support Foundation.
Kristy is considered a subject matter expert regarding the mental health impacts of war on military families, and her publications and media appearances include The Washington Post, New York Times, NPR, CNN, and other major network channels. Kristy is a leading force in the cross-sector collaboration drive to facilitate the public-private collaborations necessary to meet the needs of the military and veteran community. She is a 2017 Presidio Institute Fellow and a graduate of the University of California Berkeley.
In this Episode, you will learn:
- Kristy’s background and experince
- How an OpEd in the Washington Post brought a conversation out of the darkness
- Benefits and blowback from speaking out
- Code of Support Case Coordination Program
- The National Resource Directory
- PatriotLink
- Facilitating support for veterans and their families
Links Mentioned In This Episode:
The Code of Support Foundation
Army Families Under Fire article
Starving at the Feast: A Parable of Military Transition
Code of Support on Social Media:
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Do you want to check out Duane’s latest book, Combat Vet Don’t Mean Crazy: Veteran Mental Health in Post-Military Life
