VETERANS
Women Veterans Interactive: Serving those who have served our country
BY S U E B A L DA N I
A
fter serving four years in the U.S. Navy, and being medically discharged after an accident, Ginger Miller had a difficult time transitioning back into civilian life. Because she joined the military right out of high school she was unskilled for many employment opportunities. “I did not transition well,” Miller said. Her husband, a Marine who was discharged before her, was suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder. “We ended up being homeless,” she added. “I knew no other female veterans. I was feeling down and out and ashamed of being homeless after serving my country. Even if I would’ve known where to look for help, I don’t know if I would have been strong enough to ask for it.” Miller ended up working three jobs, raising two young sons, and going to school whenever she found the time. She eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s in nonprofit and association management, and her life today is dramatically different. However, she never forgot those struggles and committed herself to making the
RIGHT: Bonnie Tavolazzi, Senior Strategic Adviser, Echo Five Group and 2020 Veteran Employee of the Year. Photo courtesy Bonnie Tavolazzi. BELOW: Ginger Miller, front row, second from left, and the group of female veterans invited to tour actor Tyler Perry’s new studios. Photo courtesy Ginger Miller.
transition smoother for other female veterans. In 2009, she founded John 14.2 Inc., a nonprofit that focused on veterans who suffered from PTSD – “not realizing that I also had my own issues as a woman veteran,” she said. Two years later, when Miller was a
commissioner and chair of the outreach and education committee of the Maryland Commission for Women, she decided she wanted to do something specifically to help women like herself and founded Women Veterans Interactive under the umbrella of John 14.2. WVI grew so quickly that it became its own
THE BUSINESS VOICE
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SUMMER 2021
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