Kristofer Goldsmith served in the U.S. Army as a forward observer, separating in 2007 at the rank of sergeant. He deployed with the 3rd Infantry Division in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2005. Kris has since become an advocate for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and those with less-than-honorable discharges. He is the founder and chair of High Ground Veterans Advocacy, which partners with veterans service organizations to train vets to become grassroots advocates and leaders in their local communities. Kris currently serves as the assistant director for policy and government relations at Vietnam Veterans of America. He is also a member of Truman National Security Project’s defense council.The goal of High Ground Veterans Advocacy is to empower service members and veterans to become advocates and leaders in Washington DC, their home states, and local communities. Service members and veterans will receive instruction and training to communicate and network with other Military Service Organizations (MSOs) Veteran Service Organization (VSOs), directly engage with the media, write opinion editorials, properly use social media, and effectively engage with elected and appointed government officials. Service members and veterans trained by High Ground Veterans Advocacy will be encouraged to pursue leadership roles within their respective local VSO chapters. High Ground Veteran Advocacy will perform detailed research on military and veterans’ issues, and will propose legislative and administrative solutions to problems faced by the military and veteran community. High Ground Veterans Advocacy will train at least one class of service members and veterans per year to develop highly effective teams focused on educating government officials and the general public on a variety of veterans issues. High Ground Veterans Advocacy teams will work to promote improvements to the transition process when veterans leave the military, healthcare and education, and to expand veterans’ access to all earned [email protected]://www.highgroundvets.org/@KrisGoldsmith85https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristofer-goldsmith-7920a089http://taskandpurpose.com/author/kristofer-goldsmith/