04 Jul July 5, 2016 – Veteran Entrepreneurship Week – HirePatriots’ Mark Baird & Operation GoodJobs’ Catherine Nichols & Ruth LaToison Ifill
“The audio file was removed when we switched hosts. Sorry. The cost was prohibitive. If you need the file, contact us and we will send it.”
Veteran Entrepreneurship Week
Mark Baird – CEO of HirePatriots.com and Author of The Patriotic Business Plan: Strategies for Sensational Success
Mark Baird markets and to recruits for businesses and to gets them free interviews on TV, radio, in the press and speaking engagements. He also post articles about these companies on his very popular website that is visited by thousands of US veterans, homeowners, and businesses every month. He wrote a best-selling book, The Patriotic Business plan: Strategies for Sensational Success, ans is the founder of Patriotic Hearts, a charitable effort to assist US military, veterans and their families. Their principle concern every day is assisting US veterans that have not yet found sustainable employment. They provide a job board for US military, veterans and their spouses, HirePatriots.com. It has a unique one-day/off-duty job board for active US military too. They counsel US veterans personally; rewrite their resumes; and post blogs every day, giving them advice, opportunities, encouragement, and direction. HirePatroits holds job fairs. They get US veterans interviews with decision makers. People Magazine has selected Mark and Tori Baird as their “Heroes Among Us.” US President GW Bush awarded him theCongressional Medal of Merit and President Obama gave him the Volunteer Service Medal.
Cat Nichols and Ruth LaToison Ifill on Operation GoodJobs
Catherine (Cat) M. Nichols – Strategic Operations Manager at Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs
Catherine Nichols is currently a Strategic Operations Manager at Washington State, but she has also worked as Program Manager: Financial, Transition, & Reintegration Services at Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs, Chairman of Veterans Employee Resource Group, Disabled Veterans Outreach Specialist at Washington State Employment Security Department, and Regional Manager Supervisor at Pacific Intercultural Exchange. She has received the WDVA Distinguished Service Award by the Washington State Department of Veterans Services as well as being named the Disabled Veterans Outreach Program Specialist of the Year 2010-2011. She currently does a wide range activities and responsibility for developing programs that provide direct services for veterans and their families on a statewide level, such as: grant proposals for Federal funding, monitor a large volume of budget and spending activity to ensure that all programs are operating within their allocated resources and within their spending plans, serve as the agency liaison to the Washington State Veterans Employee Resource Group and supervise the Washington State Military Transition Council Project Coordinator.
Ruth LaToison Ifill – Veterans & Military Families Program Manager at Goodwill Industries International
Ruth LaToison Ifill
Ruth LaToison Ifill is the veterans and military families program manager for Goodwill Industries International (GII). A military spouse, she joined GII in 2013 as the program manager for the Vested in Veterans program. As the veterans and military families program manager, she leads GII’s efforts to reskill and retrain veterans to put them back to work quickly in positions that give them the sustainability to support their families. Ifill manages GII’s national relationships with veteran-centric organizations and equips local Goodwill organizations to provide a high standard of service through a focus on wraparound services and community partnerships. Before coming to GII, she managed programs for a local nonprofit serving inner-city youth in Washington, DC. Ifill holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Howard University and is pursuing a Master of Organizational Development at Trinity Washington University.
