The Women Veterans Employment Initiative, a cooperative effort by Veterans' Employment and Training Service, Women's Bureau, and the Office of the Secretary, kicked off with a listening session on June 19 in Washington, D.C., to discuss challenges for women veterans seeking employment. Approximately 75 attendees gathered to begin a dialogue on creating pathways to economic opportunity for women who are transitioning from military service. In his welcoming remarks, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Veterans Employment and Training Keith Kelly summarized the effort: "At the Department of Labor, we strive to honor your contributions every day. We do this by putting the full weight of our department behind programs to help ensure that rewarding careers are available to veterans when they come home." Women's Bureau Acting Director Latifa Lyles said that the initiative "will identify distinct women veteran economic and employment needs and determine how to maximize the department's resources to meet these needs." Later, attendees broke off into discussions at tables named for notable women veterans, where they discussed issues such as what communication methods will engage the women veterans' communities to ensure access to resources and employment opportunities. Nine days earlier, women veterans who are employees of the department held their own listening session. Feedback from both events will be incorporated into the strategic development of the initiatives' activities and will help drive increased engagement by the department with efforts to help women veterans find good jobs.
• Visit the New Women Veterans Website
• Read the Women's Bureau's Trauma Guide
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Veterans' Employment and Training Service Teresa Gerton.
Teresa W. Gerton has been named deputy assistant secretary for policy at the Veterans' Employment and Training Service. Gerton brings 28 years of service as an Army officer and a civilian member of the Senior Executive Service. Most recently, Gerton worked for The Cohen Group, a Washington, D.C., consulting company. Prior to that, Gerton served for eight years as a member of the SES in the Department of Defense. She also was executive deputy to the commanding general of the Army Materiel Command. Gerton's 20 years of military service included a position as executive officer for the Army's 1,200-soldier corps support maintenance battalion at Fort Hood, Texas, and as professor of economics at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.
Assistant Secretary of Labor for Veterans Employment and Training Keith Kelly speaks during the announcement of a jobs initiative with Goodwill Industries International at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., June 20, 2013.
The department has a number of initiatives underway to help female veterans effectively transition to civilian employment, Keith Kelly, the assistant secretary of labor who heads the Veterans' Employment and Training Service, said at the National Press Club on June 20. In his remarks in Washington, D.C., Kelly noted the launch of the Women Veterans Employment Initiative and the posting of a position for VETS' first full-time women veteran's program manager "who will focus solely on women veterans' employment." Goodwill Industries, which sponsored the event, announced an initiative to help 3,000 women veterans find jobs over the next two years.
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