CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan vets group to step down later this spring

Iraq War veteran Allison Jaslow announced Thursday that she will step down from her role as CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America later this spring, prompting a search for the next leader of the veterans organization.

The group — founded in 2004 — has been a prominent and sometimes controversial voice in the veterans community over the last two decades, focused largely on issues impacting the youngest generation of American veterans.

Unlike most of the legacy veterans organizations, which have leadership changes annually, Jaslow is only the third CEO in the organization’s history. She is the group’s first female leader and its first openly gay chief executive.

Her departure comes after two years in the CEO role and more than nine years of work with the organization, including spearheading the organization’s “She Who Borne the Battle” campaign, which highlighted the contributions and needs of women veterans.

Jalsow said in recent years the organization has focused more on developing leadership training programs to elevate the voices of post-9/11 veterans and the challenges facing them.

“It’s a very rewarding thing to be able to bring veterans to Washington, D.C., invest in them, to train them, and give them the tools not just to advocate for our priorities but also themselves,” she said. “And those are tools that they take home to their communities where they can help other veterans advocate too.”

Jaslow served two combat tours in Iraq with the Army. She has also worked in multiple Capitol Hill posts and recently served as an adjunct professor at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.

In testimony before Congress on March 4, she delivered a blistering rebuke of lawmakers from both parties, saying that partisan fighting has blocked sensible compromises that can benefit veterans and all Americans.

“If you really want to get the backs of Post-9/11 generation veterans, how about you stop asking us and our fellow Americans to keep soldiering on when none of us is satisfied with the leadership we have in this country right now?” she said. “How about you follow my generation of veterans’ lead and make sacrifices on behalf of our country that prove that you’re worthy of the office that you hold?”

Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars era now make up about 30% of the nation’s veteran population, the second-largest segment behind the Vietnam War era. But they also make up about half of all veterans in the civilian workforce, a percentage that is expected to grow in coming years.