Nathan Graeser
Director, Veteran Initiatives, SoCal Grantmakers
2022
Nathan Graeser is both a Social Worker and an Army Chaplain in the California National Guard. He serves on numerous local and national boards and is a national expert on policies and programs for supporting service-members transitioning out of the military. He has led multiple Veteran initiatives including Warrior Bards, the Los Angeles Veterans Collaborative and,
most recently with Southern California Grantmakers to build the first county-wide Veteran Peer Access Network. As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, he has worked tirelessly to counsel hundreds of veterans and their families who return home from war. He obtained a Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary, a Masters in Social Work, and a Doctorate in Social Work from the University of Southern California. Most recently, he was called up for the protests in downtown Los Angeles and a Balkan deployment with the 79th Infantry Brigade in December 2018. He lives in Highland Park in an eco-friendly house with chickens, bees and three small humans ages six, four, and two. His rock star wife, Rachel, makes it all possible.
This cannot be thought of as a conference or a summit. The stakes are simply too high and the data/conversation and methods to drive action more valuable/motivating than any gathering I have attended. I took more than 100 pages of notes and have shared them with my CBS News leadership team, anchors, producers, and correspondents. Nothing about this gathering was easy. The agony around this topic is real. But no one curious about it could ask for a more devoted, rational, or unflinching look into this dark but decipherable world.
