Mr. John Mikelson

In the past 2 years I have worked with the Veterans Liberty Center in Iowa City to host a monthly Coffee & Camaraderie that have expanded to six other Iowa Communities and a breakfast version I host in Mt Pleasant. The Mt Pleasant Breakfast committee is hosting our 3rd Vietnam Veterans Day Dinner this March. I have helped the Veterans Liberty Center create an Arts Studio for the vets to use and recieved grants to pay for instructors from the University of Iowa. We just stood up a Military and Veterans Employee Network at the University of Iowa with the help of thier Student Veterans Staff. I continue to advocate for rural veterans at both the Iowa Statehouse and Washington DC as a Wounded Warrior Project Advocacy Leader, supervising volunteers in each congressional district.I coninue to network with the VA Recovery in Action Committee made up of Inpatient and Outpatient staff and community support programs like VR&E, The University Student Veterans Office, County Veteran Service Officers and Iowa Workforce. my non profit , Midwest Military Outreach is the current operating umbrella for all my activities and allows me to share my knowledge and contacts across not just Iowa but the Upper Midwest. I feel i am one of the louder voices for rural veterans andstill find time to run my IT School. Future projects include setting up recovery programs with the Odysseus Project for Ukraine