Serving Those Who Served: NASWA's 2025 Veterans Conference

More than 300 people – including state and federal staff, employers, exhibitors and Veteran advocates from 42 states and the District of Columbia – recently gathered in Washington, DC for NASWA’s 12th Annual Veterans’ Conference.

Keynote speakers this year included retired Navy SEAL LT Jason Redman and Medal of Honor recipient Army SSG Clinton Romesha. Attendees also heard from Scott B. Sanders, NASWA’s President and CEO, Jim Lorraine, Bill Stierle, Emily Grandinetta, Natalee Snider and Sultan Camp and learned about entrepreneurship services available to Veterans through the U.S. Small Business Administration. Erica Holloway Logan from the U.S. Navy Maritime Industrial Base Program Office told the group about massive efforts underway to hire more people to build submarines, and a panel of employers and experts took a deep dive into the buildsubmarines.com initiative.

A panel of state Veterans program coordinators, along with USDOL VETS, discussed how their states adapted to Veterans Program Letter 05-24 in the past year. There were also 26 different workshops on a wide variety of topics and six states shared “Promising Practices” to better serve Veterans.

Receiving the 2025 Mark Sanders Award for Exceptional Veterans Service was the Texas Veterans Commission’s West Central District.

Thank you to all the presenters, sponsors and attendees for participating in this year’s conference. Check out the photo gallery here. Slide decks are available for registered attendees to view here. (You must log in with the email address you registered with and your confirmation number.)

The 13th Annual NASWA Veterans Conference will be July 8-10, 2026.