Alex Balbir serves as the director for Independence Services. Prior to joining Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP), he served as a health care consultant supporting the Department of Defense Military Health System and as the deputy director and chief of operations for clinical research at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence. Alex is a Navy reservist, serving as a health care administrator in the Medical Service Corps.

He obtained his doctorate of philosophy in public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, focusing his research on sleep disorders in brain injury. He also has a master’s of business administration from the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School, focusing on organizational management and entrepreneurship.

Alex connects, serves, and empowers warriors in his role as independence services director.

The PsychArmor Resource of the Week is the PsychArmor course How to Talk to Someone with a Disability. As you’ve heard in this episode, a significant number of service members leave the military as a result of catastrophic injuries or illnesses, and this course is designed to equip volunteers with the knowledge and tools necessary to effectively and confidently communicate with someone who has a disability. You can find a link to the resource here: https://learn.psycharmor.org/courses/how-to-talk-to-someone-with-a-disability

 

This episode is sponsored by PsychArmor, the premier education and learning ecosystem specializing in military culture content. PsychArmor offers an online e-learning laboratory with custom training options for organizations.

Our theme music Don’t Kill the Messenger was written and performed by Navy Veteran Jerry Maniscalco, in cooperation with Operation Encore, a non profit committed to supporting singer/songwriter and musicians across the military and Veteran communities.