On this episode, we feature a conversation with Justin Schmitt, Senior Deputy of Corporate Responsibility at USAA, a financial services brand dedicated to serving the U.S. Military Community. On this episode, we talk about one of USAA’s social support initiatives, Face the Fight, a coalition that is working to break the stigma surrounding suicide in the military community by raising awareness and fostering real, open conversations around support and hope.

Justin Schmitt serves as senior deputy of Corporate Responsibility (CR) at USAA, a financial services brand dedicated to serving the U.S. military community. He leads a high-performing team that directs corporate citizenship investments to positively impact our nation’s military families and USAA’s local communities while helping to activate employee engagement, drive operational efficiencies, and elevate stakeholder engagement and connectivity. He serves as an officer of The USAA Foundation, Inc., and provides oversight of enterprise philanthropic investment policies, procedures, and related governance to ensure high standards of compliance and risk management associated with philanthropic investments.

Since 2015, USAA has more than doubled its annual philanthropic giving. Between 2015-20, USAA’s CR team directed more $200M philanthropically to nonprofit organizations; approximately 60% directly in support of currently serving military personnel, veterans, and their families. USAA’s corporate citizenship program achieves top quartile levels of employee engagement through innovative giving and volunteer programs. Annually, USAA employees contribute approximately $10M to nonprofits and log nearly 200K volunteer hours, results that reinforce the company’s values and put USAA in top-quartile levels of employee citizenship engagement.

In 2020, the USAA CR team deployed more than $40 million in grants to assist military families and local communities impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, including the innovative Military Family Relief Initiative. The team also developed a place-based strategy for a $50M, three-year (2020-22) commitment to advance racial equality in education and employment, with the desired end-state to close the racial earnings gap. USAA CR ranked No.1 In FORTUNE Magazine’s “Most Admired Companies List” and has received the nonprofit Blue Star Families’ Constance J. Milstein award for innovative military philanthropy.

Justin was a Mayborn Scholar at the University of North Texas, where he earned a Master of Journalism degree and taught undergraduate classes. He received a Bachelor of Arts in communication from Tarleton State University, part of the Texas

 

This week’s PsychArmor resource of the week is the PsychArmor Course, Suicide in Military and Veterans. IN this course, Dr. Craig Bryan, a nationally recognized leader in the effort to reduce SMVF suicide, provides an overview of military suicide statistics and explains unique factors that may be related to increased rates in military suicide.

 

You can see find the course here: 

 

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.