Veterans Day Commemoration

Please join Maj. Allison Brager, Ph. D. ’11, science and technology advisor for the U.S. Special Operations Command and NATO Special Operations Headquarters, as she delivers the keynote address at our annual Veterans Day Commemoration. 

The commemoration pays tribute to all who served and are serving our nation in its armed forces. An appreciation lunch for veterans, service members and their guests will immediately follow the ceremony. This event will be livestreamed for those unable to attend in person. The deadline to RSVP is Friday, Nov. 1. 

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About the Keynote Speaker
Maj. Allison Brager, Ph. D. ’11, serves as a science and technology advisor for the U.S. Special Operations Command and NATO Special Operations Headquarters. She direct commissioned into the Army in 2017 after coming to the storied Center for Military Psychiatry and Neuroscience at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (Silver Spring, Maryland) as a National Academies of Sciences research fellow.

In 2018, Brager deployed to the Middle East with the 1st Armored Division (Fort Bliss, Texas) as part of a Mental Health Advisory Team (MHAT) in support of the Global War on Terrorism. In the earliest days of the pandemic,  Brager led a humanitarian deployment to New York City with the 1st Medical Brigade (Fort Cavazos, Texas) to run the clinical lab in the field support hospital constructed within the Jacob Javits Convention Center.  Brager also served as the Army’s first-ever female commander to the Mobile Exhibit Company (est. 1936; Fort Knox, Kentucky), a fleet of semi-trucks supporting Army recruiting. Brager is presently undergoing assessment and selection to be a NASA astronaut having been a semifinalist in the NASA astronaut pipeline Class of 2020.

She received a Ph.D. from the Department of Biological Sciences at Kent State University in 2011 after completing a Bachelor of Science at Brown University in 2007. In addition to spending part of her career as a professional athlete under the Army’s World Class Athlete Program,  Brager coaches high school and collegiate track and field, having served as the long jump, high jump and pole vault coach for Cuyahoga Falls High School during her time attending Kent State University. She is a valedictorian of Youngstown-Boardman High School in Ohio and has a wife (Valerie) and two rescue dogs (Carter and Annie) who reside in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.