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Where Healing Meets Community: Inside the 9th Annual Serving Those Who Served Conference

Attendees stand for the national anthem at the Serving Those Who Served conference in Wenatchee. Photo: WDVA 

Step outside the doors of the Wenatchee Convention Center, and you were immediately met with a soft, amber haze hanging over the Columbia River Valley. The smoky sky was a quiet, visceral reminder of the fast-moving wildfires being fought across the region, and of the first responders and military personnel standing on the front lines to keep communities safe. 

Inside the convention center, however, the air was filled with a different kind of intensity—an overwhelming, palpable energy of hope, urgency, and connection. 

 With over 460 registered attendees packing the hallways and breakout rooms, the 9th Annual Serving Those Who Served Conference was standing-room only. Co-hosted by the Washington Department of Veterans Affairs (WDVA), the Employment Security Department (ESD), and the Washington State Arts Commission (ArtsWA), the event brought together state executives, tribal leaders, caseworkers, artists, and combat veterans. 

For those who have been attending for years, the atmosphere didn’t feel like a rigid government summit. It felt like a massive family reunion. Old comrades embraced in the hallways, caseworkers reconnected across county lines, and strangers became brothers and sisters in a shared mission: Save and Transform Lives. 

 

The Tri-Agency Vision: A Unifying Safety Net 

The core philosophy of this year’s conference rested on a singular truth: no individual agency, hospital, or clinical program can solve the complex challenges facing veterans on its own. True recovery requires a wrap-around safety net that combines healthcare, economic security, and creative healing. 

WDVA Director David Puente, Jr. speaks at the conference in Wenatchee: Photo: WDVA 

 

Leading with Empathy and Equity 

Opening the conference, WDVA Director David Puente, Jr. set an inspiring tone grounded in lived experience. Born to a family of migrant farmworkers in Florida, Puente served as a U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) Sergeant before dedicating over three decades to public service. As an “equity warrior,” Puente leads WDVA with deep empathy for vulnerable populations. 

Under his leadership, WDVA partners and service officers filed over 17,000 claims last year, bringing $3.6 billion in earned VA benefits directly into Washington’s local economies. Puente also highlighted major capital initiatives, including a $146 million request for a new Spokane Veteran Home and a $29 million project for a second state veterans cemetery in the Tri-Cities. 

Yet, for Puente, the work always comes back to the individual. He recounted taking a personal phone call late on a Friday afternoon from a homeless veteran in severe crisis, dropping his administrative duties to ensure that single human being received housing resources and lived to see the next day. 

“Saving lives can mean intervening in a moment of crisis… Transforming lives means helping people move beyond immediate survival. It means restoring purpose, stability, dignity, health, and connection.” 

— David Puente, Jr., Director, WDVA 

Economic Dignity as Upstream Suicide Prevention 

Co-host Martin McMurry, Interim Commissioner of the Employment Security Department (ESD), delivered an emotional, career-defining perspective on workforce integration. McMurry’s late father was a 30-year Army Command Sergeant Major who went on to serve 15 years as an ESD Veteran Representative. McMurry recalled growing up and seeing Christmas cards arrive every year from formerly impoverished, barriered veterans whom his father had helped place into family-wage careers. 

Martin McMurry, Interim Commissioner of the Employment Security Department, addresses attendees in Wenatchee. Photo: WDVA 

Through ESD’s statewide WorkSource network—which includes more than 50 centers and dedicated Disabled Veterans’ Outreach Program (DVOP) specialists—McMurry framed job placement, Paid Family & Medical Leave, and unemployment safety nets not as mere administrative functions, but as upstream suicide prevention. Securing a stable job eliminates financial panic, restoring dignity and purpose before a veteran reaches a breaking point. 

“I saw as a kid generational poverty end, and a new family way begin… My dad worked at Employment Security for 15 years specifically serving veterans. To be here in this role… I feel at peace, and I feel like this is where I want to be.” 

— Martin McMurry, Interim Commissioner, ESD 

Creating vs. Destroying: The Power of Art 

 Bryan Bales, Program Manager for ArtsWA’s Wellness, Arts, and the Military (WAM) program, addressed the third pillar of the state coalition. As a Marine Corps veteran and certified peer counselor, Bales directly challenged military stereotypes surrounding creative practice. He recalled a fellow Marine once asking him dismissively if his job was just getting guys home from war to “finger paint”. 

 Bales dismantled that myth, showing how blacksmithing, woodworking, music, poetry, and tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons provide alternative non-clinical outlets. Through ArtsWA’s Self-directed Art Practice (SAP) grants—which put up to $3,000 directly into the hands of military-connected individuals—veterans are given the tools to process horrific combat trauma when language fails. 

 “You get a lot of military veterans who have spent time in training to destroy things, and now you get the opportunity to create something, to build something… that is profoundly healing.” 

— Bryan Bales, WAM Program Manager, ArtsWA 

Bryan Bales, Program Manager for ArtsWA‘s Wellness, Arts, and the Military (WAM) program speaks with a conference attendee in Wenatchee. Photo: WDVA 

Voices from the Floor: Turning Pain into Beauty 

Wandering through the conference gallery, the abstract concept of “non-clinical healing” took on vivid, unforgettable human form.  

“My Art Has Become My Heart” 

Army veteran Ruth Esther One Oak shared one of the most raw and triumphant testimonies of the entire conference. A survivor of military sexual trauma and captive assault while stationed at Fort Hood, Ruth Esther survived physically but felt utterly shattered mentally. Years later, following a suicide attempt, a therapist urged her to revisit the sewing skills she had taught herself during her service. 

Utilizing an ArtsWA grant, Ruth Esther purchased materials to craft a masterwork leather dress titled “Behold! Make me whole.” Hand-bending and hand-sewing individual patches of leather into delicate flowers, she symbolically patched her own soul back together. Today, her art has elevated her to teach classes at the Tacoma Art Museum. 

“I was raped in the Army… I survived physically, but not mentally. My therapist knew I taught myself art… This leather dress, ‘Behold! Make me whole’—this is how I have patched myself. My art has become my heart.” 

— Ruth Esther One Oak, U.S. Army Veteran & Artist 

Artist and United States Army veteran Ruth Esther One Oak alongside her work “Behold! Make me whole”. Photo: WDVA 

Alternative Pathways & Clinical Proof 

 Other veteran artists showcased equal resilience: 

  • Cori Bryant, a seven-year Army mechanic veteran, displayed stylized digital renderings created from photographs taken on veteran hikes and volunteer work at Growing Veterans farms, proving that talk therapy is not the only path to recovery. 
  • Nikki Visel from Path with Art provided scientific backing for these creative practices, citing a published study with the Johns Hopkins International Arts and Mind Lab that demonstrated dramatic improvements in mental and behavioral health through structured arts engagement. 
Frontline Operators: Cutting Down the Weeds 

On the exhibition floor and in breakout sessions, frontline caseworkers and outreach specialists demonstrated how state policy turns into direct action. 

  • Grassroots Outreach: Leland Cooper, a WDVA Outreach Coordinator and Army veteran, emphasized that real outreach means “showing up at barbershops, churches, and barbecues”. Cooper described his mission as “cutting down the administrative weeds” to provide a warm handoff so traumatized veterans never have to navigate cold bureaucracy or repeat their painful stories. 
  • Frontline Battle Buddies: Jerrell Briscoe (DVOP Specialist, WorkSource North Seattle), an Army Combat Engineer veteran, shared the story of helping an aging hospital manager who hadn’t interviewed in 30 years land a job, receiving a tearful phone call of gratitude. Similarly, Kodie Misiura (DVOP Specialist, Spokane County), a Marine Corps veteran, recounted helping a 60-year-old veteran who hadn’t seen a doctor in 15 years register for VA primary care, catching urgent health issues in time. 
  • Tribal and Rural Connectivity: Steven Gill, WDVA Veterans Services Administrator and Tribal Liaison, detailed collaborative networks across Washington’s 29 federally recognized tribes, ensuring rural Tribal Veterans Representatives (TVRs) receive technical training and state resources. 
  • Nature-Based Healing: Dave Konkler, Outreach Director for NineLine Veteran Services and an Army Tanker veteran injured in Ramadi and Tel Afar, explained how wilderness hikes address the root causes of crisis—such as isolation, job loss, and food insecurity. Konkler explicitly captured the warm energy of the conference, describing it as an annual “family reunion” where providers gather to support one another. 

 

Data Innovation & Unapologetic Equity 

Systemic transformation requires ensuring no marginalized group falls through the cracks. Leadership from the Washington State Office of Equity highlighted key collaborations with WDVA: 

  • The Homelessness Dashboard: Caitlyn McNabb, Director of Innovation and Impact at the Office of Equity, detailed how geospatial data mapping is being integrated into Washington’s Homelessness Dashboard to locate unstably housed veterans in rural communities who are completely disconnected from VA medical centers. 
  • Amplifying Women and Incarcerated Veterans: Jasmine Remick, an Office of Equity consultant and Army veteran (92F Fueler, Iraq), advocated passionately for women veterans through the Women Veterans Advisory Committee (WEVAC) and the #IAmNotInvisible campaign. Remick also pushed for standardized benefit access for justice-involved veterans inside Department of Corrections facilities, reminding attendees that a veteran’s service earned them rights regardless of their circumstances. 

 

The Call to Action: Positive Deviance and the “FUEL” Framework 

Command Sgt. Major (Ret.) John Wayne Troxell delivers his keynote address. Photo: WDVA 

The conference culminated in an explosive keynote address by Command Sergeant Major (Ret.) John Wayne Troxell, former Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (SEAC). 

Troxell shared a sobering statistic from Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany: For every 2 service members evacuated from Middle Eastern combat zones for physical wounds, 20 are evacuated for mental health crises.

To combat this epidemic, Troxell challenged every provider in the room not to settle for getting a veteran back to a basic “baseline” of survival, but to drive “Positive Deviance”—pushing veterans past baseline into vision, purpose, physical wellness, and community leadership. He outlined his personal FUEL framework for daily resilience: 

  • F – Feed the Positive, Starve the Negative: Practice an “Attitude of Gratitude”. 
  • U – Uplift Mind, Body, and Soul Daily: Commit to daily physical fitness, stretching, and reflection, noting that “health is wealth”. 
  • E – Encourage Yourself and Others: Remain accessible and maintain energy. 
  • L – Love Fuels the World: Let love for family, self, and service motivate thriving over surviving.

Following his speech, Director Puente presented Troxell with an inscribed state Entrenching Tool (E-Tool)—a nod to Troxell’s famous military speeches in Syria and Afghanistan. In this context, the E-tool represented an unyielding, ferocious commitment by Washington State to fight for veteran lives by any means necessary. 

“We are crossing through that threshold… getting veterans to plan for the future, to have a vision of what they want to do in their post-military life, to be purposeful… We don’t get burned out because we’re working too hard; we get burned out because we forget why we’re doing it.” 

— CSM (Ret.) John Wayne Troxell, Former SEAC 

CSM (Ret.) Troxell receives the inscribed state entrenching E-Tool. Photo: WDVA

 

Carrying the Mission Home

As attendees packed up their notebooks, exchanged final business cards, and stepped back out into the hazy Wenatchee afternoon, the true impact of the 9th Annual Serving Those Who Served Conference became clear.

The conference succeeded not merely because of its attendance, but because of the unbroken network it strengthened. By uniting healthcare benefits, economic security, creative arts, data-driven equity, and grassroots outreach under one banner, Washington State has established a national model for veteran care.

When providers returned to their home counties across the state, they carried back a renewed promise to every former service member: You are not alone. There is hope. You matter.