Notre Dame expands military support with mental health and leadership courses in partnership with the Military Spouse Advocacy Network

Published:October 10, 2024

Author:Sue Ryan

Honor, service and commitment to mission are values shared by the University of Notre Dame and the United States military. This fall, the University's long history of support for the armed forces, veterans and their families will be extended to a new partnership with the Military Spouse Advocacy Network (MSAN), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to create stronger military families through education, empowerment and support.

Notre Dame faculty and its military-connected community are working with MSAN to offer two online courses for military spouses - one focused on ethical leadership skills in support of professional development and the other on developing skills to promote resilience and mental health, which is the latest in a series of significant commitments the University has made to fighting the nation's mental health crisis.

Courses will be developed and presented by faculty of the William J. Shaw Center for Children and Families, the Veldman Family Psychology Clinic and the Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership, who are partnering with Notre Dame Learning's Office of Digital Learning on the design of effective online content.

"For generations, Notre Dame has valued its commitment to and support of the men and women who serve in the armed forces, and we are honored to expand our relationship through this program," University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., said. "This new partnership allows us to share our scholarship and research to support service members and their families who sacrifice so much for our country."

MSAN will administer and launch the not-for-credit courses beginning in the spring of 2025 to an anticipated cohort of 50 military spouses.

The mental health course series aims to support military spouses in dispelling mental health myths, identifying mental health risks that are more common in military communities, and developing skills to promote wellness for themselves, their families, friends and peers. In doing so, military spouses will develop skills to practice and model self-care, support emotional resilience and act in times of stress.

The ethical leadership series reflects the Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership's mission to inform, equip and inspire values-based leadership, and will cover topics such as conflict management, voicing values at work and honesty and empathy in decision-making. In covering these skills, the aim is for military spouses to become leaders who foster resilient and flourishing communities.

"In alignment with our strategic framework commitments on ethics and mental health, Notre Dame faculty are honored to design and deliver the material for both courses responding to emergent military family needs," said John T. McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost. "This is a tremendous opportunity to provide cross-disciplinary expertise to help address the immediate and pressing issues facing service members and their families."

In 2017, the University launched the Office of Military and Veterans Affairs (OMVA) to expand its support for Notre Dame-enrolled veterans and their families, active-duty and ROTC students and those who are dependents of service members. Ken Heckel, a 23-year veteran and retired lieutenant colonel in the United States Army, serves as OMVA's director and has helped to facilitate Notre Dame's partnership with MSAN.

"Inspired by Notre Dame's mission to remain a global force for good, our colleagues across the University have come together, in partnership with MSAN, to design a comprehensive program that will greatly benefit our nation's military spouses and families," Heckel said. "Our goal is to help empower military spouses to be ethical leaders in their communities, and to also serve as mental health advocates and positive agents of change."

The Notre Dame-MSAN partnership is a multidisciplinary campus project. It involves faculty and staff from 10 organizations who are developing the partnership and the logistics of course creation and delivery. The project is being spearheaded and resourced by Notre Dame Research with the support of OMVA, the College of Arts and Letters, the Mendoza College of Business, Notre Dame Learning's Office of Digital Learning, the Office of Public Affairs and Communications, the William J. Shaw Center for Children and Families, the Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership, the Veldman Family Psychology Clinic and the Mental Health Initiative.

Media contact: Sue Ryan, [email protected]

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