Board Of Directors
Director, Office of Disability and Integration Coordination, Federal Emergency Management Agency
Emeritus
Jay Town
Vice President & General Counsel,
Gray Analytics;
Former U.S. Attorney (NDAL)
W. Thomas Matthews
Former CEO, Smith Barney
Clint Romesha
SSG MoH Recipient
Mentor Founder
Col. Leo K. Thorsness, USAF Ret.
MoH Recipient | 1932 – 2017
National Advisory Council
Anthony Krepps
Scott Cooper
Ricky Derring
Jonathon A. Towers
Brittany Ritchie Sievers
Storm Nickerson
Board Bios
Kate Migliaro, Chairwoman
Ms. Migliaro is a US Army Veteran with 5 years active duty experience in the Military Police Corps. During her service, Ms. Migliaro deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan supporting and building local national law enforcement capabilities. She was awarded the FYo8 FORSCOM J.P Holland Award for best Military Police Company in the Army, the combat action badge and bronze star.
Prior to joining the Searchlight team in 2022, Ms. Migliaro was selected to support talent management and organizational effectiveness on the Apollo Portfolio Performance Solutions (APPS) team where she built the talent and diversity, equity, and inclusion playbooks to maximize portfolio company performance. In her previous roles, Ms. Migliaro has worked in generalist human capital roles as well as specialist roles in compensation. Today, she is focused on building management teams aligned to the value creation plan and driving organizational effectives through organizational design, compensation philosophy and leadership effectiveness.
Ms. Migliaro earned her degree in American Politics and Systems Engineering from the United States Military Academy. She is currently the Chairwoman of America’s Warrior Partnership’s Board of Directors and is an advocate for veteran employment.
Jeremy King, Secretary
Jeremy King is the founder and President of Benchmark Executive Search. For almost 25 years, Jeremy has played a strategic role in building the leadership teams for many hundreds of growth companies, including noteworthy publicly-traded success stories. His sterling reputation as a trusted advisor transcends his network of many thousands of executives, investors, and industry insiders. This trust ties deeply into the highest-levels of the federal government, which has forged a network with senior government officials within the intelligence, defense and national security communities. He has helped transition and guide hundreds of top federal executives and flag-officers into private sector, consulting, advisory and board roles.
The Honorable John Vonglis, Treasurer
John Vonglis is a senior advisor to GAMCO Investors, Inc. Prior to this, he served as the Senate confirmed Chief Financial Officer of the U.S. Department of Energy. Concurrently, John was appointed by the President as acting Director of the Energy department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E). He served also as Chief Risk Officer. John’s international business experiences, from analyst to CFO and COO, include positions within aerospace/defense, management consulting, energy, high-technology, telecommunications, and alternative investments. From 2002 – 2009, John served at the Department of Defense in a series of positions, culminating as acting Assistant Air Force Secretary (CFO). Additionally, he performed the duties of the Under Secretary. In 2000, Mr. Vonglis was a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. He holds BS and MBA degrees from Fordham University, and an MIPP degree from The Johns Hopkins University (SAIS). John is a retired Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve with 34 years’ service in Army and Joint service special operations. In addition to his operational assignments, he has lectured at the U.S. Military Academy and advised the Army Cyber Institute.
Jim Lorraine, President
Jim Lorraine, the president and CEO of America’s Warrior Partnership, served in the U.S. Air Force as a Flight Nurse with nine combat deployments and retired as the Deputy Command Surgeon for the United States Special Operations Command after 22 years of service. He became the founding director of the United States Special Operations Command Care Coalition and served as Special Assistant for Warrior and Family Support to the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The Honorable Thomas Bowman
The Honorable Thomas G. Bowman currently serves as the CEO of TGB Strategies Inc. TGB Strategies is an exclusive consulting firm that provides expert advice and consulting services to clients desiring to do business with federal, state, and local governments.
Before his tenure at TGB Strategies, Mr. Bowman served as the seventh Deputy Secretary of the US Department of Veterans Affairs (DEPSEC). He served as the VA DEPSEC from 3 August 2017 until 15 June 2018. As DEPSEC, Secretary Bowman was the Chief Operating Officer for the Department, responsible for a nationwide system of healthcare services, benefits programs, and national cemeteries for the nation’s Veterans and their dependents.
Before serving as the VA DEPSEC, Mr. Bowman was the Majority Staff Director of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee (SVAC). Prior to his tenure as the SVAC Staff Director, Mr. Bowman served nearly ten years (2002 – 2012) in the US Department of Veterans Affairs, with assignments to include Chief of Staff to two previous VA secretaries, Secretary Jim Nicholson and Secretary James Peake.
Mr. Bowman’s other VA assignments included Deputy Chief of Staff, Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Legislative Affairs, Acting Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs, and Executive Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs. For three and a half years, he served as Senior Advisor to the Director of VA’s Sunshine Healthcare Network, caring for Veterans in Florida, southeast Georgia, and the Caribbean, directly involving him in VA’s diverse field operations.
The son of a career Navy Chief and enlisted pilot who was at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked, Mr. Bowman was commissioned in the United States Marine Corps through NROTC at the University of Texas in 1969. He served 30 years in the Marine Corps as an infantry and Judge Advocate Officer, including 21 years on active duty. Mr. Bowman retired as a colonel in October 1999 after serving as Senior Military Assistant to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. Before joining the VA, he worked three years as an attorney in private practice, concentrating on military and Veterans issues.
Mr. Bowman holds a law degree from Western New England College School of Law in Springfield, Mass., and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Texas at Austin. His wife Joan died of ovarian cancer in 2013, after 41 years of marriage. He has three grown children and seven grandchildren. His younger son and daughter-in-law both serve in the United States Coast Guard.
Jim Hull
Jim Hull is the founder and managing principal of Hull Property Group. He has led the acquisition, development and redevelopment in excess of 70 big-box retail, neighborhood and regional shopping centers, including the acquisition of 34 enclosed regional malls, many of which comprise the Company's approximate 18 million plus square feet of owned retail portfolio located in 16 states.
Jim is a lifelong resident of Augusta, Georgia and is an active communicant of the Church of the Good Shepherd. He currently serves on the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, and on the boards of the Community Foundation of the CSRA and America's Warrior Partnership. He previously served as the Chair of the AU Health System and on the boards of the Medical College of Georgia Foundation, State of Georgia's REACH Scholarship Program, Georgia Research Alliance, and the University System of Georgia Foundation.
Jim endowed the Hull Scholars programs at the Hull College of Business at Augusta University, Paine College and Vanderbilt University. He is a long-standing member of the United Way's Alexis de Tocqueville Society and has been honored with the United Way's Founders Award. Jim received the President's Award from Augusta University, the Liberty Bell Award from the Augusta Bar Association, and the Philanthropist of the Year Award from the Society of Fundraising Professionals. He is a Rotary Club Paul Harris Fellow, past president of the Augusta Assembly, and has been inducted in Junior Achievement's Business Hall of Fame and Beta Gamma Sigma's Honor Society. Jim is a recipient of an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Augusta University.
Sherman Gillums Jr.
Sherman Gillums Jr., a native of Buffalo, New York, serves as FEMA’s disability coordinator and the director of its Office of Disability Integration and Coordination (ODIC), located in the agency’s Washington D.C. headquarters. In his role, Sherman advises FEMA Administrator Criswell on meeting the agency’s commitment to equity in emergency management for people with disabilities, including older adults and others with access and functional needs.
Within seven months of joining FEMA in August 2022, Sherman deployed to response operations for hurricanes Ian and Fiona, deadly tornados in Alabama and Mississippi, and served as the Agency’s lead advisor on disability integration after a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. In March 2023, Sherman released to the FEMA workforce his Director’s Intent, “A Guide to Meeting the Disability Integration Mission”. The vision focuses on 14 potential points of inequity that can substantially extend the disaster lifecycle for people with disabilities and older adults.
Before joining FEMA, Sherman led strategy, operations, and impact for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. There he focused the organization’s efforts to universalize timely access to mental healthcare and destigmatize mental illness. He is also the former executive director of Paralyzed Veterans of America and chief strategy and advocacy officer for AMVETS, two of the nation’s largest congressionally chartered veteran service organizations.
Sherman has testified before Congress as an expert witness and appeared on national networks, such as CNN, Fox News, and C-SPAN, as one of the most influential voices on military and veteran issues. His expert commentary has regularly appeared in the Hill, Military Times and other national publications.
He was recognized by HillVets as among the 100 most influential voices on Capitol Hill in 2016, the same year his alma mater, University of San Diego, inducted him into its hall of honor. He was also personally recognized by The White House for noteworthy “service to our nation” and the Secretary of Veteran Affairs for “exceptional leadership.”
A United States veteran, Sherman joined the U.S. Marine Corps at age 17 and served for 12 years before medically retiring at the rank of Chief Warrant Officer 2. He holds a graduate degree from the University of San Diego School of Business and completed his executive education at Harvard Business School. He will complete his doctoral studies at the University of Dayton in 2024.
Sherman and his wife Tammie, herself a U.S. Army veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom, have two sons, four daughters―including one who is presently a Midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy―and two granddaughters.
Sal Giunta
Salvatore “Sal” Augustine Giunta was born on January 21, 1985, in Clinton, Iowa. The oldest of three children of Steven—a medical equipment technician, and Rosemary—a preschool teacher, Giunta grew up in Cedar Rapids and Hiawatha, Iowa. At age 17, while working in a Subway sandwich shop, he decided to enlist, and he joined the Army in November 2003. He attended Infantry One Station Unit Training and the Basic Airborne Course at Fort Benning, Georgia, before being assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Vicenza, Italy, on May 24, 2004. Promoted to the rank of Staff Sergeant in 2009, Giunta completed two combat tours to Afghanistan, totaling 27 months of deployment.
On October 25, 2007, while conducting a patrol as team leader, Giunta, and his team were navigating through the treacherous terrain of Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley when they were ambushed by a well-armed and well-coordinated insurgent force. For his extraordinary gallantry, unrivaled courage, and selfless leadership in action on October 25, 2007, Giunta was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama in a White House ceremony on November 16, 2010.
He retired from the Army in June 2011 and graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in Business. Sal is a commercial leasing agent for Prologis. He is a best-selling author (Living with Honor) and Keynote/Motivational Speaker with the Washington Speakers Bureau.
Paul Hatch
Paul began his career as an officer in the US Navy, after having graduated from the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. Following his service, Paul joined EF Hutton as a financial advisor and began a 30-year career at the firm that would become Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. Paul continued to rise through the organization, holding and mastering virtually every field management role, becoming Head of all Global Products and eventually Vice Chairman. Following his time at Morgan Stanley, Paul was appointed to the Board of Focus Financial, the leading provider of capital to the Independent Advisory business. Paul moved to UBS in 2014 where he was Group Managing Director, and Head of Investment Products and Services for the Americas, including all products, programs, services, research and technology that Financial Advisors use with their clients, along with Wealth Management Capital Markets. Paul was also a founder of Convergency Partners prior to the creation of Vestria Capital.
David Fridovich
David Fridovich spent 37+ years as a Soldier in the United States Army. The final 28 years in the Army was as a Special Forces officer. Most of his time was spent in the Pacific Rim Area. He had operational tours in Haiti, on the UN Mission in Haiti, as the Commander of the UN Special Operations Task Force; he further served as the Commander of the NATO Combined Joint Special Forces Task Force, Bosnia-Herzegovina for the first 6+ months of 2000. A little over a year later he was the Commander of the 1st Special Forces Group, deployed to the Southern Philippines on Operation Enduring Freedom-Philippines as the Army Special Operations task Force Commander. He later commanded Special Operations Command-Pacific for 2 1/2 years. His final assignment was as the Deputy Commander of US Special Operations Command.
He currently is on only pro bono boards and likes it that way. He shares a deep concern about veteran suicide and veterans’ after service lives and their families. The Fridovich’s travel!
Rhett Hernandez
Kathy Maguire
A native of New Jersey, Kathy Maguire was a Navy wife for 35 years. She held several administrative positions before realizing that it was easier to balance volunteer activities with the basic task of raising two children during multiple deployments.
Besides volunteering within each of ten different civilian communities, both in the states and overseas, Kathy was fortunate to find volunteer positions within the military.
Having experienced tragic troop casualties during her husband’s time as Commander, Naval Special Warfare, Kathy was grateful to be offered a position as civilian liaison for the Special Operations Care Coalition. Her position allowed her to work at both Walter Reed and Bethesda Navy Hospitals, caring for the families of the seriously wounded.
She holds several awards for service to the military, to include Meritorious and Superior Public Service awards, the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, and the US Special Operations Patriot Award.
Jim Winner
Jim Winner is Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, General Counsel & Secretary for Peraton and has served in this position since the company’s inception in 2017. Jim previously held legal and executive leadership roles at GardaWorld, Aegis, Northrop Grumman, and ITT. Jim also practiced law with Barnes & Thornburg LLP and served as in-house counsel for Rolls-Royce Corporation and Cummins Inc.
Prior to joining the private sector, Jim honorably served as an Air Force judge advocate and systems acquisition officer. He began his active duty career at the Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, CA, where he supported major U.S. government satellite and space launch programs. His later military assignments included Senior Area Defense Counsel and Assistant Staff Judge Advocate, Keesler Air Force Base, MS; Appellate Defense Counsel, Bolling Air Force Base, Washington, DC; and Deputy Staff Judge Advocate, Holloman Air Force Base, NM.
Jim received his Bachelor of Science degree as a distinguished graduate of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO. He received his Juris Doctorate degree, magna cum laude, from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, CA.