Life-Changing Support
Today, Tomorrow & the Difference We Make
for Service Members, Veterans & Their Families
The mission of GenVETS, Inc. (GenVETS) is to identify and execute direct response action plans for the community needs of active-duty military personnel, veterans, and their families. Central to that mission is providing our clients consistent, reliable access to human points of contact. Whether transitioning or assimilating to civilian life, navigating the world of veterans’ issues, or facing emerging crises and issues unique to military and veteran families, all GenVETS associates and volunteers strive to develop relationships with clients that will assist them as they work through their individual needs. That can only happen through personal interaction and active listening.
The 20-year war in Afghanistan and Iraq, commonly referred to as “The Long War,” has led to an unprecedented number of lengthy deployments for individual service-men and women during their periods of service. Unlike any previous war or period of conflict in American history, families have been separated/divided for extended periods, creating new mental health challenges for both those who served abroad and the families who served by supporting them from home. Transition stress from military to civilian life also generates new hurdles. The staggering increasing rates of depression, addiction, and suicide in our military and veteran populations suggest there is much work to be done. GenVETS is
committed to serving these clients and their new generational needs, while continuing to serve the hundreds of thousands of combined WWII, Korean, Vietnam, Peacetime and First Gulf War Era veterans and their families. We are driven to stand with and serve all of these
great generations who served us, by providing them with the attention, resources and follow-through that we see as the missing piece for some of the greatest issues affecting veteran care, service and satisfaction today.
Jen M. Wagman, Esquire
FOUNDER & PRESIDENT
Jen was born on Edwards Air Force Base, California, the grand-daughter of two World War II veterans (Navy and Army) and the daughter of a now-retired U.S. Air Force Col., Res. Judge Advocate General (JAG). Jen is an award-winning journalism scholar, editor and writer whose First Amendment collegiate open records lawsuit ended at the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court and led to her legal career today. She graduated from Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio in 1996, with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in English/Journalism and Political Science following her two-year tenure as Editor-in-Chief for the college newspaper, The Miami Student. During that time, she filed a successful lawsuit against Miami University seeking access to its on-campus crime statistics contained in campus records the University administration claimed were protected by Federal student privacy laws. As a result, thousands of
prospective Ohio college students and families are afforded easy and transparent access to accurate information regarding campus crime statistics.
During the pendency of The Miami Student lawsuit, Jen started law school in Washington, D.C. at The Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law where she graduated in 2000.
Jen began practicing Veterans’ Law while working for her first law firm, the Washington satellite office of a Wall Street firm that encouraged its attorneys engage in pro bono legal work following the 9/11 attacks. She volunteered for the Veterans’ Pro Bono Consortium where she represented veterans before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Several years later, she focused her practice on veterans law full-time and went to work for the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) where she spent almost 4 years.
She later worked for Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) part-time for several years before returning full-time for an additional seven years to represent veterans before the Board. She would eventually lead its National Appeals Office in the DC headquarters, representing clients pro bono in their pursuit for entitlement to service-connected benefits and associated appellate issues. Additionally, Jen regularly conducted nationwide organization-wide training for Veterans’ Service Officers (VSOs) on a variety of topics, including veterans’ benefits, appeals, and other specialized topics of veterans’ benefits law. She also has experience working in a private veteran’s law firm, and serves as an expert in veterans law practice and procedure for the D.C. Bar’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel.
In addition to serving on advisory boards for veterans’ nonprofit service organizations and volunteering locally in Maryland and Washington, D.C. for various veterans’ resource events, Jen is also the Executive Director and Founder of “The Dayton Legacy Scholarship Foundation,” formed in 2022, honoring fallen high school classmate SCPO Scott C. Dayton (EOD), the first American service-member KIA in Northern Syria on Thanksgiving Day 2016. The annual high school scholarship is awarded to two graduating seniors, one choosing trade school or enlistment in the military and another attending college or university.
