Nataley Davis | features Editor
 
Duquesne University alumna Chrisanne Gordon referred to her new book as a “call to action.”

The book titled “Guarding Our Guardians: Guaranteeing America’s Veterans a Future from Deployment to Employment,” which was published in May, calls for a unified, coordinated strategy for veteran needs in America, rather than the fragmented services they currently rely on.

“I was led to this book because after 20 years working in the veteran space, I cannot get over the fact that there are nearly five times more deaths by suicide than there are by combat,” Gordon said. “There’s a disconnect when people leave the military and come to civilization.”

The Duquesne community gathered in the Gumberg Library Oct. 6 for a discussion with Gordon and a book signing.

Gordon completed her undergraduate studies at Duquesne before graduating summa cum laude from The Ohio State University College of Medicine in 1977.

She worked in oncology and then in the emergency room, where she first became interested in traumatic brain injury and went on to work in rehabilitation.

“I was in the ER where I saw the acute injury, and then I flipped to rehab where I was attending to that acute injury,” Gordon said. “I didn’t realize in the ER that the effects last on forever.”

Gordon said that she was “blessed” to experience her own traumatic brain injury in 1996 because she learned how unique treatment can be for different injuries.

Seven years later, a patient of hers left out a newspaper that said veterans that came back from Iraq and Afghanistan claimed to suffer from brain injuries, yet had normal MRI scans.

This inspired her to create the Resurrecting Lives Foundation in 2012, a nonprofit that supports veteran healthcare access, employment and transition from military service.

Donald Accamando, director of the Office for Military and Veteran Students at Duquesne, said he met Gordon through their mutual ties to the university.

“We really needed to establish a home for veterans, a place where they could connect with their student veterans,” he said. “My work and her work here kind of overlapped because we’re all trying to understand how we can help students better.”

Accamando served for 28 years in the U.S. Air Force and the Pennsylvania Air National Guard. He then earned his Doctorate from Duquesne, publishing a dissertation titled “Determining the Specific Transition Needs of Military and Veteran Students (MVS)” in 2017. His findings contributed to Gordon’s book.

He said that the Duquesne community is ideal for Gordon to reach because the veteran population is so small.

“This is a … perfect place for her to help promote her work because it’s extremely important for the 99% of the people who aren’t serving in the military to understand that 1% that does — especially with the three areas that Dr. Gordon talks about in her book: Education, healthcare and employment,” Accamando said.

Grace Burns, a junior secondary social studies education major, said this topic will inform her future as a teacher.

“I would say it’s important for my career because I’m gonna be teaching about these events one day and it’ll be important to let my students know that we should be there for our veterans and how important their jobs were,” Burns said.

Calvin Vento, sophomore English major, said he is not sure how much learning about veteran needs will directly benefit his career. However, attending the discussion, Vento recognized the importance of giving back to the community.

“A lot of instances, like with Vietnam, when they come home, they won’t be welcomed as much as they thought they should have been,” Vento said. “If you’re serving and protecting the land, you should have the most ample amount of resources that you can have.”

Nataley Davis can be reached at davisn5@duq.edu