Goodale to lead the refocused
Citizen-Soldier Support Program
The University is significantly restructuring the
Citizen-Soldier Support Program to focus primarily on the behavioral health
needs of returning combat veterans and their families.
Bob Goodale, a retired Harris Teeter chief executive officer
and former deputy secretary of the N.C. Department of Commerce, will lead these
efforts as director of the program, based in the University’s Howard Odum
Institute for Research in Social Science. He has directed the Citizen-Soldier
program’s behavioral health initiative since 2007.
The Citizen-Soldier program develops approaches for engaging
communities to support National Guard and Reserve members and their families
before, during and after deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. It has received
several federal appropriations totaling about $9.8 million since 2004. The
University has been reviewing the program since early this year after U.S. Rep.
Sue Myrick received a complaint about its effectiveness.
“Behavioral health is Citizen-Soldier’s most successful
component, so we’ll focus on that strength in providing assistance to soldiers
coming back from active duty along with their families,” said Tony Waldrop,
vice chancellor for research and economic development. “Taking this step, under
Bob Goodale’s leadership, is consistent with the recommendations emerging from
an internal review and guidance from the program’s National Advisory Council.”
Effective Nov. 16, Goodale succeeded Peter Leousis, who will
continue as deputy director of the Odum Institute.
Waldrop said the Citizen-Solider program was expanding the
behavioral health initiative to further develop a network of civilian
behavioral health providers. So far, the program has trained more than 2,000
providers to work with returning combat veterans with post-traumatic stress
disorder or traumatic brain injury and their families.
Next year, nearly 4,500 National Guard soldiers from North
Carolina’s 30th Heavy Combat Brigade will return from deployment in Iraq. The
Citizen-Soldier program’s goal is to put in place a statewide behavioral health
“safety net” before the soldiers return home, Waldrop said. A Web-based,
searchable database of civilian behavioral health providers is scheduled to
launch in January.
As part of the restructuring, Waldrop said the program also
would:
 Phase
out its own “Building Community Partnership” efforts and redirect that funding
to expanding the behavioral health initiative;
Move
a training program for the Army OneSource initiative, “Building Community
Partnerships,” to the Jordan Institute for Families in the School of Social
Work under the leadership of Gary Bowen, Kenan Distinguished Professor; and
Reduce
three staff positions and re-engage its National Advisory Council in support of
the program’s work.
The changes follow a report by Chancellor Holden Thorp to
the Board of Trustees in September, as well as recommendations and ongoing
deliberations of an internal review committee created by Waldrop earlier this
year. The committee, which initially worked for six months in producing its
report, and a financial audit by the University, were prompted by the complaint
received
earlier this year.
The committee was reactivated in August and continued to
deliberate about the program into last month. Committee members included two
retired military officers who were familiar with the program and its goals, as
well as administrators from Carolina and UNC General Administration.
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