Jason W. Forrester

Jason W. Forrester is a leading expert on the needs of service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Currently, he is the Director of Policy/Co-Director of the National Guard Program at Veterans for America, the successor organization to the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation.

At Veterans for America (VFA), Forrester helps direct VFA’s bipartisan effort rebuilding the U.S. military, focusing on assisting the National Guard and improving post-combat care for servicemembers with psychological and neurological wounds. He has testified before Congress and a presidential commission on wounded warrior care . His views have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer . On September 17, 2008, Forrester participated in a panel discussion at the Juilliard School at Lincoln Center in Manhattan on post-combat needs of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans . On November 11, 2008, Forrester participated in a discussion of the post-combat needs of servicemembers on the Diane Rehm Show .

Forrester has spent more than 10 years as a foreign policy analyst and advisor, including roles with the Brookings Institution and multiple presidential campaigns, including Gore-Lieberman, Wesley Clark’s presidential campaign and Kerry-Edwards. He was a member of the Obama-Biden national security policy teams and has advised various U.S. Senate and House races. He also served in the Senate and a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Forrester received a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a B.A. in Political Science, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, cum laude, from Sewanee: The University of the South. In 2008, Forrester was named the Distinguished Young Alumnus of Sewanee: The University of the South.