Maj Tracy Pritchard
Maj Tracy Pritchard
Tracy is a Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS) and a licensed dietician/nutritionist (LDN) in Maryland. She has been working with Warfighter Advance for over a decade. She is a clinical nutritionist who also gives seminars to a variety of groups. She helps people make changes that positively impact their health by addressing food, movement, sleep, and stress.
Prior to her role as a nutritionist, Tracy served on active duty from 1996 to 2003 in the United States Marine Corps and in the Reserves until 2006. She served as a logistics officer, staff at the School of Infantry, logistics instructor, and aide de camp. She deployed with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and also earned her Airborne wings.
Tracy earned her commission through the NROTC program at the University of Rochester in 1996 where she majored in Political Science and French. She earned her MS in Human Nutrition from the University of Bridgeport in 2017.
FAQs
FAQs
The team that leads Warfighter Advance and instructs our warfighters at the ADVANCE 7-Day are post-deployment veterans and public safety professionals themselves. They have all had the experience of reintegration, and some have also endured the medicalized process and survived. All of them are heartbroken when they see their brothers and sisters deceived and drugged – believing that they have an illness that the drugs will treat and perhaps ultimately cure. The team is heartbroken by the day-in-and-day-out veteran suicides. We are driven to change this scenario, and to lead the way so that every warfighter has the information, tools, and support they need to successfully reintegrate. We are committed to giving warfighters the confidence and dignity required to be force multipliers – leading other warfighters in their communities to successful reintegration.
While The ADVANCE 7-Day™is the core program of WA, a range of other services are ready to deploy upon request. Warfighter Advance can provide special sessions on topics including, but not limited to, compassion fatigue, issues unique to military chaplains and their assistants, Vietnam veterans, military sexual assault, and trauma recovery without psychiatric medications. If you would like to schedule a program, workshop, or lecture for your group or at your location, please contact us at contact_us@warfighteradvance.org
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Programs are scheduled throughout the year. All program dates are published on our website. They also appear at the top of the registration form.
We invite and welcome warfighters who are struggling with what is typically known as “PTSD,” with or without a formal diagnosis. Other post-deployment “mental illness” labels or problems such as anxiety, depression, adjustment disorder, anger, substance abuse, and mTBI are also considered. All referrals are self-referrals. No paperwork documenting “mental illness” is required or accepted. Warfighters who have been treated by traditional psychiatric methods, as well as warfighters who have been struggling on their own to reintegrate or deal with their operational traumas are welcomed. We do not limit enrollment to OIF/OEF or any other conflict, operation, or specific set of dates. You do not need a combat action ribbon to attend.
Warfighter Advance raises 100% of participant costs so that warfighters can attend FREE OF CHARGE.
The ADVANCE 7-Day™ Training Ops are held at Elks Camp Barrett in Annapolis, Maryland, on acres of woodlands, creeks, and open spaces. Warfighters from every state attend our program at no cost to the participant. We also accept participants from our territories and from our NATO allies.
For more information please contact us:
Email: contact_us@warfighteradvance.org
Phone: (202) 239-7395
Mission & Vision
Mission & Vision
Mission:
Successful reintegration of every warfighter.
Vision:
A world where warfighters are fully restored through a non-medical process.
READ THE CORE TENETS AS OUTLINED IN “WARFIGHTER ADVANCE – THE ADVANCE 7-DAY“
by Mary Neal Vieten, PhD, ABPP
Core Tenets:
The First tenet states that a warfighter must be allowed to determine his or her own successful outcome. At Warfighter Advance, we focus on functional outcomes. These could include, for example, meeting goals such as finding work, graduating from college, re-uniting with estranged family, running for public office, regaining physical health, or running a marathon. It appears to us as arrogant that we should determine for another person what a good outcome looks like, or that we should determine that another person’s suffering, bereavement, response to trauma, or reintegration is “abnormal” or “pathological”.
Second, warfighters [at Warfighter Advance] are educated on the tension between practitioner benevolence and patient autonomy, as well as ethical and legal parameters of fully informed consent, which, for the reader’s review, include, at a minimum: 1) to be informed of the risks and benefits of any proposed treatment or intervention, 2) to be informed of the alternative treatments or interventions and their risks and benefits, and 3) to be allowed to make the treatment decision without coercion.
Third, [Warfighter Advance] acknowledges that there is a direct cause and effect relationship, well-documented in the scientific literature, between the rates of post-deployment suffering and suicide, and the use of psychopharmaceuticals to treat a variety of psychiatric labels. To be clear, it is the treatment, and not an underlying clinical or medical condition, that is causing suffering and unprecedented rates of suicide (Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry 2019; FDA 2004).
Fourth, a careful review of the literature and analysis of scientific merit has led us (and many other scientists, including those at the National Institute of Mental Health, NIMH) to conclude that the categories of mental disorder as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual of Mental Disorders – DSM – 5TR are scientifically invalid and diagnostically unreliable (Jayson 2013), and, therefore, it is unethical for us to use them or to convince warfighters that they “have” them.
Finally, after a careful analysis of the science, the available literature, and the risk: benefit ratio, the fifth tenet states that WA rejects the use or usefulness of psychiatric medications and ECT in the process of warfighter reintegration or trauma response. We also acknowledge the devastating implications, and harmfulness of these treatments for traumatized individuals in general (Breggin and Cohen 2007; Jackson 2005, 2009; Kirsch 2010; Read, Kirsch, and McGrath 2019).
Matt Scassero
Matt Scassero
Bob Grom
Bob Grom
Robert M. (Bob) Grom is a results-oriented, energetic leader with extensive experience in nonprofit executive management, communications, and resource development supporting community, economic and workforce development initiatives and health priorities. He has a well-established track record of forging productive relationships with donors, constituents, organizations, and government agencies. Grom currently serves as a consultant and advisor to a range of nonprofit organizations.
Recently Grom served as Vice President of External Affairs at Melwood, an $80+MM Maryland-based 501(c)(3) serving individuals with disabilities. He was responsible for the creation and execution of marketing, communications, fund development, and government relations strategies that promoted and supported Melwood. Grom also helped found and launch a nationally recognized intervention program for veterans and active duty military personnel who were dealing with post-traumatic stress and other deployment-related traumas.
Before joining Melwood, Grom worked with the University of Pittsburgh’s Early Childhood Partnerships, Office of Child Development as a strategic development consultant, and with the Washington, D.C.-based DC Cancer Consortium. At the Consortium, Grom served as Deputy Director and Chief Development Officer and was responsible for creating a comprehensive fundraising program with an integrated grant-making agenda.
Prior to joining the Consortium he served for 15 years as President and Chief Executive Officer of Heritage Health Foundation, Inc., a community foundation based in Southwestern Pennsylvania’s Mon Valley area, home to some of that state’s most economically distressed communities. During his leadership of Heritage, the organization interpreted “health” in the broadest sense, recognizing that physical and emotional health is intertwined with economic, educational, environmental, and other factors. The organization created, funded, and managed a comprehensive range of productive, cost-effective initiatives in areas including health, education, transportation, human capital development, recreation, safety, substance abuse recovery, the arts, public spaces, and community and economic development.
Grom joined Heritage in 1994 when it was the development division of Braddock Medical Center. As its first Executive Director, he created and implemented a development program that in five years grew Foundation assets from $6.6 million to more than $11 million while providing more than $5.5 million in capital and program assistance to the hospital. When the Medical Center merged with UPMC Health System in 1996, Grom directed the transformation (conversion) of the Foundation into a freestanding community-based organization. Between 1996 and 2010 the Foundation raised almost $55 million in private donations and government grants.
From 1981 until 1992, Grom was with The Western Pennsylvania Hospital. In 1989 he began consulting for the hospital’s foundation, and in 1992 he assumed a full-time position with the West Penn Hospital Foundation as Vice President of Development.
A frequent presenter, author, and consultant, Grom has served as a volunteer leader for many local and regional community organizations. A Pittsburgh native, Grom is a graduate of Edinboro University (PA). He and his wife reside in The Villages, Florida.
Jack Kemp
Jack Kemp
Jack is former military, an attorney, business leader, non-profit executive, organizational coach, connector, collaborator and strategist. He holds a B.S. and Juris Doctor degree from Michigan State University. In addition to his service at Warfighter Advance, he serves as Managing Principal for PrīmAscend, LLC, and previously as Divisional President at a national NPO. He also serves/has served in volunteer capacities on a variety of for-profit / non-profit advisory boards and serves actively within the local church. Jack served as an active duty Army Diver (Navy trained) and traveled widely with small detachments, operating within a highly diverse mission context. He served in conflict theatres (ORH, Somalia), supporting combat missions and supporting multinational force components in the middle east (MFO, Sinai/Israel), as a Dive Instructor. Jack is a strong personal advocate for veterans and has witnessed first-hand, the devastation of mis-prescribed/over-prescribed medication. He strongly believes in The Advance 7-Day Training Op, the outcomes generated for those the program serves and the critical nature of its core mission.
Susan Fritz
SUSAN SANSON FRITZ
Member of the Board
Susan (Sanson) Fritz enjoyed a 30-year career in the US Navy retiring in 2004 as the CNO-Directed Command Master Chief (CNOCM) for Naval District Washington. She enjoyed many firsts in her career.
Susan was selected as the Command Master Chief for VS-22 (S-3 squadron) which deployed on board the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower (CVN 69), the first combatant ship with women onboard. During that cruise she earned her Enlisted Aviation Warfare designation and was then selected to teach at the Navy Senior Enlisted Academy, Newport, RI. During this time period she was one of 13 female Command Master Chiefs (the senior enlisted rank) of which only 6 were deployed at sea.
Following her military career, she joined the staff of Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC) as a government civilian. There she served as the Deputy Director for Religious Programs and Deputy Director for Command and Staff. She retired on September 29, 2018 with 14 years of civilian service.
On September 22, 2018, Susan was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church where she continues her charity work. She is assigned to two parishes, St. James, Indian Head and Christ Church, Durham Parish, Nanjemoy, MD.
Susan is currently the Chairman of the Board for Our Place Waldorf, the local soup kitchen, and Treasurer and Chaplain for Warfighter Advance.
She holds two master’s degrees, Human Resource Management and Business Administration, from the University of Maryland University College.
Michael Gudelski
MICHAEL GUDELSK
CMDCM(EXW) USN (ret)
A graduate of Warfighter Advance Evolution 17. He retired from the U.S. Navy in February of 2020 after 25 years of combined active and reserve service, as a Command Master Chief (CMDCM) and Expeditionary Warfare Specialist (EXW) and a navy corpsman. He has served with a wide variety of commands to include Seabees, hospital commands, inshore boat units and coastal riverines. CMDCM (EXW) Gudelski has multiple deployments to the Middle East to include Iraq, OPLATs, multi nation coalition, UAE and Kuwait. He served an independent duty corpsman, small boat team coxswain and as the senior enlisted leader.
As a civilian, Master Chief Gudelski has been a firefighter/paramedic for 30 years as a combined volunteer and professional career. Currently, serves the as the town of Wallingford, CT fire marshal and in emergency management. He is married to Donna and has three children Marisa, Morgan and Josh. He is a graduate with honors from Charter Oak State College with BS in Emergency Public Administration.
Barbara Ives
BARBARA IVES
Member of the Board
Barbara Ives was a member of the United States Naval Academy Class of 1980, the first class to include women in service academy history. She graduated with honors and was commissioned as a Naval Officer and served for over six years on active duty with a Meteorology and Oceanography specialty. She transitioned to the Naval Reserve and served a total of 27 years attaining the rank of Captain in the senior most leadership position in the Naval Reserve’s Meteorology and Oceanography community.
Following her family’s assignment in 2001 to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Barbara began to teach at St. Mary’s Ryken High School in Leonardtown, Maryland and was selected as the Math Department Chairperson.
Barbara also founded and served as the director of the Individual Augmentee Spouse Support Group (IASSG), an organization designed to support the spouses and families of Individual Augmentees (service members serving overseas fighting the Global War on Terror). Her work served as the model for all Navy IASSG programs throughout the country.
In July 2008, Barbara was selected as Dean of Academics for St. Mary’s Ryken High School. She was recognized as a Xaverian Pillar of the Community Leader for her STEM curriculum development.
Barbara has been recently selected by the College of Southern Maryland as their Director of Strategic Partnerships.Barbara serves on the boards of a wide variety of local organizations that address education and veteran issues.cations.
John Wentworth
JOHN WENTWORTH
President of the Warfighter Board of Directors
John served in Vietnam, between Tet 1968 and Tet 1969, as an infantry rifleman with the 1st Cavalry Division. He returned a Sergeant.
He was a rock ‘n roll disk jockey at 19 in Baltimore, MD, a film cinematographer and editor, a soldier, a race relations trainer for the Inglewood, CA school district, then, in business, worked in Human Resources at TOSCO Corporation, Carte Blanche and Mattel.
He became a recruiter in 1979. Wentworth Recruiting, one of the most progressive and durable recruiting operations in the country, was created in 1982. He retired in 2018.
He has served as the president of the San Pedro Peninsula Hospital Foundation and the Professionals in Human Resources Association Foundation, served on the board of the Catalina Conservancy Divers and was a presentation and scientific diver for the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA, helping to establish the scientific diving program. He was the chair of the Westside Center for Independent Living Computer Training Project Business Advisory Council and a member of the parent organization’s Board of Directors.
He served as a founding member of the City of Los Angeles Board of Taxicab Commissioners, after which he served for a year as President of the Board of Harbor Commissioners for the Port of Los Angeles.
John was for three years the President of Infragard-Los Angeles (FBI/private sector partnership) and served on the board of directors of the Bill Duke Media Foundation. He also served as the Chair of the Board of PortTechLA, a maritime industry focused business incubator. He was the President of the Board of the Angels Gate Cultural Center.
He graduated from Boston University with a degree in Communications.