How Should Service Academies and the Military be Involved in Social Policy Debates?
Lessons Learned from "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
The USC Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans & Military Families (CIR) will present its first brown bag session of the year with Colonel Gary Packard, who served at the Pentagon as the Air Force writer on the Secretary of Defense’s Comprehensive Review Working Group studying the repeal of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell."
Packard will discuss his personal involvement in the "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" repeal debate over the past seven years, along with stories about how the Air Force Academy and other military institutions played a role in the repeal of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell." He will share personal insights of the good, the bad and the ugly of the repeal process from his roles as lead author of the Air Force Academy’s White Paper on Repeal and as a writer assigned to the Department of Defense’s Comprehensive Review Working Group.
1.5 CEU hours will be offered for LCSWs and LMFTs.
Can't make it to the event? Watch a livestream!
Want to ask Col. Packard a question? Post your questions to CIR's Facebook event page. A select few will be asked during the Q&A session.
About Colonel Gary Packard
Col. Packard graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science in Behavioral Sciences. He earned an MAS in Aeronautical Science from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in 1991, an MA in Counseling from Michigan State University in 1994, and a PhD in Developmental Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1999.
In 2003, Col. Packard was assigned to the Air Force Academy, where he currently serves as permanent professor and head of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership. He leads a diverse faculty of nearly 40 psychologists, sociologists, and industrial/organizational and human-factors engineers responsible for teaching 29 undergraduate courses to more than 3,000 cadets annually. The department directs several Academy-wide leadership programs; consults with various government and private organizations on leadership and social science issues; runs the Leadership Reaction Course during Basic Cadet Training; operates a $1.2 million laboratory; and administrates and serves as adjunct faculty for a master’s degree in counseling and leadership for U.S. Air Force officers in partnership with the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
Col. Packard deployed in 2011 as the director of staff, 379th Air Expeditionary Wing, Southwest Asia, in support of Operations Enduring Freedom, New Dawn and Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa.