Dr. Ivan Allen is the driving force behind the Georgia Veterans Education Career Transition Resource (VECTR) Center, which provides wraparound services including training and education for veterans and their families as they transition from military service.

“We’re bringing in those military service men and women in the last six months of their contract with America,” Allen says.

After the center opened in 2016, it partnered with the Georgia Department of Veterans Services to provide benefits counselors to help apply for VA and state veterans benefits, including health care, in addition to advanced career training, job placement, entrepreneurship coaching and other services.

“I had no idea it would take off like this,” Allen says now of the center.

Through a memorandum of understanding with Robins Air Force Base, the center has lodging to accommodate service members and veterans from across the country and across the branches. Of the more than 500 graduates who have received credentials at the center, 100% transitioned to four-year institutions or entered the workforce, making an average of more than $25 per hour.

Allen has long been active in military-community programs in Central Georgia –which has been designated a Great American Defense Community –and says the initiatives are aligned with the mission of Central Georgia Technical College, which he leads.

“Our mission at our college is workforce development, and at the end of the day, workforce development is about taking care of people,” he says. “The pipeline of workers will be available to keep that base strong, which keeps America strong. It’s that simple.”

Part of a series honoring ADC’s Defense Community Champions

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