Posted on Apr 14, 2020
Jared Lyon, National President and CEO of Student Veterans of America (SVA) was here on April 16th, 2020 to answer questions.
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Jared Lyon, National President and CEO of Student Veterans of America (SVA) will be here on April 16th at 4 p.m. ET to answer questions about COVID-19 and the GI Bill, student veterans’ concerns, and other related topics.
As the National President and CEO of Student Veterans of America (SVA), Jared Lyon leads the organization’s efforts to empower student veterans to, through, and beyond higher education.
Since his appointment in January 2016, Lyon has overseen SVA’s growth to now include a network of more than 1,500 chapters on campuses in all 50 states and four countries representing more than 750,000 student veterans. During his tenure, he co-authored the National Veteran Education Success Tracker (NVEST) research, a comprehensive study of the first 854,000 student veterans to use the Post-9/11 GI Bill, and in 2017 led SVA’s commitment to pass the “Forever GI Bill,” the largest expansion of college aid for military veterans in a decade.
Prior to becoming CEO, Lyon was SVA's Chief Development Officer and Executive Vice President of Operations where he implemented plans to ensure organizational sustainability.
A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Lyon served as a submariner and diver, taking part in multiple deployments in support of the Global War on Terrorism. Upon separating from the military with an honorable discharge in 2005, he became an electronic-systems administrator at Northrop Grumman, and went on to manage Florida operations for the Washington Nationals Major League Baseball team while working on an Associate of Arts degree at night from Eastern Florida State College.
After five years in the private sector, Lyon returned to higher education full-time, earning a Bachelor of Science degree from Florida State University. As an undergraduate he served as president of the school’s SVA chapter and was recognized as the National Student Veteran of the Year by SVA in 2011. Lyon then served as National Program Manager for the Institute for Veterans and Military Family’s Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans and the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans’ Families programs.
Lyon holds a Master of Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, where he is an adjunct professor at the Whitman School of Management. In addition to serving on the SVA national board of directors, Lyon is the Vice Chair for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Veteran’s Advisory Committee on Education, a commissioner for the American Council on Education’s Commission for Education Attainment and Innovation and sits on the Florida State University Veteran Advisory Board. Lyon is a 2018 Presidential Leadership Scholar, a bi-partisan effort to cultivate high-impact leaders applying the lessons in leadership learned from the presidential experiences of George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Lyndon B. Johnson.
He is married to Chayla Lyon, and they live in Alexandria, VA.
As the National President and CEO of Student Veterans of America (SVA), Jared Lyon leads the organization’s efforts to empower student veterans to, through, and beyond higher education.
Since his appointment in January 2016, Lyon has overseen SVA’s growth to now include a network of more than 1,500 chapters on campuses in all 50 states and four countries representing more than 750,000 student veterans. During his tenure, he co-authored the National Veteran Education Success Tracker (NVEST) research, a comprehensive study of the first 854,000 student veterans to use the Post-9/11 GI Bill, and in 2017 led SVA’s commitment to pass the “Forever GI Bill,” the largest expansion of college aid for military veterans in a decade.
Prior to becoming CEO, Lyon was SVA's Chief Development Officer and Executive Vice President of Operations where he implemented plans to ensure organizational sustainability.
A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Lyon served as a submariner and diver, taking part in multiple deployments in support of the Global War on Terrorism. Upon separating from the military with an honorable discharge in 2005, he became an electronic-systems administrator at Northrop Grumman, and went on to manage Florida operations for the Washington Nationals Major League Baseball team while working on an Associate of Arts degree at night from Eastern Florida State College.
After five years in the private sector, Lyon returned to higher education full-time, earning a Bachelor of Science degree from Florida State University. As an undergraduate he served as president of the school’s SVA chapter and was recognized as the National Student Veteran of the Year by SVA in 2011. Lyon then served as National Program Manager for the Institute for Veterans and Military Family’s Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans and the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans’ Families programs.
Lyon holds a Master of Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, where he is an adjunct professor at the Whitman School of Management. In addition to serving on the SVA national board of directors, Lyon is the Vice Chair for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Veteran’s Advisory Committee on Education, a commissioner for the American Council on Education’s Commission for Education Attainment and Innovation and sits on the Florida State University Veteran Advisory Board. Lyon is a 2018 Presidential Leadership Scholar, a bi-partisan effort to cultivate high-impact leaders applying the lessons in leadership learned from the presidential experiences of George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Lyndon B. Johnson.
He is married to Chayla Lyon, and they live in Alexandria, VA.
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 22
Hey everyone, Jared here - Looking forward to answering questions and engaging with y'all for the next hour!
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If veterans have recently found themselves out of work, is the GI Bill a reliable source of replacement income? How do we get more veterans to look at education as an option during this time?
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PO2 Jared Lyon
Great question, Carlos. Your GI Bill benefits are an incredibly valuable earned benefit, that we always encourage making the most of. For anyone that was planning to go to school, and has a solid plan of what they want to achieve through education, now might be a great time to take advantage of the opportunity. If the education goals are not well-defined, and the intent is purely to replace income, I might recommend seeking alternate ways to supplement your financial situation. For those that do choose to go to school right now, be especially focused on the type of program you apply to, as there are key distinctions between online programs and in-person programs. This still applies even in scenarios where in-person programs have converted to delivering their coursework through virtual options.
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No questions, just want to thank you for the help that you are giving to fellow veterans.
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PO2 Jared Lyon
Sorry, David - that's what I get for multitasking. Turns out, I really missed the 'mark' there. Hope you'll forgive the mistake and my dad joke :)
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