One in Four GDIT Employees is a Veteran; Today (and Every Day) We Celebrate Them All

As America marks its annual celebration of our nation’s veterans, the entire GDIT organization celebrates right along with it. On Veterans Day and throughout the month of November, we will hold multiple recognitions of the more than 7,000 GDIT employees – 25% of our workforce – who have served our country once in uniform and again at GDIT supporting critical agency missions.

This includes employees like Julie McGrath, Vice President of GDIT’s Military Health Life Sciences program, who spent more than 22 years in the U.S. Army. She’s spent almost as long – 21 years – at GDIT. She says joining GDIT was a natural choice; she loves her country and wanted to continue supporting the military mission after retiring from the service.

“When I was on active duty, we focused on esprit de corps (a feeling of pride, fellowship and common loyalty shared by the members of a particular group) and in my GDIT organization, we really promote camaraderie and the notion of success for all – no lone rangers. We’re like a family or even a unit,” she said.

Sean Kelley recently joined GDIT as the new Vice President for the Veterans Affairs Business Area. He served 20 years in the U.S. Navy: 10 of those as an enlisted deck seaman then hospital corpsman, and the other 10 as a Naval officer, Health Care Administrator and IT executive. His most significant accomplishment in service was responding as the CIO of the U.S. Naval Ship Comfort in response to the earthquake in Haiti in 2010.

Sean notes teamwork as the one thing he learned in the service that helps him the most today. “Take care of the team, and the rest will follow,” he said. “The team makes things happen, not the leader.”

Julie, Sean and more than 300 other veterans are members of an Employee Resources Group (ERG) at GDIT called Honor. All month long, the group will be highlighting the many contributions of veterans within GDIT. This will include a Veterans Day address by our CEO Amy Gilliland, a panel discussion on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), targeted virtual chats, and opportunities for GDIT veterans or family members to share their stories with the rest of the company.

In November and all year long, our Human Resources team will continue to actively recruit and train veterans looking to transition to post-military careers. GDIT is uniquely positioned to help America’s veterans build on their experience to help deliver a better tomorrow – both for themselves and their families and for the agencies they support.

Finally, Veterans at GDIT are also actively serving other veterans, like our team in Bossier City, Louisiana that is supporting the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Enterprise Service Desk Program. The team recently hosted VA Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology and Chief Information Officer James P. Gfrerer, and was commended for its work in support of IT modernization efforts at the VA that support America’s veterans.

Across GDIT, multiple teams that support the VA will continue their important work delivering technologies that care for our nation’s veterans, improving the veteran experience and ensuring veterans and their families have access to the benefits and healthcare they have earned.

Veterans make GDIT what it is. We pursue the art of the possible, in the land of the free, alongside the home of the brave.