Dispatches from the SVA National Conference: Ebonnie Goodfield ‘24GS

Every year, the Student Veterans of America National Conference (NatCon) brings veteran education advocates from across the nation together. At this year’s conference, Columbia’s Center for Veteran Transition and Integration (CVTI) was honored with the 2024 William Pearson Tolley Champion for Veterans in Higher Education award. 

One member of the CVTI contingent was Ebonnie Goodfield ‘24GS, CVTI’s Community Engagement Assistant. Goodfield is a U.S. Navy veteran,  GS alumna, and a Columbia School of Social Work (CSSW) current master’s student. At the SVA conference, Goodfield led a session on gender equity. Here, she reflects on her experiences as a veteran student across multiple Columbia schools, her ground-breaking advocacy for female veteran representation, and her hopes for the future of veteran support in higher education. 

Can you share a bit about your role at CVTI and the work you do with student veterans at Columbia?

I have three official roles. The first is my official employment role with CVTI as Community Engagement Assistant. I work closely with Dave Keefe, CVTI’s Director of Community Engagement. I've been fortunate to support their expansion of what is called the Columbia University Military Student and Veteran Partnership, helping to foster a deeper understanding of the veteran narrative and identity. We also connect the 16 graduate schools across Columbia University admitting student veterans, so they can align, share resources, and build a network for student veterans and veteran alumni.  Secondly, I have served in a work-study position supervised by the CVTI office since 2023. The VA Ambassador (VAA) provides guidance on veteran benefits, processes and policies, sharing resources, informal referrals, and contributing to a community of support and engagement between graduate and undergraduate student veterans on campus. Last but not least, I’ve been a longtime student leader, both as an undergrad and vice president of MilVets, and as a graduate student and president of Women Veterans of Columbia University (WVCU). 

CVTI is a resource for meetings and events, and a central gathering point for graduate students. Since WVCU's founding, we've used the space for launch parties, fellowship programs, keynotes, and hosted many of our deans there—Dean Lisa Rosen-Metsch '90GS, Dean Marlyn Delva, Dean Jill Galas Hickey, and of course the Center's founder, Dean Curtis Rogers. One of the highlights in working there is not only being able to showcase this new space to student veterans, women veterans, and administrators, but to also use my position and this space to invite civilian students and alumni from across the university to engage with us. I believe in the power of exposure to inform on who we are: who the student veteran and the veteran professional is. Having CVTI as a central place to do this is what inspires real change.

You are a Columbia GS alumna, current Columbia School of Social Work student, and longtime student veteran leader. How do these experiences inform your work with CVTI?

That's an excellent question. When I was first approached about joining this team, I'll be honest, I didn't know what I could contribute! I think people see my resume and see me as an accomplished person in the veteran space, and equate that with me knowing what to offer in any given space I walk into. The truth is, it never does. 

CVTI has an accomplished team of its own, so coming in as the new girl with a BA and a very niche focus, I hoped to learn more than to inform. However, after I transitioned away from GS into CSSW, away from a large veteran community and leaving a team like GS’s Deans and Administrators like Tessie Scroggins, Assistant Director of Educational Financing for Veterans Benefits, it was an ‘aha’ moment—seeing the contrast between an environment that understood how to engage with a veteran transitioning and one that had room to improve on this. 

Dave and I worked together for years—he was Milvets’ advisor and was there for every initiative, event, or program I had my hands on—so, of course, he was training me for months leading up to my start at CSSW. However, it wasn’t until I really attempted to integrate into a space that wasn’t built for me that I remembered that isolation I felt when I first left the service back in 2016. If I could feel that in a place that’s not only located on the same block as CVTI, but on the same campus as GS, that means there are so many others feeling it at other schools and at other institutions. After that clicked, I got to work, connecting advisors like CSSW Dean of Students Moira Curtain to CVTI. I made it my mission to get as many other partners [as possible] from other schools across campus to join the Columbia University Military Student and Veteran Partnership, and to also inform on the women veteran identity and reshape narratives on who we are.

This year, you led a session at SVA NatCon on gender equity in leadership! Can you share about the session, including the motivation for it, reception by attendees, and how it fits into your overall veteran advocacy? 

SVA comprises about 755,000 student veterans and 1,600 student veteran organizations at institutions of higher learning nationwide. Out of the 1,600 student veteran chapters and those within the Ivy League, I founded the first women student veteran organization, and wanted to gauge if this was something other students might be interested in accomplishing at their own campuses. Initially, the session aimed to speak about how the first women student veteran chapter in the nation came to be, despite the seemingly negative sentiment it received before it was officially recognized. 

Ultimately, though, I shaped my session to educate the audience of student veterans—men and women—alongside administrators and student veteran supporters, on the challenges faced by women veterans in society and in academia during our transition through these spaces. I think society, service providers, and educators are finally acknowledging that gender does impact the transition of service members to civilian life. However, the question that isn’t asked or answered is why it does, and how do we improve this: my session discussed the challenges we face in traditional military settings, in professional settings, academia, and personally as we navigate these spaces.

I pulled from Columbia Law professor's Kimberle Crenshaw's concept of intersectionality, as well as thoughts on the imposter phenomenon from R.J. Jenkins. I discussed how the creation of a women student veteran chapter was one solution to address these issues on an academic, professional, and ultimately holistic level. I also talked about how shifting women veteran identity into leadership roles, instead of as a supplemental identity of veterans, creates equity by informing society and spaces about the diverse veteran community, while removing the stigma of the military being a ‘good old boys club.’ 

Additionally, women veterans belong to so many different identities (first-generation, parents, students of color, etc.) that universities lifting us up ultimately lifts those who identify with us as well, and it not only creates change for us, but for all veterans and universities. Our presence doesn’t discount that of MilVets or any traditional student-veteran organization, nor does it discount any women focused orgs—we cooperate, collaborate, and partner with them. However, we belong to both, and are a minority for both, so I made a space for us while bridging the gap for them.

The session was received very well. One student left the room mid-session and returned at the end. She stated during the Q&A that the content explained many of her experiences and she was brought to tears. In addition to asking how the organization came about and being asked to speak at their colleges, there was also a number of male veterans in attendance, presidents of their chapters, who came to learn how to make their organization's leadership and programming more inclusive to the women. One service member wrote a reflective piece about Natcon and referenced my powerpoint and used one of my slides.

What makes the SVA NatCon and advocacy for veterans in higher education so important? How do you see CVTI and Columbia’s veteran community fitting into that picture?

There are several reasons SVA NatCon and advocacy for veterans is important, but let's start with the fact that most of our civilian counterparts are vastly unaware of what servicemembers actually do, and as a consequence, have a hard time understanding what a veteran is after service. SVA creates a professional network to educate higher learning institutions and employers on the skills we bring to the table and how to tap into them, while simultaneously educating veterans on transferring or translating those skills to align with our professional goals after service. It’s very important. Aside from navigating our entitlements and education benefits, higher learning institutions have to know how to shape their climate, their communications, and their services to the military student. Likewise, the student veteran has to know that they're moving toward a goal and may have to adjust their approach to achieve it. 

CVTI complements this by bringing our expertise in navigating the veteran identity, with people like the various GS Deans and Administrators I’ve mentioned previously, who approach veteran initiatives with so much humility and grace and are always willing to evolve to the needs of the veterans in their care. I think most institutions approach veterans expecting us to conform to the traditional college setting and perceive us through stereotypical lenses. After all, that's what we're known for—adapting, following orders, etc. However, CVTI helps places like Columbia, surrounding schools, and GS always meet us where we are…and ask us where we want to be. That's special, because that's how you execute a mission, and that's something veterans can resonate with.