Verenice Castillo, Founder, CEO & President

Verenice Castillo is the Founder and CEO of the Military Spouse Advocacy Network (MSAN), author, mentor, changemaker and military spouse. She founded MSAN in 2014 with a mission to create stronger military families through education, empowerment, and support. MSAN is the fastest growing network of mentors providing peer-to-peer mentorship 24/7 to all military spouses through its Military Spouse Mentorship-HUB. MSAN's impact has reached thousands of military spouses around the globe. Driven by a commitment to military spouses, she created the Military Spouse Leadership Development Program and the recently launched Leadership Institute for Military Spouses. These initiatives equip military spouses with leadership skills and training from Ivy to be successful leaders in their communities from Ivy League Schools.

Verenice works closely with the Department of Defense and has worked with multiple administrations. She has served several boards at a local and national level. Her efforts to contribute to Air Force families catapulted resiliency efforts for spouses and yielded Strength for Spouses in the fall of 2012. This program was utilized by the Air Force as a platform to create its own resiliency program for all Air Force spouses. Verenice was named the 2013 AFI Air Force Spouse of the Year and in 2015, she received the Volunteer Excellence Award presented by the Chief of Staff of the Air Force. In 2017, she was recognized as the Heroes at Home Air Force Spouse of the Year, and in 2019 she was named one of the 30 Women Military Influencers. In 2021 she was selected to participate in the prestigious Stand-To Veteran Leadership Training at the George W. Bush Presidential Institute. In 2022, she received the Marlowe Sherwood Memorial Service Award from the Park University Alumni Association.

Verenice is a servant leader who has made contributions to the well-being of her community and has advocated for the resources and support system that military families need and deserve.

Chairwoman of the Board: Jessica Rudd

Jessica Rudd is the Armed Forces Insurance 2017 Marine Corps Military Spouse of the Year. She is also a United States Marine Corps Veteran. While serving alongside her husband, she received her MSOY recognition advocating for military children’s education, using resources to create customized education experiences for military children. While stationed at MCAGCC Twentynine Palms, she served on the Board of Directors for a local homeschool cooperative.

Jessica is passionate about advocating for the Military Family Experience. Jessica supports various military spouse recruiting efforts providing mentorship, support, and employment resources for military spouses. In her spare time, Jessica helped lobby for Senate Bill 528, providing tax relief for military retirees in the state of Virginia.

Jessica Rudd specializes in strategic transformation. Jessica has a Master of Business Administration from Liberty University and a Bachelor’s degree from Bowling Green State University in Quality Systems. You can spot Jessica on a Veteran’s Day livestream with former Saturday Night Live cast member, Daily Show correspondent, and former United States Marine, Rob Riggle. Jessica is married to Major Andrew Rudd, currently serving at Manpower and Reserve Affairs, Quantico, VA. They have three children. Jessica enjoys running and is currently training for the Marine Corps Historic Half.

Whitney Armstrong

Whitney Armstrong is an experienced nonprofit professional working to create positive change for our communities. Before her appointment to MSAN’s board of director, Whitney served as the Vice President of Development and Strategy, forging relationship between community partners and maintaining a large portfolio of donors, sponsors, and supporters. Whitney joined MSAN in 2017 as a volunteer and served as the Director of the New Military Spouse Support Program (now the Military Spouse Mentorship Program) and was promoted to Vice President of Programs and Operations in 2019. Whitney was selected for the highly-competitive Presidential Leadership Scholars program where she developed the frameworks for the Military Spouse Leadership Development Program (MSLDP).

In 2020, Whitney was named the Joan Orr Air Force Spouse of the Year, an award recognizing the significant contributions made by non-military spouses of Air Force military members to the Air Force and the entire military community. That same credential from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government–expanding her advocacy work on the MOAA Serving Spouses’ Advisory Council and selection to the LBJ Women’s Compaign School at UT Austin and the Veterans’ Program for Politics and Civic Engagement with Syracuse IVMF. In 2021, she was awarded with the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award for volunteer service through the Points of Light Foundation, founded in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush.

Whitney’s passion for serving military families has benefitted several other organizations including the USO, managing two major centers in Ohio. She currently lives in Hawaii with her husband and three young children where she continues to serve America’s military and veteran families as the Manager of Foundation Partnerships with Operation Homefront.

Michael Bailey

Michael Bailey serves as Senior Program Manager, Leadership Programs, at the George W. Bush Institute. In this role, he manages the Stand-To Veteran Leadership Program, which focuses on developing the leadership skills of veterans and those who serve them and their families. He also supports alumni engagement efforts for the Institute’s international leadership programs.

Michael received his Bachelor of Arts in Music (Voice) from the University of Oklahoma. He holds a Master of Business Administration with concentrations in finance and real estate from Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business, as well as a Master of Arts Administration from Southern Methodist University Meadows School of Music.

He enjoys combining his love of music to honor the veteran community through benefit voice recitals. Michael lives in Dallas, Texas, with his dog, Duke. He is an avid long-distance runner and enjoys racing in half and full marathons.

As a civilian supporter passionate about the veteran and military family community, Michael is honored to be a part of Military Spouse Advocacy Network and their important mission to build stronger military families through mentorship and community.

Dr. Ingrid Herrera-Yee

Dr. Ingrid Herrera-Yee received her PhD in Clinical Psychology with a concentration in Trauma from the University of Vermont and served as a Clinical Fellow for several years at Harvard University. Since that time, with her family’s frequent military moves, she has worked as an educator, speaker, policy wonk, writer, social media marketer, curriculum designer, and researcher. Her research has focused on preventing suicide amongst military service members as well as in resiliency among domestic violence survivors. She is a military spouse, and the founder of Military Spouse Behavioral Health Clinicians (MSBHC).

MSBHC connects military spouse mental health clinicians with information and resources to support them through their career journey in mental health. Dr. Herrera-Yee was named the National Guard Spouse of the Year in 2014, received the Hiring Our Heroes Military Spouse Volunteer Impact Award in 2020, and the Edith Hendley Award for outstanding contributions to the lives of women through clinical work, teaching, research, and advocacy. She serves on several advisory boards including Give an Hour, Blue Star Families, the Military Family Advisory Network, and serves on the boards of Everymind and Military Spouse Advocacy Network.

She has published extensively and has been asked to speak on military and family mental health issues, to include Military Times, CNN, and others. Recently, she worked as a contractor for the Department of Defense’s Suicide Prevention Office, where she supported research, data analysis, and evaluation efforts aimed at decreasing suicide among military service members and their families. Her work led to the very first report and counts for military spouse and child suicide.

Currently, she is Executive Director and Senior Program Officer for the National Academy of Medicine where she is working to prevent mental health concerns including burnout at suicide among frontline medical healthcare workers during COVID and beyond. She enjoys time with her boys, husband, German Shepherd named Scout, and currently resides in Northern Virginia.