Humbled to serve: Coleman brings change to veterans organizations

Nichole Coleman's first few months as president of the National Association of County Veterans Service Officers have focused on new position appointments, with an eye to the future. Coleman was elected to the national organization in July to serve a one-year term. She is also executive director of the Hancock County Veterans Service Office in Findlay. "It was very humbling to serve such a large number of people," Coleman said about her tenure. She added that the position was a "little scary" due to the pandemic. She had to "stay on top of, not only what is going on in our community with COVID-19, but across the country, because that is so different." A big assignment Coleman had three big initiatives for her presidency: communication, process and diversity/inclusion. As president, Coleman has appointed a "delegate wrangler" — a term of endearment for the person in charge of maintaining communication with state-level delegates of the organization. Prior to the addition of this position, the delegates would get updates on organization happenings roughly once or twice a year. Now, they can look to be updated twice a month or more. As a former military newspaper editor, she also revived a defunct monthly newsletter. Under her term, Alaska has rejoined NAVCSO after 31 years, bringing with it the representation of a large number of Native Americans. Coleman said she has spent most of her time as president making changes in how members report their budget and finances. The largest comes from changes made in the way veterans are represented in claims appeal processes. Coleman offered as simple an explanation as she could: When a veteran makes a claim and it is denied, they are able to make an appeal. The appeal is sent to the Board of Veteran Appeals, and the veteran is then represented by an accredited organization such as NAVCSO. Before the change, a case worker would work with the veteran all the way up until the appeal date. The appeal would then happen in Washington, D.C., where the appeals board is headquartered. This meant the case worker would either have to travel to Washington or hand the case off to another case worker closer to the area. Handing off was the most common option, Coleman said. The change, made because of the COVID-19 pandemic, moves the appeal hearing online, making it easier for the original case worker to stay with the case from open to close. To facilitate the change, Coleman brought on an appeals director to look at all pending appeals represented through NAVCSO and reach out to each case's local county office. Closer to home As Coleman has worked to further the goals of the national board, she has not left her own local service office out in the cold. Two new hires have helped maintain what Coleman considers already stellar service at the county office. Michele Scott has been hired as a customer relations specialist in charge of answering the phone, answering the door and scheduling appointments. "We were not providing very good customer service in, since we couldn't always answer the phone," said Coleman. Ed Newton has been brought on as a resiliency operations manager in charge of the resiliency programs offered by the local agency. The position oversees programs such as Battle Buddies, GI Tunes, Guitars for Vets and, to some extent, Veterans Discovering New Life. (Veterans Discovering New Life is still mostly under the management of Coleman herself.) "It was important to bring in someone to manage those programs because they have been around long enough and were growing enough that it was becoming difficult for me to manage all of them," Coleman said. And for all the change happening in the veterans service office, Colman is excited for the lack of change in the office's transportation program. The department is headed by Jack Oakman, a retired Findlay police detective, and is staffed with seven part-time drivers. Coleman said transportation is the one thing constantly receiving high marks on customer surveys. "We don't have to make changes or do anything, because it is just an amazing program," she said. Bean: 419-427-8420