Notre Dame expands military support with mental health and leadership courses in partnership with the Military Spouse Advocacy Network
Honor, service and commitment to mission are values shared by the University of Notre Dame and the United States military. This fall, the University’s long history of support for the armed forces, veterans and their families will be extended to a new partnership with the Military Spouse Advocacy Network (MSAN), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to create stronger military families through education, empowerment and support.
Notre Dame faculty and its military-connected community are working with MSAN to offer two online courses for military spouses — one focused on ethical leadership skills in support of professional development and the other on developing skills to promote resilience and mental health, which is the latest in a series of significant commitments the University has made to fighting the nation’s mental health crisis.
Courses will be developed and presented by faculty of the William J. Shaw Center for Children and Families, the Veldman Family Psychology Clinic and the Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership, who are partnering with Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning on the design of effective online content.
“For generations, Notre Dame has valued its commitment to and support of the men and women who serve in the armed forces, and we are honored to expand our relationship through this program,” University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., said. “This new partnership allows us to share our scholarship and research to support service members and their families who sacrifice so much for our country.”
MSAN will administer and launch the not-for-credit courses beginning in the spring of 2025 to an anticipated cohort of 50 military spouses.
The mental health course series aims to support military spouses in dispelling mental health myths, identifying mental health risks that are more common in military communities, and developing skills to promote wellness for themselves, their families, friends and peers. In doing so, military spouses will develop skills to practice and model self-care, support emotional resilience and act in times of stress.
The ethical leadership series reflects the Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership’s mission to inform, equip and inspire values-based leadership, and will cover topics such as conflict management, voicing values at work and honesty and empathy in decision-making. In covering these skills, the aim is for military spouses to become leaders who foster resilient and flourishing communities.
“In alignment with our strategic framework commitments on ethics and mental health, Notre Dame faculty are honored to design and deliver the material for both courses responding to emergent military family needs,” said John T. McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost. “This is a tremendous opportunity to provide cross-disciplinary expertise to help address the immediate and pressing issues facing service members and their families.”
In 2017, the University launched the Office of Military and Veterans Affairs (OMVA) to expand its support for Notre Dame-enrolled veterans and their families, active-duty and ROTC students and those who are dependents of service members. Ken Heckel, a 23-year veteran and retired lieutenant colonel in the United States Army, serves as OMVA’s director and has helped to facilitate Notre Dame’s partnership with MSAN.
“Inspired by Notre Dame’s mission to remain a global force for good, our colleagues across the University have come together, in partnership with MSAN, to design a comprehensive program that will greatly benefit our nation’s military spouses and families,” Heckel said. “Our goal is to help empower military spouses to be ethical leaders in their communities, and to also serve as mental health advocates and positive agents of change.”
The Notre Dame-MSAN partnership is a multidisciplinary campus project. It involves faculty and staff from 10 organizations who are developing the partnership and the logistics of course creation and delivery. The project is being spearheaded and resourced by Notre Dame Research with the support of OMVA, the College of Arts and Letters, the Mendoza College of Business, Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning, the Office of Public Affairs and Communications, the William J. Shaw Center for Children and Families, the Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership, the Veldman Family Psychology Clinic and the Mental Health Initiative.
Media contact: Sue Ryan, sue.ryan@nd.edu
Latest ND News Wire
- Notre Dame opens new Washington Office to expand service and impact in nation’s capitalThe University of Notre Dame marked the opening of its new Washington, D.C., office with a blessing and dedication ceremony, highlighting the University’s growing presence in the nation’s capital.
- Notre Dame rising senior Rocío Colón Cotto named 2025 Beinecke ScholarUniversity of Notre Dame rising senior Rocío Colón Cotto has been awarded a Beinecke Scholarship worth $35,000 in support of her graduate education. She is Notre Dame’s 10th Beinecke Scholar overall and second since 2023.
- Santiago Schnell, dean of Notre Dame’s College of Science, appointed as provost of DartmouthSantiago Schnell, the William K. Warren Foundation Dean of the College of Science at the University of Notre Dame, has accepted an appointment as provost at Dartmouth College. He will depart Notre Dame at the end of June and begin his new role in July.
- The Commencement of the class of 2025The University of Notre Dame celebrated its 180th Commencement Ceremony on Sunday (May 18) at Notre Dame Stadium. An audience of some 20,000 graduates, family members, friends and faculty attended, and 2,084 degrees were conferred on undergraduate students, with a total of 3,099 degrees being conferred over the course of Commencement Weekend activities.
- The Commencement of the Graduate School class of 2025Teresa Lambe, a world-renowned vaccine scientist who played a critical role in the fight against COVID-19, delivered the keynote address Saturday (May 17) during the Graduate School’s annual commencement ceremony.
- Kenneth Scheve appointed dean of the University of Notre Dame’s College of Arts and LettersKenneth Scheve, the Dean Acheson Professor of Political Science and Global Affairs and the dean of social science at Yale University, has been appointed the I.A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of the College of Arts and Letters by University of Notre Dame President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C. Scheve, who will also hold a tenured faculty position in the Department of Political Science, begins a five-year term as dean on July 1.
