WMU-Cooley graduate helps bring awareness to women veterans in state

The Michigan House passed a resolution (HR 336) declaring June 15, 2018. as Women Veterans Recognition Day in Michigan.

WMU-Cooley graduate Zaneta Adams of Muskegon, herself a retired veteran with a disability, worked closely with Muskegon-area State Representative Terry Sabo to help bring this special recognition to our state’s women veterans.

Adams, while working full-time at the Muskegon-based law firm of Williams Hughes also leads the non-profit WINC: For All Women Veterans (WINC stands for Women IN Combat, but the organization supports all women veterans), which provides support for disabled women veterans.

A mother of six, Adams has been married for 18 years and retired from the U.S. Army in 2016. She was an Iraqi War veteran and suffered a severe back injury after falling 10-11 feet from a deuce and a half truck. Initially confined to a wheelchair, Adams began at WMU-Cooley in 2011 and received one of two Distinguished Student awards in 2014 when she graduated.

Adams was first featured in the Grand Rapids Legal News at that time,  when she organized the student women veterans’ organization and gave of her considerable singing talents to a couple of national veterans’ groups.

More recently, in Nov. 2017, the Legal News revisited Adams’s story when she founded WINC?For All Women Veterans. Sabo also honored Adams individually at that time.

“Not only am I honored to have served our country, but I am honored that Michigan’s women veterans are also being recognized,” said Adams, who is shown on page 1 in a Legal News file photo by Donna Schillaci.

WINC For All Women Veterans also partnered in May 2018 with Muskegon’s HealthWest, the Muskegon County Department of Veterans Affairs, and others, to host a national conference in Muskegon. ReCon: Resilience Conference – which explored ways for all veterans to overcome their life challenges – featured Dr. Vincent Fellitti, the co-principal investigator of the ACE Study (Adverse Childhood Effects), widely used in assessing how negative childhood experiences can modify the ability of adults to be resilient.

About the June 15 Women Veterans Recognition Day, Adams said, “There is a long history of Michigan’s women serving in the armed forces dating back to 1901. I thank our state’s legislature for making June 15 a day to honor the women who have served.”

 In May, when HR 336 was passed, a special acknowledgement was made to Sabo and Adams for their outstanding leadership and hard work creating the recognition.

There is more at https://bit.ly/2JR6GzB

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