A Message from the SVA Board Chair: Welcoming Cory Boatwright as President and CEO
This message accompanies SVA’s official announcement naming Cory Boatwright President and CEO.
A Message from the SVA Board Chair: Welcoming Cory Boatwright as President and CEO
Today, Student Veterans of America (SVA) announced that Cory Boatwright has been selected as our permanent President and CEO, effective today. This message is intended to accompany the official announcement and share additional perspective from the Board of Directors on why Cory is the right leader for this moment.
When the SVA Board of Directors launched a national search for our next permanent President and CEO, we set a high bar. We were looking for someone to build on the strong foundation SVA has established since our founding in 2008, and take the organization to the next level. We needed a leader who not only understands the student veteran mission, but has lived it. We needed someone who will keep student veterans and our chapters at the center of everything we do, and who has the experience to lead a complex organization at a pivotal time for student veterans nationwide. That leader is Cory Boatwright.
A Leader Shaped by the Mission
Cory came to SVA as a veteran and a student veteran, and he has dedicated his career to the community we serve. That foundation matters. It shapes how he makes decisions, how he engages with our chapters and partners, and how he thinks about what SVA owes student veterans across the nation.
Cory has also demonstrated the ability to lead across sectors, bringing experience as an entrepreneur, a nonprofit leader, and a partner to organizations working across the veteran employment ecosystem. His breadth of experience, grounded in firsthand understanding of the transition from service to campus to career, is exactly what this moment calls for.
Earlier this year at SVA’s 18th Annual National Conference (NatCon), the Board announced a national search for the next President and CEO and introduced Cory as Interim President and CEO to guide SVA through the transition with continuity and transparency. Cory’s leadership in that interim period has reinforced the Board’s confidence in his ability to lead with clarity, focus, and mission alignment.
A Stronger Board for What Comes Next
As part of our commitment to strengthening SVA’s governance for this next chapter, we are also welcoming three exceptional new members to the Board of Directors.
JoAnne Bass served as the 19th Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, where she represented the interests of more than 600,000 Total Force Airmen and their families. She brings decades of leadership experience, deep expertise in organizational culture and workforce development, and a proven record of leading large, complex organizations through change. Today, she continues to advise executives and boards on leadership, readiness, and mission-focused strategy.
Brynt Parmeter is the Howard G. & S. Louise Phanstiel Chair in Leadership at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School. He previously served as the inaugural Chief Talent Management Officer for the U.S. Department of Defense and the Head of Non-Traditional Talent for Walmart. A combat veteran with nearly 25 years of U.S. Army service, Brynt brings extensive experience in policy, strategy, public-private partnerships, and workforce development.
Shannon Smith is Vice President and Senior Strategic Advisor to the CFO at CVS Health, and a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserves. She brings distinguished service and financial leadership to her role as SVA’s Board Treasurer, with experience spanning military financial controls, federal compliance, and corporate finance at scale.
Together, these additions reflect the Board’s intentional investment in the leadership, expertise, and commitment to mission needed to guide SVA forward.
What Comes Next
SVA is not standing still. Under Cory’s leadership, we will continue growing our reach, serving more student veterans in more meaningful ways, and deepening the trusted partnerships that make our mission possible.
We are grateful to the SVA staff, our partners, our donors, and most of all our student veterans for their continued trust in this organization.
On behalf of the Board of Directors, welcome, Cory. Let’s go.
Scott Blackburn
Board Chair, Student Veterans of America