VA Names Members of Benefits Advisory Committee

VA Names Members of Benefits Advisory Committee

Panel to Help Guide Improvement to Disability Regulations

WASHINGTON – A newly formed advisory committee for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will help improve VA’s compensation system, especially recommending ways to update and improve the medical evaluations used for disability compensation.

The committee consists of knowledgeable and experienced veterans, advocates and experts in areas such as disability claims adjudication, vocational rehabilitation, disability programs management, workers compensation, rehabilitative medicine and mental health research who will provide advice and counsel to the Secretary.

“Clear and consistent evaluation criteria that keep pace with modern medicine are fundamental to a fair compensation system,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake. "We honor the sacrifice of veterans who were injured and ill from military service by providing them with compensation and rehabilitative services that help them readjust to civilian life.”

Retired Army Lt. Gen. James Terry Scott will chair the Advisory Committee on VA Disability Compensation and Related Benefits.  A partner at Watson & Associates of Coleman, Texas, he served as chairman of the independent Veterans’ Disability Benefits Commission, one of several recent commissions to examine the needs of today’s combat veterans.

The new 11-member VA panel will advise Secretary Peake through periodic reviews of VA’s disability evaluation regulations, as well as make recommendations on legislative changes to VA benefits that address the impact of veterans’ disabilities on quality of life, the need for transition assistance and the potential for successful rehabilitation.

The committee is expected to hold a series of public meetings and invite testimony.  It will also submit periodic progress reports, the first of which is expected within six months of its first meeting.  Meetings will be announced in the Federal Register.

A list of the members is attached.

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Membership

VA Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans

*       Lt. Gen. James Terry Scott (ret.) of Coleman, Texas.  Partner at
Watson & Associates, a financial services firm.  He also teaches political science at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas.  He is a member of the Board of Directors of CALIBRE Corp., a technical services company based in Alexandria, Va.

*       Charles Battaglia of Alexandria, Va.  Member of the board of
directors for the Wounded Warrior Project.  A retired naval officer, he previously served as executive director of the 2005 Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission and also as a senior staff member of the U.S.
Senate, serving in several positions.

*       Robert J. Epley of Waxhaw, N.C.  Independent consultant working
in the areas of strategic planning, training, performance management and the operations of federal entitlement programs.  Mr. Epley served with VA for 31 years, most recently as director of the Compensation and Pension Program.

*       Lt. Gen. Thomas Carney (ret.) of Alexandria, Va.  Member of
board of directors of CALIBRE Corp.  He has been an independent consultant to numerous companies, include CALIBRE, since his retirement in June 1994.  Previously, Carney was chief executive officer for the Library of Congress.  He spent 31 years on active duty in the Army.

*       Maj. Daniel Gade of Athens, Ga.  Former associate director for
domestic policy for the White House’s Domestic Policy Council, where he was responsible for disability and health care issues, as well as matters relating to active military personnel and veterans.  As an Army officer, he was the first person in this position to be on active duty since the post was created in 2001.

*       Robert Burke, PhD, of Bethesda, Md.  Associate professor and
chair of the Department of Health Services Management and Leadership, and director of the Wertlieb Educational Institute for Long-Term Care Management at George Washington University.

*       Bonnie Carroll of Anchorage, Alaska.  National director for
Tragedy Assistance Programs for Survivors (TAPS), the national veterans service organization that provides peer support, grief and trauma resources and information, casualty casework assistance and crisis intervention for veterans and their families.  An Air Force reservist, she previously served as the deputy senior advisor for programs in the Ministry of Communications, Coalition Provisional Authority, in Baghdad, Iraq, and as the deputy White House liaison for VA.

*       Dr. Ronald Blanck of Fenwick Island, Del.  Vice chairman of
Martin, Blanck and Associates.  Prior to joining the firm in June 2006, Dr. Blanck served as president of the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, Texas, from August 2000 until June 2006.
He is an Army veteran, finishing his career as the Surgeon General of the Army and commander of the U.S. Army Medical Command.

*       Deneise Turner Lott of Jackson, Miss.  Administrative judge with
the Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission since November 1988.
She is currently senior judge and is the first woman to hold that position. She was engaged in private law practice with an emphasis on disability claims before joining the commission as a staff attorney.

*       Edward R. Reese Jr. of Washington, D.C.  National service
director for the 1.3 million-member Disabled American Veterans.  A disabled Army veteran of the Gulf War, Reese works at DAV’s National Service and Legislative Headquarters in Washington.

*       Dr. Richard T. Katz of St. Louis.  Professor of clinical
neurology at Washington University School of Medicine with an appointment to the Barnes Jewish Hospital.  He is a primary reviewer of several different medical journals and has interests in evaluation of disability and assessment of pain.