R. Jeremy Harrison, MSW, LICSW, is the Co-founder of Helping Heroes, Inc.: A Center for Veteran Resources. Prior to that, from July 2007-September 2013, he was a Social Worker for the Department of Veterans Affairs Vet Center program, specializing in the treatment of readjustment issues faced by our country’s returning combat veterans in individual, family, and group settings.
Jeremy is a combat veteran. He served with the Army Reserve’s 459th Engineer Company in Operation Iraqi Freedom, with his unit playing a critical role in the fall of Baghdad. He began his career as a Family-Based Mental Health Worker in Pittsburgh, PA, and upon his return from Iraq in 2004, began working at the Morgantown, WV Vet Center as a Global War on Terrorism Outreach Worker, a new position created specifically for the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. He was one of the first in the nation hired into this position. While in this position, he began pursuing his masters degree from West Virginia University and graduated in the spring of 2007, at which point he transferred to the Wheeling, WV Vet Center as a Social Worker and Clinical Coordinator. Jeremy also developed and taught both a bachelor and master level course at WVU entitled “Social Work Practice with America’s Veterans,” which has been used as a foundation to create similar courses throughout the nation. In 2013, Jeremy left the Vet Center program to begin a career working for Helping Heroes, Inc., an organization founded by him and his wife, Susan. He is the author of The Warrior Citizen: A Soldier’s Journey to Iraq and Back (iUniverse, 2008). The book was the recipient of an Editor’s Choice Award.
In 2013 he was chosen by the nation’s leading social work magazine, Social Work Today, as 1 of 10 most dedicated and deserving Social Workers in the country. He was named Outstanding Young West Virginian and one of 10 Outstanding Young Americans in 2018. Additionally, he is a member of Senator Joe Manchin’s Veteran Advisory council, on which he is the Chairman of the Substance Abuse Sub-committee.