Ryan & Slate

U.S. Navy veteran, Ryan Holman, suffered a traumatic brain injury while serving as a Corpsman with 1^st Tank Battalion (USMC) in Iraq and has been diagnosed with PTS. Ryan, who works as Freedom Service Dog’s Volunteer Manager, graduated from FSD’s Operation Full Circle with Slate in June, 2019. Slate helps Ryan stay calm in stressful situations, wakes him from nightmares and enables him to enjoy outings with his wife and three children. Ryan joined FSD in January of 2018. After his service, Ryan earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of Colorado at Boulder with a dual major in Sociology and Geography. His work has focused on breaking down the veteran-civilian divide through consistent and targeted engagement activities, to provide a sense of purpose and a unified community. During his time with a national veteran service organization, he was instrumental in developing their strategy to combat the current veteran suicide epidemic through the implementation of a suicide intervention training program.