Garret Biss

Military transition is often described as a career change, but for many Veterans it is also an identity disruption. Service provides structure, belonging, responsibility, mission, and a deeply internalized sense of purpose. When those disappear or become difficult to translate, Veterans may appear capable on the outside while privately navigating isolation, emotional disconnection, loss of meaning, reduced confidence, or difficulty asking for help. In this keynote or workshop, Garret Biss helps audiences understand what may be happening beneath the surface when Veterans struggle after service. Rather than treating Veterans as broken, this session offers a strengths-based, trauma-informed, and practical lens for recognizing hidden transition challenges and creating conditions where Veterans can rebuild connection, identity, purpose, resilience, and post-traumatic growth. This program can be adapted for conferences, Veteran-serving organizations, corporate ERGs, higher education programs, recovery communities, and professionals who support Veterans.

The CAM Framework™ — Connection, Authenticity, and Meaning — is Garret Biss’s strengths-based model for understanding Veteran wellness, military transition, identity reconstruction, and post-service growth. This program introduces a practical framework for helping Veterans rebuild the bonds, self-understanding, and sense of purpose that can be disrupted after service. Garret explores how disconnection, loss of authentic identity, and reduced meaning can contribute to isolation, disengagement, substance use, loss of confidence, and difficulty thriving in civilian environments. Audiences learn how CAM can be used as a shared language for supporting Veterans without reducing them to symptoms, diagnoses, or risk factors. The framework is adaptable for campuses, corporate ERGs, behavioral health teams, recovery programs, peer support professionals, justice-involved Veteran programs, and Veteran-serving systems.

Student Veterans often bring discipline, maturity, leadership, responsibility, and lived experience to campus. Yet many also navigate identity loss, reduced belonging, academic uncertainty, family responsibilities, invisible stress, and the challenge of translating military strengths into a new environment. This keynote or training helps campuses better understand the student Veteran experience and identify practical ways to strengthen belonging, engagement, persistence, and wellbeing. Garret gives faculty, staff, student leaders, and Veteran support professionals a human-centered framework for recognizing hidden transition challenges while also honoring the strengths Veterans bring to higher education. This program is especially useful for campuses that want to improve student Veteran engagement, persistence, confidence, identity development, and long-term success.