Hobart and William Smith Colleges

7 March 2014 Cancelled: Got Your 6s Marvin PFS

A former U.S. Army officer and Blackhawk helicopter pilot, Chris Marvin now works to empower veterans and bridge the civilian-military divide as managing director of Got Your 6, an offshoot of Be the Change Inc. A Presidents Forum Talk with Marvin scheduled for March 13 has been cancelled due to inclement weather. It is hoped the Colleges will be able to reschedule his talk,Youre Welcome for My Service for a later date.

Marvin also serves as a commissioner for the Bipartisan Policy Centers Commission on Political Reform and is a Truman National Security Fellow who represents Got Your 6 at the Clinton Global Initiative.

The Got Your 6 collective impact campaign works to ensure that veterans are seen as leaders and civic assets. The campaign unites the entertainment industry with top nonprofit organizations and the federal government to change the conversation in America around veterans and military families. Got Your Six, is a phrase thats used by members of the military as another way of saying, Ive got your back.

The Got Your 6 initiative features the major studios, networks, agencies and guilds in the entertainment industry, alongside 32 nonprofits and participants from the federal government-all centered around six metrics-based goals and the opportunity to raise awareness of the growing civilian-military divide.

Marvins work at Got Your 6 has been recognized with awards from the National Conference on Citizenship, Points of Light and Goodwill Industries.

A central Illinois native, Marvin served for more than seven years in the U.S. Army. He was severely wounded in combat in Afghanistan in 2004 and was medically retired as a captain in 2009. His awards include the Bronze Star, the Meritorious Service Medal and the Air Medal for Meritorious Achievement.

During his recovery, Marvin volunteered as an advocate for other wounded veterans and was named the first fellow for the Mission Continues. He subsequently worked as the national director of the fellowship program, logging more than 2,000 volunteer hours in 2008 before joining the organization as full-time staff.

In 2008, Marvin was selected as one of 30 young military leaders for the ServiceNation Summit, and also represented Hawaii and the Pacific at the Army Wounded Warrior Symposium.

He is conversationally proficient in Hawaiian and has volunteered as an instructor for a Hawaiian language immersion program. Marvin holds a bachelor of business administration from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Established in the winter of 2000 by President Mark D. Gearan, the Presidents Forum Series is designed to bring a variety of speakers to campus to share their knowledge and ideas with students, faculty and staff of the Colleges, as well as with interested community members. The most recent guest of the Presidents Forum was Todd S. Purdum, senior writer at POLITICO and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair.

Other recent speakers have included Gus Schumacher, executive vice president of policy and co-founder of Wholesome Wave; Former Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, the first woman in American history to serve in both houses of a state legislature and both houses of Congress; activist speaker Judy Shepard; Mayor of Ithaca Svante Myrick; Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund; and political activist and author The Rev. Dr. Marvin A. McMickle.

Upcoming guests of the Presidents Forum Series for the spring semester include: Dr. Kathy Platoni 74, clinical psychologist, author and retired U.S. Army Colonel, on Monday, March 24; and Victor Simpson 63, Rome Bureau Chief for the Associated Press, on Monday, March 31.