Challenge America

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Leadership Team

Houston Cowan, Founder and CEO

Houston, also the founder of Challenge Aspen, a world renowned non-profit providing year-round recreational, cultural and competitive programs to anyone with any disability, including programs specifically designed for disabled military, began to see the unfortunate growing need of injured military as the war in Iraq returned young men and women with severely debilitating injuries, amputations and traumatic brain injuries. Recognizing the lack of coordination of resources and information between programs for all military across the country, making it difficult for them and their families to locate the services needed for a successful transition from battlefield to home front, Houston and his staff were compelled to act. The idea of "challenging America" to find ways to connect military with the resources needed to establish a "new normal" life was born, leading to the creation and June 8, 2009, launch of Challenge America, the initiative and the organization.

Sam Cowan, Executive Vice President of Business Development

Sam brings over 20 years of business development experience, ranging from startups to large corporations in both the investment banking and healthcare industries. He has been responsible for strategic planning, launching executive initiatives, forecasting, team building, and delivering mission-critical goals, resulting in growth return meeting and exceeding revenue projections. For the past four years, Sam has owned his own consulting firm, specializing in executive recruiting and human resources consulting services both in the U.S. and globally. His previous association with Challenge Aspen and its adaptive recreation programs for injured and wounded military and their families has enabled him to interact with the military community and gain a deeper understanding of their needs for the past ten years. Sam’s unique professional skills, combined with his understanding of the needs of the returning military men, women, and their families, is a complement to the Challenge America team.

J. Thomas Gensch, Executive Vice President of Online Strategy

As executive vice president of online strategy, Thomas brings 20 years of online/digital commerce senior management experience, revenue/profit-driven success, and global customer-focused sales and marketing execution. A graduate of Bryant University, he specializes in directing early-stage and growth-driven companies to scale by executing successful revenue- and customer-acquisition targets, and by building growth teams and strategic partnerships. His experience includes service in commercial and government programs as chief revenue officer for MuseGlobal, working with agencies such as Department of Homeland Security, FBI and Department of Justice for Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) to connect federal, state and local agencies to fusion centers nationwide for data harvesting. Prior to MuseGlobal, Thomas worked as chief growth officer at Cygnus Business Media, assisting in developing platforms that provided growth opportunities for digital media programs to drive new revenue streams by repackaging existing assets and developing new ones that increased growth. He also led global customer acquisition efforts to more than 400 corporate institutions and 135 universities and nonprofit organizations as a vice president at Knovel Corporation.

In addition to his internet and content experience, Thomas assisted in building an e-support infrastructure for Fortune 100 companies in his role as regional vice president of sales for Support Soft, where he contributed to a successful IPO in 2000. His background of working with commercial, government and non-profit entities is the right blend for assisting Challenge America's growth to leverage the internet for connecting military and their families to resources while transitioning from battlefield to home front.

LTC Daniel T. Johnston, M.D., Advisor and Spokesperson

LTC Daniel T. Johnston, M.D., is a physician; public health expert; author; consultant to NASA, the military’s elite and world class athletes in the areas of nutritional science and health/performance optimization, and passionate fitness enthusiast. While in DC serving at the White House and Pentagon, Dr. Johnston became involved with Challenge America. Passionate about helping his fellow service members, especially those wounded in action, he has become one of the most high-profile spokespersons for the national organization. While in Iraq, he video conferences into Challenge America events to help promote awareness and education around the issues faced by returning veterans, seeking to improve their quality of life and promote high quality wellness initiatives around the world.

In August 2009, Dr. Johnston was assigned by the US Army to become the brigade surgeon for the first-ever “Enhanced” Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division and deployed to Iraq in March 2010. The unit is part of a special task force that provides all aviation medical evacuation and aviation security operations throughout Iraq during the drawdown. He is also gaining practical experience and knowledge of soldier health issues in combat and researches ways to find solutions for specific mission performance needs through nutrition and special resiliency programs. While in Iraq, he helped build the Army’s first ever Combat Resiliency Center and was quickly named the center’s medical director. There he began researching and understanding the Army’s Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program, designed for improving soldier health and performance. Most recently, Dr. Johnston received approval from the Army medical review board to conduct a study to examine the effects of omega-3 fish oil capsules on deployed soldiers' mental health.

Challenge America Spokespersons

Sarah Williams Volf

Sarah Williams Volf, a native of Wales, moved to Colorado in 2001 to join Challenge Aspen, an organization providing adaptive recreation programs for individuals with disabilities. With experience working with children with disabilities in war-torn areas such as Bosnia, she took on the role of Recreation, Educational & Cultural Programs Director. In 2005, she began to add programming specifically for wounded warriors and was asked in 2008 to spearhead a new division of Challenge Aspen called C.A.M.O. (Challenge Aspen Military Opportunities), focusing exclusively on providing summer and winter programs for injured military members and their families. Listening to the needs expressed by the program participants for a connection to similar resources in their home communities helped spark the idea for Challenge America. Sarah’s passion and commitment to meeting the needs of wounded warriors and their families has led to her serving as an expert resource and a liaison with the injured military community for Challenge America in addition to her role with C.A.M.O.

Torrey Shannon

Torrey Shannon, wife of injured soldier SSG John Daniel Shannon, works closely with Challenge America, Challenge Aspen and other nonprofits as an advocate, helping veterans and their families improve quality of life in the face of military injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder. Torrey also serves as the executive director of the nonprofit Cleaning for Heroes. As a spokesperson for Challenge America, Torrey shares her story of triumph over tragedy after her husband was critically wounded in a gunfight in Iraq in 2004 and suffered a traumatic brain injury. Determined to hold her family together, she helped her husband and children in the long road to physical and emotional recovery, only to learn there was a new battlefield once the troops come home. Her family’s resulting “David and Goliath” story of military advocacy resulted in Congressional action and widespread improvements in veteran health care.

Above and beyond her own personal ordeal, Torrey made the decision to help others suffering from the residual effects of military sacrifices. Understanding the unique challenges of our military service members, she became an advocate to help create awareness for military members and their families. She brings a human element to the problems our military communities face. Recounting her story of her family, marriage, crisis, and healing, Torrey delivers an inspirational testament of strength, determination, integrity and compassion for those fighting their own battles. She has been featured in a variety of publications and media outlets including: The Washington Post, National Public Radio, Reader's Digest, CBS Evening News, WAVY-10 News, NBC4-TV, The Virginian Pilot, Entrepreneur Magazine and others.

Zaneta Adams

Zaneta Adams was born in Chicago, IL, as the middle child of three. Professionally she has held many exciting jobs such as a 911 dispatcher and a Joint Counter Narcotics Task force member out of Fort Huachuca, AZ. She currently holds a bachelor of arts degree in psychology. She has been married to her husband, Joseph Adams, for over 10 years and has six children, including two sets of fraternal twins and an adopted relative.

Zaneta enlisted in the US Army in 1998 where she served eight years and where she met and fell in love with her husband Joseph. While serving during Operation Iraqi Freedom, she fell 10-12 feet from a truck and injured her back, requiring two surgeries.

Zaneta has had a love and a passion for singing since she was ten years old and had her first solo in her church choir. She has sung at many different events and venues including sporting events, festivals, carnivals, and church. In 2004, before being mobilized, she wrote and recorded a four-song demo CD titled “Ready or Not.” After taking time off from singing due to her injury and immobility early on, she is once again singing and writing songs. She is currently working on recording a single titled “This I Know.” She continues to volunteer her time to helping other wounded warriors along with caring for her family. She credits all of her gifts, abilities and passions to God, her parents, her husband, and children. She currently resides in Muskegon, MI with her family.

Challenge America Website Focus Group

Challenge America is pleased to acknowledge and thank the following individuals who served in helping with the content and design of the new Challenge America website. These individuals represent our user groups: