Jose Ramos is the Vice President of Government and Community Relations for Wounded Warrior Project.
Born in Mexico and growing up in El Paso, TX, Ramos joined the Navy in 2000 to become a Hospital Corpsman attached to a U.S. Marine Corps Sniper team. During his third combat tour, he was severely injured by a rocket attack, losing his left arm among other wounds.
Despite his injuries, Ramos went on to compete around the globe and for the US Paratriathlon Team, was appointed by President Bush as one of the seven commissioners on the President’s Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors and has dedicated nearly two decades advocating for severely injured veterans and people with disabilities through diverse nonprofit entities and the federal government.
He currently resides in Great Falls, Virginia with his wife Jodie and their sons Donovan and Luke, spending his free time coaching youth sports.
He recently spoke to Able News about his goals and accomplishments.
Can you talk a little bit about your accomplishments in your current role and how they have advanced inclusivity?
As Vice President for Government and Community Relations at Wounded Warrior Project, much of our work naturally centers on veterans with disabilities. However, some of the policy work that we do doesn’t just impact veterans. Veterans are members of the community, and our policy efforts often impact everybody with a disability.
While I can easily talk about veteran-specific legislation, one effort I’m especially proud of is our efforts around air travel accessibility. Specifically, on the process and improvements of the TSA screening process for individuals with disabilities. While efforts focused on addressing challenges veterans face – particular amputees and those with cognitive and mobility impairments – the impact extends far beyond.
As an amputee myself, I often experience a very different process at every TSA checkpoint. While there are well intended officers, they don’t always know the right way to screen an individual with a disability. This doesn’t just impact amputees, it happens to those in wheelchairs, those with cognitive and physical impairments – any type of disability.
For veterans who have suffered severe traumatic brain injury, who often have both mobility and cognitive impairments, traveling by plane becomes a burden for themselves, and their families, when we don’t have a good, standardized process that feels humane and respectable.
We worked both with legislators and the administration to push for standardized TSA security checkpoints so that staff are better trained and equipped to interact with all travelers with disabilities respectfully and consistently.
We often heard from veterans who felt uncomfortable and even dehumanized. Now, the process will hopefully be more dignified and accommodating.
Another initiative that stands out is our collaboration with the previous administration to create sensory-friendly sessions for White House public gatherings like the annual Easter Egg Roll and Christmas tree lighting. These adapted sessions created sensory-friendly opportunities for individuals with disabilities to enjoy these larger public gatherings – bringing together kids with autism, those with disabilities, and disabled veterans with mobility and cognitive challenges, as well as those with PTSD.
Those efforts are extremely meaningful for me beyond the fact that it helps disabled veterans because it has a broader impact. It allows for inclusivity and for all individuals with disabilities to feel like they’re a part of our communities, being able to ambulate and move around as freely as everybody else, without having to undergo additional stressors and sometimes feeling like we’re lesser than — in part because of the processes that exists, and more so, because of others misunderstanding or unawareness of how to engage with somebody with a disability.
Can you share how your experience with adaptive sports helped shape your approach to advocacy?
On my third combat tour, while servings as a Hospital Corpsman attached to a Marine Sniper team, I sustained severe injuries to include the loss of my left arm, internal injuries, a traumatic brain injury, and nerve damage. Adaptive sports played a critical role in my recovery. It helped me regain a sense of who I was as an individual.
I quickly learned that the more involved I was in adaptive sports – the more physically challenging – the more normal I felt. It helped me build the confidence to do things I thought I couldn’t otherwise do anymore. Life lessons I continue to rely on. Adaptive sports opened the doors for me to go out and just compete in a race and get comfortable with my new disability, running without an arm.
Realizing that I could not only do it, but I could do it just as well as anybody else who doesn’t have a disability.
Adaptive sports have been a way for me to validate that I’m capable and able to do whatever I want to do, whether it be physically challenging or not. It just means that sometimes I have to find different ways of doing something that I was accustomed to doing in another way.
Adaptive sports taught me a fundamental lesson that apply to both life and leadership: life is full of challenges, and success often comes by how you adapt to overcome those challenges. After my injury, things I could easily do before, I couldn’t do the same way, so having to adapt and overcome has helped me tremendously throughout life and in it also applies to advocacy. In advocacy, you consistently face barriers – you have an outcome or goal in mind, but you often run into obstacles along the way. Whether it’s pushback on the legislative front, funding constraints, or differences in viewpoints, you must adapt your strategy to overcome the challenges and succeed– just like in adaptive sports.
It is the same lesson I share with my team. In advocacy and Government Affairs, we are always trying to figure out the best way forward and how to solve things. Being able to adapt, overcome, and stay consistent has served us well.
As a leader, this journey has made me more resilient, empathetic, and aware of the people around me and their perspectives. To be honest, for a long time, I didn’t identify as part of the disability community because I was always very active, competitive, and didn’t see myself as disabled. It wasn’t until after about eight years post injury that I realize that I was part of a bigger community – the community of people with disabilities. I learned a lot from the book, No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement, which helped me understand the history of the “civil rights” movement for people with disabilities. I began to appreciate the sheer resiliency and drive of those who came before us, who made an impact, which has shaped how I approach my job – both as a leader and as someone who works in the advocacy and government affairs space.
What are you priorities for the next phase of your advocacy work?
There are three key areas I would like to highlight.
First is mental health – challenges like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), isolation, lack of connection, and limited access to care not just impact veterans, but the broader population. Addressing challenges around access to affordable mental health and the availability of mental health providers is critical for improving the quality of life across communities.
Second is traumatic brain injury (TBI). Known as a signature injury for post-9/11 veterans who valiantly participated in the Global War on Terrorism, there are a large number of individuals impacted by blasts-related TBI’s, leading to long-term cognitive and mental/behavioral health challenges. TBI’s aren’t limited to veterans though, similar injuries affect athletes or individuals involved in serious accidents. As a country, there is still much to do to strengthen our TBI systems of care, research long-term impacts of TBIs, and ensure there are adequate support systems for families who are often the primary caregivers.
Third is access to adaptive equipment and prosthetics. Veterans are fortunate to have support from the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, but the non-veteran population does not have access to adaptive equipment. It’s not covered by insurance and is often cost-prohibitive. Whether it’s adaptive prosthetic limbs or mobility chairs, it’s extremely expensive and limits individuals with disabilities from participating in their communities.
We need a broader strategy to make adaptive equipment more affordable and accessible – from scaling manufacturing to better integrating adaptive equipment and opportunities into communities. Doing so will lead to more inclusive communities where everyone can participate – veterans and non-veterans alike.
What has the recognition of being a Viscardi Achievement Award recipient meant to you?
Being nominated and selected as a recipient of the 2024 Henry Viscardi Achievement Award was incredibly humbling and a true honor. Attending the 57th Annual Celebrity Night event made it clear just how much of an impact The Viscardi Center is making on the lives of so many people. It was humbling and empowering to be recognized as somebody contributing to the mission and to the community.
More than anything, the award helped me recognize that there is still more to do, and that I have a part to play in what happens in the future for individuals with disabilities. I am committed to doing as much as I can to serve not only veterans, but the broader community of individuals with disabilities.