{"id":450,"date":"2025-09-17T23:25:33","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T23:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riseofmilitarywomen.vt.domains\/?page_id=450"},"modified":"2026-03-05T18:51:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T18:51:48","slug":"elizabeth-estabrooks-msw","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/riseofmilitarywomen.vt.domains\/index.php\/elizabeth-estabrooks-msw\/","title":{"rendered":"Elizabeth Estabrooks, MSW"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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US Army, 1977-1980<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Motor Transport Operator<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Biography<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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Elizabeth Estabrooks is a retired executive who spends her time volunteering and writing. Prior to retiring, she served as the Deputy Director at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Center for Women Veterans (CWV) in Washington, D.C. where she served as the subject matter expert on women veteran issues, concerns, and needs, advocating in favor of changes that improved safety and equity for women veterans. In 2021 \u2013 2022 she led the production of two Congressionally mandated studies: 1) Study on Unemployment Rate of Post 9\/11 Women Veterans and 2) The Prevalence of Intimate Partner Violence in the Veteran Population. Ms. Estabrooks envisioned and implemented the development of a first-ever VA woman veterans\u2019 survey to identify and understand low rates of VA benefits and healthcare usage by women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to assuming her role as Deputy Director, Elizabeth served as the first Oregon Woman Veterans Coordinator with the Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs where she brought decades of knowledge and experience gained from her career working on relevant issues that included: domestic violence, (military) sexual assault, peer support services, community safety, and gender- and culturally responsive services.  In 2017, she co-founded the I Am Not Invisible campaign and photo project for women veterans, which became a national project headed Center for Women Veterans, with over 4,000 women veterans in 50 states and 29 tribes being photographed by 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Her earliest foray into the field of violence against women was first as a board member and then Executive Director of MayDay, Inc., Baker County\u2019s domestic and sexual violence crisis intervention center from 1993 \u2013 1997, where she changed the law enforcement culture against arresting offenders and obtained funding for the first ever community shelter. Later, as an independent consultant, she advised clients that included the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; Oregon Department of Human Services; Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training; Battered Women\u2019s Justice Project; Mental Health Partnerships of Pennsylvania; and the Edmonton Police Department in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elizabeth is a Peacetime Cold War Veteran of the United States Army who served at Harvey Barracks in Kitzingen, Germany. She is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of Eastern Oregon University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Gender Studies and Political Science and holds a Master of Science in Social Work (Policy) from Columbia University in New York. She was appointed to the VA Secretary\u2019s Task Force on Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access in 2021 and the VA National Domestic Violence Task Force in 2012 and was a 2013 Fisher-Cummings Washington, D.C. Fellow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She now travels and focuses on writing. Her first book, Broken in the Stronger Places: From Resilience to Resourcefulness, is a memoir that spans her life from joining the military through her exit from the VA and the one-year solo healing road trip that followed. The book, informed by her nearly 30 years of experience in the field of domestic violence and sexual assault, examines post-traumatic stress and retraumatization among women survivors, was released in March 2025 and is scheduled for Spanish translation in Winter, 2025. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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