2024 Board Member Elections

Voting is now open and will close on September 7 and will be certified by the 13th. You may vote for all four officer positions but be sure to only vote for four of the At-Large Director candidates. The form is fairly simple to use. Your votes will be kept confidential. Thank you for your participation.

Click here for candidate bios.

Voting is now closed.

President:

John Cathcart

John served in the Air Force for 20 years, retiring as a Lt. Col. He has been involved with MWSA for well over a decade, serving in many different capacities: board member, awards director, webmaster, membership specialist, and IT geek. He won the President’s Award in 2009—the same year he published his award-winning novel, Delta 7—and is looking forward to working with Val Ormond to keep MWSA on track to meet the needs of our members, grow our membership, and help our aspiring or established authors.

Vice President:

Valerie Ormond

Valerie Ormond retired as a Navy Captain after a 25-year career as a naval intelligence officer and founded her business, Veteran Writing Services, LLC. An active member of MWSA since 2011, she is MWSA’s Outreach Committee Chair; the lead for MWSA’s Ambassador Program, a previous Board Member; a member of the Programming Committee; an Awards Committee Reviewer; the 2019 President’s Award winner; and a Finalist for both the Writer or the Year and the Founder’s Award. Valerie’s novels Believing In Horses, Believing In Horses, Too, and Believing In Horses Out West won MWSA gold medals along with numerous other awards. Her non-fiction and fiction stories and poems have appeared in over ten books, and her work has been published worldwide in magazines, newspapers, and blogs. For more information, please see www.veteranwritingservices.com and www.believinginhorses.com.

Secretary:

Jim Tritten

Jim retired after a forty-four-year career with the Department of Defense, including duty as a carrier-based naval aviator. He holds advanced degrees from the University of Southern California and formerly served as a faculty member and National Security Affairs department chair at the Naval Postgraduate School. Dr. Tritten’s publications have won him seventy-two writing awards, including the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award from the Navy League of the U.S., the Military Writers Society of America (MWSA) Writer of the Year and the Parris Award from SouthWest Writers (SWW) – both of these in 2023. He has published thirteen books and over four hundred chapters, short stories, essays, articles, and government technical reports. Jim was a frequent speaker at many military, arms control, and international conferences and has seen his work translated into Russian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Treasurer:

Hugh Simpson

I’m a retired LtCol USMCR and father of three.  My wife and I have a Law Firm and Title Insurance Business for over 20 years as well as several other Family and Real Estate Entities. I recently published my first book, Borderline Decision, and have turned over my second, Caribbean Cabal, to my editor. 

At-Large Directors:

Ruth W. Crocker

Ruth W. Crocker is an author, editor, and playwright, and survived a career in healthcare management. Her essays have appeared in The Gettysburg Review, Grace Magazine, O-Dark-Thirty, T.A.P.S. Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, anthologies, trade magazines, The Day newspaper, and elsewhere. Writing honors include a notable essay in Best American Essays, a Pushcart Prize nomination, and First Prize in the Saturday Evening Post’s “Tribute to the Troops” essay contest.  Her memoir, Those Who Remain: Remembrance and Reunion After War, received the Benjamin Franklin Award, a Silver Medal from the Military Writers Society of America, and was presented to President Obama at the White House in 2014. Her book, People of Yellowstone, received Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Award in 2017. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Bennington College and a PhD from the University of Connecticut. Presently, she is Managing Editor at Elm Grove Press and Secretary for the MWSA board of directors. She is also a frequent speaker on the subjects of writing, editing, and memoir. She lives in Mystic, CT. Visit her website at: www.ruthwcrocker.com.

Annette Langlois Grunseth

Annette Langlois Grunseth, Green Bay, WI, is retired from a 40-year career in healthcare marketing and PR. Her book Combat and Campus: Writing Through War (Elm Grove Press) received a Gold Medal from MWSA in 2022. Her poetry book, Becoming Trans-Parent, One Family’s Journey of Gender Transition, (Finishing Line Press) was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She received the Hal Gruetzmacher Poetry Prize in Wisconsin. Her work has been recognized by the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets and the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters (University of Wisconsin). She has been published in Amethyst Review, The Poetry Box, Poetry of Presence II, Silver Birch Press, and other journals. She finds inspiration for writing while biking trails or paddling her kayak. Learn more at www.annettegrunseth.com.

Rob Lofthouse

From Marine Corps Corporal to award-winning author: meet Rob Lofthouse! Rob went on to a successful international 40-year career in information technology retiring as a Vice President of Operations. But his story doesn't end there. Rob is an author of five biographies and historical books. He's a sought-after speaker, bestselling and award-winning author (including a prestigious 2022 MWSA Bronze Medal!). A South Dakota Fallen Hero’s Bridge Dedication was recently named after the war hero he wrote about in this book. He is a coach, editor, and book reviewer who empowers other writers. Rob's passion for service continues as a dedicated volunteer with several patriotic organizations in the Kansas City area (Vietnam Veteran’s Association Chapter 75 Treasurer; SAR Henry Leavenworth Chapter Treasurer; and General Chair of the George Washington Birthday Celebration.) He's also actively involved with the Military Writer's Society of America serving this past year as an Ambassador and The William “Rev. Bill” McDonald Scholarship Chair, and is a member of the Kansas Author's Club. Living between the rivers in Kansas City with his wife, Rob's story is one of dedication, leadership, and love for both history and helping others.                                                                                                             

James Rosone

James Rosone's military career began in 1996 with the Wisconsin Army National Guard, evolving to the U.S. Air Force as a Linguist Debriefer after 9/11. During his 556-day Iraq deployment, he conducted over 2,200 hours of high-value target interrogations, earning recognition for his counterterrorism efforts and the lives he saved through his efforts. Post-military, James worked as a contractor in Iraq with DynCorp and Triple Canopy on the WPPS contract with the State Department before leaving Iraq to take a new role with US CENTCOM. James was then recruited to work on a SOCOM task order, positioning him at the US European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, as the Command's newly appointed Identity Operations Manager. In this role, James worked to establish the Global Identity Intelligence program, a critical program in identifying and preventing KSTs and extremist persons from entering the US and Allied Nations. Academically, James holds undergraduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin, an MBA from Saint Leo University, and an MSc from the University of Oxford. His academic experiences include internships with Congressman Paul Ryan and Governor of Wisconsin Scott McCallum.  In 2015, struggling with PTSD after leaving the intelligence world behind, James discovered writing therapy. This coping mechanism transformed into a new career, and in 2017, he became a full-time author with his wife Miranda. Collaborating with his wife, James has co-authored 34 books, selling over a million copies worldwide. Their works were often inspired by James's military and wartime experience coupled with his extensive foreign travel. They have given him and his wife an expansive breadth of experience to draw upon in their storytelling. Their works have been translated into multiple languages, from German and French to Hindi and Japanese. The couple consistently ranks among Amazon's Top-100 Kindle Unlimited authors in the Thriller and Science Fiction genres they write. James and Miranda now advocate writing therapy to help others overcome trauma and PTSD. They mentor aspiring veteran authors, continuing their service through the power of the pen.

Dane Zeller

Dane Zeller’s characters are known by their own words. His novels and short stories show Zeller’s mastery of dialog and humor. His short book of fiction, Drive-By Romances, reveals the differences between men and women simply by their starting a pleasant conversation. His skills at dialog have led Zeller to writing and producing for a radio drama group, “Shots in The Night.” This theater group deals with pesky little FCC rules and explores the boundaries of good taste. Zeller is an expert on the dark hole of social media. He has thousands of Facebook friends and Twitter followers. Fortunately, his MBA degree in marketing forces him to think of those fans as the strangers they are. Zeller is a Vietnam War combat veteran. He believes we all owe the world a story.