Perspective: Rob and Zina Posner on Scholarships, Philanthropy, and Giving Back to our Veterans

Many veterans have a hard time dealing with the physical and mental cost of prior combat deployments. While their injuries have negative implications for their quality of life, the financial effects can be equally severe. Many veterans struggle to make ends meet, as they cope with their physical and mental injuries.

Veterans with families to support: children, spouses, parents, pets are under entirely new level of stress as they cope with disabilities. The downstream effects of disability can be a source of significant trauma and even humiliation, for America's finest.

Rob Posner, the CEP of a veteran-focused mortgage provider, often encounters this issue:

“These people build their lives and careers around being strong, being capable, dependable, around always being there for the people who need them, whether that’s their squad members, their families, their country, or people in need. Anybody.”

Rob, the CEO of NewDay USA, leads a company underwriting and providing other support services for Veteran families looking to buy new homes. This brings Rob in contact with Americans who have been injured during their service. Some of these injuries are visible, and many are not.

“Physical injuries are of course extremely traumatic, but mental injury—trauma, PTSD, and so forth, can be equally debilitating, especially in this modern knowledge and service-based economy where we’re all selling our brains to some extent.”

Rob continues:

“It’s deeply humbling to speak with veterans suffering from things like PTSD, especially when you learn what they’ve actually been through.  I don’t know if I could survive five minutes of what these men and women spend months experiencing.”

Former US Army Ranger Jon Jackson is a prime example of the trials faced by American personnel, on and off the battlefield. 

“Jon is an incredible example and an amazing human being”, says Rob, “he’s a man who did six combat deployments as an Army Ranger. These are the military's elite; the guys who get the hardest tasks and see the fiercest fighting”.

Because of the enormous amount of combat he experienced, when Jon left the Rangers and returned to civilian life, he wound up suffering from chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD leaves many veterans struggling to properly function on their return to civilian life, sometimes with devastating effects for themselves, and their families' wellbeing.  

Zina Posner (formally Zina Roberts), Rob’s wife and fellow devotee to veteran’s affairs, continues the story:

“Jon is amazing because even though he was dealing with severe PTSD, he refused to a victim.  In fact he went ahead and started his own organization to help other Veterans with similar issues.  This is the caliber of people we are talking about here.  It’s really humbling.”  

Rob and Zina were inspired by their interactions with disabled veterans and the families of service members killed in action. This was a catalyst to their efforts to provide long-term support for veterans beyond their immediate business of mortgage provision.

“The truth is that, for a lot of these people, these actual American heroes, there’s a limit to what normal people like us can do to help.  PTSD, for example, is a very complex and long-term condition.  But, we can help support the families," says Zina.

Earlier this year, Jon’s two children - Kaitlyn and Buck received the Alan B. Posner Award, a scholarship program run by Rob and Zina to benefit children of disabled veterans or those killed-in-action serving their country.

“Our men and women in uniform take care of us every day”, says Rob, “and they sacrifice a huge amount, sometimes everything, in order to keep us safe.  So when that happens, we have to—both as a nation and as individuals—we have to step up and repay that”.

Zina continues: 

“The scholarship program is designed to provide a top-quality education for as many of these kids as possible.  These kids are from families where they may have lost a parent or, like with Kaitlyn and Buck, where a parent has been severely injured while serving the nation.”

Seventy children, like Kaitlyn and Buck, are now enrolled to top-flight educational institutions like the Georgia Military College Prep School thanks to the generosity of the Alan B. Posner Scholarship program.

“It’s our privilege to honor this amazing family in this way”, says Rob, “it’s not a fair exchange considering what Jon has sacrificed for our nation, but it’s a start”.