Beth Morgan
Abrams, the executive director, joined the Marine Corps shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks. He was on active duty for eight years, which included deployment to Afghanistan with an infantry company. He then earned an MBA at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He founded FourBlock while at NYU to help bridge the gap between returning service members and the business community. The program is a university-accredited, semester-long course to prepare veterans for careers in corporate America. It has since been expanded to twelve cities across the country, which educate and serve hundreds of veterans each semester.
Abrams is co-author of Mission Critical: Unlocking the Value of Veterans in the Workforce, as well as two editions of a guidebook titled Business Networking for Veterans. He is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and was recognized as one of the HillVets Top 100 Veteran Innovators of 2016.
Morgan grew up in a Marine Corps family that traveled frequently, living for periods of time in Hawaii, Germany, and Korea. She has worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, for several non-profits, as a consultant, and at major universities throughout the U.S., including, Princeton and the University of Southern California. Most recently, she was executive director of the non-profit Service to School and directed the Marine Corps Leadership Scholar Program, both of which assisted service members and veterans with admission to undergraduate and graduate programs.
“With Columbia’s distinctive record of educating veterans, the years of dedication to veteran support that Abrams and Morgan bring will make our new Center for Veteran Transition and Integration a national resource for veteran success,” said Peter Awn, dean of Columbia’s School of General Studies.