All Rise’s Justice for Vets is hosting office hours with U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs staff Katie Stewart and Dr. Matthew Stimmel to answer questions about connecting your veterans treatment court participants to VA benefits.

Office hours will be held Thursday, July 27, and Friday, July 28. Have your questions ready and schedule your one-on-one virtual appointment today! Don’t wait; time slots are limited.

Just like office hours in college, All Rise’s Ask the Expert series offers practitioners the opportunity to schedule one-on-one discussion time with experts and receive individualized, confidential instruction via video chat or conference call.

Katie Stewart, L.C.S.W. is the national coordinator for the Veterans Justice Outreach (VJO) program at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. In her role, she contributes to the development of national policy, provides guidance to the field on operational matters, and represents the VJO program with internal and external audiences. Prior to joining the VA’s central office, Ms. Stewart spent nine years as a licensed clinical social worker at the Charles George VA Medical Center in Asheville, North Carolina. Her roles there included local suicide prevention case manager and coordinator, and VJO specialist, where she was instrumental in the development of the Buncombe County Veterans Treatment Court.

Matthew Stimmel, Ph.D. is the national training director for Veterans Justice Programs (VJP) at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, where he advances the program’s mission of ensuring access and care for justice-involved veterans and reducing their risk of recidivism and homelessness. He is responsible for developing and sustaining the education and training of more than 350 VJP field staff and contributing to national VA policy on justice-involved veterans. He is also a clinical instructor at the Stanford University School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Stimmel has been with the VA since 2013, initially completing a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical psychology within the PTSD emphasis area at the VA’s Palo Alto Health Care System. He transitioned to a staff role in 2014 working as a clinical psychologist and VJO specialist, where he helped establish several veterans treatment courts in Northern California. He received his doctor in clinical psychology with a specialization in forensic psychology from Fordham University.