Workers with Disabilities: Talent for a Winning Team - November 2007
Gorman P.: Soldier Transitioning Back to Work
Gorman P., an equipment operator 2nd Class with the U.S. Navy, was running convoys in Iraq when a sudden sandstorm hit. A fast-traveling 90-pound wood plank hit him in the head, causing a traumatic brain injury. Due to his new disability, he was unable to return to his former civilian job as a truck driver. Although he had some ideas about alternative career options, he knew he would need additional education. While recuperating from his injury, Gorman enrolled in the Transition Training Academy (TTA), a pilot project for disabled veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan designed to hone their information technology skills and provide them with marketable credentials. The TTA project is a public-private collaboration of the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy and its Job Accommodation Network, the Labor Department's Veterans Employment and Training Service, the Naval Medical Center at San Diego, California Employment Development, Inverness Technologies and Cisco. After completing the program, Gorman obtained a job with Universal Understanding LLC, a premier partner consulting and training services company of Cisco Technologies. He teleworks from his home in Blue Springs, Missouri. Gorman is committed to helping other disabled veterans transition to the civilian workforce. "I wouldn't be where I am today without TTA," he said. "I want to pass along the opportunities that were given to me."
