Headquarters Adds New Staff Members, Board Appoints Interim District 1 Director – Blinded Veterans Association (2024)

BVA National Executive Director Donald D. Overton, Jr. has announced the addition of Claudia Baldwin and Michaun Harrison to the Association’s full-time headquarters staff. Claudia will take on the role of National Service Officer while Michaun will work as the National Administrative Coordinator. John O’Connell, a member of the New Jersey Regional Group, was appointed as the new Director of District 1, effective immediately. The District Director post was vacated by Claudia so that she could assume her staff position.

About Claudia Baldwin

An immigrant from El Salvador, Claudia Baldwin joined the United States Air Force following her graduation from high school in 1995. She served as a Staff Sergeant in the field of Medical Laboratory Technology for more than five years until she was medically retired at age 24 in October 2000 due to sight loss. She first attended the Eastern Blind Rehabilitation Center in West Haven, Connecticut in August 2001. She joined BVA in 2006 and shortly thereafter was hired as a National Field Service Officer, which evolved into several other positions over the next 14 years. She has an Associate Degree in Medical Laboratory Technology and a Bachelor of Science in Management from the University of Phoenix. She is currently working on a Master of Public Administration. A BVA Ambassador, Claudia resides in Rockville, Maryland, with her husband, James Baldwin, also a BVA member.

About Michaun Harrison

Adaptive sports enthusiast and Army veteran Michaun Harrison has been a BVA member since 2008. She has most recently served as president of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Group and Chairperson of the BVA Guide Dog Handlers Group. She is also a BVA Ambassador. As a member of the ROTC program, Michaun graduated from James Madison University with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish. She also earned a Master of Arts in Health Services/Allied Health from the California College of Health Sciences. Her loss of sight began from the side effects of treatments for Tuberculosis contracted in college, which can damage the optic nerve and cause atrophy of the retina. She later served for 13 years and six months on active duty as an Orthotic Specialist and a Respiratory, Pulmonary Functions and Polysomnography Technician. Known, she says, as a professional volunteer, Michaun adds to her BVA leadership resume active membership in the Disabled American Veterans, Lions Club, American Legion, and Veterans of Foreign Wars. A resident of Fredericksburg, Virgnia, she is also a committee member of the TriState Adaptive Sports Association.

About John OConnell

Lieutenant Colonel John O’Connell, U.S. Air Force (Ret) was commissioned in 1985 through the U.S. Air Force ROTC as a graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. He earned his pilot wings at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma. After graduation, he remained at Vance as a First Assignment Instructor and has flown planes, worked on flight-training manuals, and taught others how to fly ever since. As an Aircraft Commander and Instructor Pilot on the C-141, he flew worldwide missions, including multinational military intervention missions into Bosnia-Herzegovina and Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti. At the end of his active-duty commitment, John joined the Air National Guard in Newburgh, New York. He was recalled to active duty in 2003. He is an Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. John joined BVA in 2019 after attending the VA Lyons VISOR HOPTEL program. He has been the regional group secretary since 2022 and recently completed the Ambassador training program. John is passionate about helping the visually impaired and was recently appointed by the Governor of New Jersey to the Commission for the Blind State Rehabilitation Council. He has also served as Vice Chair to the BVA Awards Committee and is currently on the Adaptive Sports and Recreation Committee.