{"id":150166,"date":"2025-06-20T11:30:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T16:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=150166"},"modified":"2025-06-20T11:30:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T16:30:17","slug":"university-of-mississippi-hires-air-force-veteran-to-oversee-veteran-and-military-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/university-of-mississippi-hires-air-force-veteran-to-oversee-veteran-and-military-services\/","title":{"rendered":"University of Mississippi Hires Air Force Veteran to Oversee Veteran and Military Services"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Jeremee Alexander to lead efforts to aid military-connected students<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>University of Mississippi<\/strong> has hired <strong>U.S. Air Force<\/strong> veteran <strong>Jeremee Alexander<\/strong> as the new director of its <strong>Office of Veteran and Military Services<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alexander will oversee the university&#8217;s communications with the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/tracking.us.nylas.com\/l\/e282611cc42e4e17b43011280182dcf8\/1\/be55ae4aad871ed02f514fd59f43c0da7fdd64937d5c460a91cf74f59ebd3566?cache_buster=1750432688\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to ensure veterans and military-connected students \u2013 children, spouses or other veteran dependents \u2013 have access to the educational benefits they earned during their service to the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;But this position is a lot more than just that,&#8221; Alexander said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t want to put every veteran in the same box, but I can speak from my own perspective. A lot of us feel like we don&#8217;t fit in when we transition out of the military. We leave our military family and lose a sense of our identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Having a place on campus like this is really important to me because veterans can look at this building and say, &#8216;That&#8217;s my team now.&#8217; Having that refuge here at the George Street House \u2013 somewhere they can belong \u2013 that means something.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alexander brings a wealth of experience to the position, said <strong>Perry Sansing<\/strong>, associate general counsel and special assistant to the chancellor for governmental affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/tracking.us.nylas.com\/l\/e282611cc42e4e17b43011280182dcf8\/2\/cc3aff119db4f93f071b403876b7c45438216d5739d9461fcc5656ce116eb9e1?cache_buster=1750432688\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Office of Veteran and Military Services<\/a>&nbsp;exists to serve and help the men and women who have sacrificed, along with their families, to serve our country,&#8221; Sansing said. &#8220;What stood out during the search process is Jeremee&#8217;s dedication and concern for veterans and their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We all appreciate his commitment to ensuring that Ole Miss remains an outstanding military-friendly university.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before joining the <strong>Ole Miss<\/strong> staff, Alexander spent 20 years in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/tracking.us.nylas.com\/l\/e282611cc42e4e17b43011280182dcf8\/3\/57ea1fe69c68473b2f5909a50ef7645bb0a54fe47a59d30b370a420b4b3427e4?cache_buster=1750432688\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">U.S. Air Force<\/a>\u00a0in the Security Forces career field. He held positions that ranged from patrolman and combat tactics instructor to providing presidential and nuclear security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After retiring, he continued serving the <strong>Department of Defense<\/strong> for six years as a defense contractor providing critical warfighting equipment to various countries around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This new chapter in his life is about ensuring veterans are successful at Ole Miss and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;For every person we represent here \u2013 veterans and military connected students, faculty and staff \u2013 I want them to be prepared for where they go next,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I want to help them realize they&#8217;re just as competitive as anyone else.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alongside his military experience, Alexander brings a passion for helping others, said <strong>Jesse Parkman<\/strong>, a senior creative writing major from <strong>Monticello<\/strong> and president of the <strong>Student Veterans Association<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;After meeting with him and talking to him, I think he&#8217;s going to do a great job,&#8221; Parkman said. &#8220;He&#8217;s got a vision for how to help veterans and military-connected students, and that&#8217;s what you hope for in a director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s passionate about helping veterans and military-connected students, and he understands some of the challenges they face when approaching academia and civilian life.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The office, in the George Street House behind the Lyceum, provides a place for military-connected students, faculty and staff to ask questions, congregate and access benefits, Alexander said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alongside those purposes, the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/tracking.us.nylas.com\/l\/e282611cc42e4e17b43011280182dcf8\/4\/b09aa4b1194eed5ccec8ce85e10af42e06cff4b8e9eb7c5d7edd5ea5bd36b90c?cache_buster=1750432688\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">George Street House also provides mental health counseling services<\/a>, a resource that Alexander said he wants to encourage military-connected students and veterans to use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Our embedded counselor is critical to this community,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Not just for military members, but for their families. But too often in the military, it&#8217;s seen as a source of weakness to walk into the door of a mental health counselor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s a weakness. That&#8217;s a sign of strength.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alexander will be charged with working with state and federal government officials to help shed light on issues affecting veterans and military-connected students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We want to influence the chain, so to speak, from down in Jackson to all the way up to D.C.,&#8221; he said. &#8220;That&#8217;s a big part of my mission here. I want to make sure any military-connected student \u2013 here or elsewhere \u2013 is taken care of. Whatever we can do to influence that from here, that&#8217;s what we&#8217;ll do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It takes a spark to light a fire. We&#8217;re going to be both.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>By Clara Turnage<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"25\" height=\"16\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg?resize=25%2C16\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14544\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Alexander-at-Street-House-scaled.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Alexander-at-Street-House-1024x768.jpg?resize=640%2C480&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-150167\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Alexander-at-Street-House-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Alexander-at-Street-House-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Alexander-at-Street-House-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Alexander-at-Street-House-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Alexander-at-Street-House-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Alexander-at-Street-House-scaled.jpg?w=1280 1280w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Alexander-at-Street-House-scaled.jpg?w=1920 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Jeremee Alexander is the new director of the University of Mississippi&#8217;s Office of Veteran and Military Services. Alexander brings more than two decades of experience with the U.S. Air Force to the position, along with a passion for helping veteran and military-connected students thrive. Photo by Clara Turnage\/University Marketing and Communications<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Jeremee-Alexander-scaled.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Jeremee-Alexander-683x1024.jpg?resize=640%2C960&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-150168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Jeremee-Alexander-scaled.jpg?resize=683%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 683w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Jeremee-Alexander-scaled.jpg?resize=200%2C300&amp;ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Jeremee-Alexander-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Jeremee-Alexander-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Jeremee-Alexander-scaled.jpg?resize=1365%2C2048&amp;ssl=1 1365w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Jeremee-Alexander-scaled.jpg?w=1707&amp;ssl=1 1707w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Jeremee-Alexander-scaled.jpg?w=1280 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Jeremee Alexander. Submitted photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Perry-Sansing-scaled.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Perry-Sansing-683x1024.jpg?resize=640%2C960&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-150169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Perry-Sansing-scaled.jpg?resize=683%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 683w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Perry-Sansing-scaled.jpg?resize=200%2C300&amp;ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Perry-Sansing-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Perry-Sansing-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Perry-Sansing-scaled.jpg?resize=1365%2C2048&amp;ssl=1 1365w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Perry-Sansing-scaled.jpg?w=1707&amp;ssl=1 1707w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Perry-Sansing-scaled.jpg?w=1280 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Perry Sansing. Photo by Kevin Bain\/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jeremee Alexander to lead efforts to aid military-connected students The University of Mississippi has hired U.S. Air Force<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123462,"featured_media":150167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17687],"tags":[25525,19208,32048,32050,5,32051,18504,7067,4,22277,19227,22753,32049,655],"class_list":["post-150166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-university-of-mississippi","tag-department-of-defense","tag-george-street-house","tag-jeremee-alexander","tag-jesse-parkman","tag-mississippi","tag-monticello","tag-office-of-veteran-and-military-services","tag-ole-miss","tag-oxford","tag-perry-sansing","tag-student-veterans-association","tag-u-s-air-force","tag-u-s-department-of-veterans-affairs-2","tag-university-of-mississippi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Alexander-at-Street-House-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1920&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150166"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150170,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150166\/revisions\/150170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}