Saluting Service Honorees

Celebrating 14 years of rebuilding lives and serving our veterans
Thursday, November 9, 2023 | 6:00 - 10:00p
Each year the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center, comes together to celebrate Veterans Day by honoring those impacting the lives of Connecticut veterans while also raising funds to provide free legal services for veterans who are in recovery from homelessness, mental illness, and substance abuse.
The 14th Annual Saluting Service will take place at the historic New Haven Lawn Club where you will have the opportunity to connect, network, and celebrate with other leaders from the legal, business, philanthropic, and veteran and service member communities.
Please join us for this treasured annual tradition and honor the work and commitment of Jason DeViva, Cindy Johnson, and Minority Veterans of America.
Business formal, cocktail, or military equivalent recommended.
Congratulate Our Honorees with a Program Ad
For this year’s event we will produce a full color program book which will be distributed to each guest.
To purchase your ad please contact Patrick J Dunn, Deputy Director of Development and Communications no later than October 15th.
We have two ad sizes available, full page ($1,000) and half page ($500).

Jason DeViva, PhD
Captain Celine A. Finn Award
Jason DeViva is a clinical psychologist who currently works with the VA Connecticut Health Care System as part of the posttraumatic stress disorder clinical team. He is co-director of the PTSD Clinical Team and a PTSD mentor for the New England region Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN 1). He is the military sexual trauma coordinator for VA Connecticut and the VISN 1 MST point of contact. He is a national lead trainer for the VA’s dissemination of cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia and a local trainer and consultant in the VA’s dissemination of cognitive processing therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder. He also serves as an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry of the Yale School of Medicine.
Dr. DeViva received his undergraduate degree from Yale University. He received his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Hawai‘i and completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in trauma and anxiety at Dartmouth Medical School. He has worked in the VA system for the past 19 years, treating veterans of all eras with posttraumatic stress disorder and anxiety disorders. He has published numerous academic papers on trauma and related topics in professional journals, and regularly presents at national and international conferences. He is co-author of a book for family and loved ones of individuals with posttraumatic stress.

Cindy Johnson
Founders Award
Cindy Johnson worked at Connecticut Veterans Legal Center and served Connecticut’s veterans for over 11 years as a staff attorney, director of operations, and, eventually, deputy director. She fell in love with CVLC as an intern in 2010 while attending UCONN Law – learning how to be a veteran’s attorney from our founders: Margaret Middleton and Howard Udell. Prior to becoming an attorney, Cindy worked 25 years in the software industry and brought those skills to CVLC – creating and updating the client management system to allow us to better-serve veterans. Cindy is a graduate of UCONN Law school and she is admitted to practice before the CAVC. She served on the CT Veterans and Military Advocacy Section of the CT State Bar for ten years and taught a Veterans Benefit Advocacy Clinic at UCONN law.
Cindy left CT and CVLC to be closer to her grandchildren in North Carolina where she continues to serve veterans as a Staff Attorney at the National Veterans Legal Services Program.

Minority Veterans of America
Veterans Justice Award
Minority Veterans of America was established in 2017 to create belonging and advance equity for minority and underrepresented veterans. A proven leader in national advocacy, in 2023 Minority Veterans of America has led the fight for equitable treatment of minority service members, veterans, and their families in the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs as well as other initiatives to protect all veterans’ access to healthcare.
Minority Veterans of America’s Founder and Executive Director Lindsay Church will be in attendance to accept the award on their behalf.
Thank You to Our 2023 Saluting Service Sponsors
Interested in joining our sponsor community? Click here to read more.
