Veterans, policy makers, service providers, and community organizations discuss veterans' policy, the future of the guard and reserve programs, and services required by returning veterans. This symposium is sponsored by the Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
Dr. Camacho served as a sergeant with the 9th Marines in Vietnam (1969-1969) and was wounded in action. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Boston College in 1986 and his MSIS from Northeastern University in 1995. He served as the executive director of a two-year investigative legislative Commission in Massachusetts from 1982 through 1983 and authored the publication of Senate 1824 and Senate 2307 (1983), the interim and final reports of that Commission. That study included a broad range of research on a number of issues, including health care for the underserved veterans' population. Dr. Camacho was one of several activists who played a role in the passage of the Veterans Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development Act of 1999. He has expertise in focus group and field research methods as well as a level of expertise in statistics and questionnaire design. He has been a practicing social scientist for well over twenty years. He teaches a wide range of social science courses as an adjunct faculty at a number of universities in the Boston area. He has several published articles on the military in Vietnam and the status of Vietnam veterans in various books and journals, and is a member of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society.