VETERANS GAMING & MENTAL HEALTH MISSION
NON-PROFIT 501(C)3 | EIN: 87-1822770
"Fighting back against the Veteran suicide crisis 🎖️"
Board of Directors
Committed to the Cause
Coming together from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences, our skilled team is the backbone of Veterans Gaming & Mental Health Mission. Their ideas help shape the direction and mission of our organization as it continues to develop. Read on to learn more about some of our incredible team.
Board President
Kairi J. Sariah
Kairi is a USAF Intelligence and Special Operations Veteran. She is the Founder, President, and Executive Director of Veterans Gaming and Mental Health Mission and she truly believes that love for people can and will change the world. Follow her on Twitter to stay up to date on the latest news and resources @realKairi and join her and the rest of the family on Discord where she will gladly meet and greet with any and all people.
Board Member - Secretary
Bert Schneider
Bert Schneider served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force including time as an Air Force Academy Aeronautics professor. He obtained three degrees and retired as a Major in 1997. He then served in various leadership assignments at Raytheon Missile Systems for 24 years, retiring in 2021. Upon retiring from Raytheon in 2021, he is currently a consultant and volunteers his time at the University of Arizona Engineering School and Eller Business School. He also troops at community events as Darth Vader.
Vice President
Dr. Travis Goodson, Ph.D, M.A., B.S
Dr. Goodson not only serves Veterans Gaming & Mental Health Mission but also currently serves in the Georgia National Guard as a commissioned officer. His knowledge, dedication, intellect, and experience has made many things possible, including the operation coming to fruition from concept to reality.
Board Member
Dan Kerning
Dan Kerning served 16+ years flying for the US Navy. In the past 24 years he has served as Founder & CEO of WebHouse, Inc. a Data center Infrastructure and cloud solutions integration company. Dan also founded CloudScann Inc. a mobile app/cloud based Situational Awareness as a Service (SAaaS) platform development company. Dan is a patent holder and inventor of several patents that apply in and around the SAaaS arena.
Leadership & Management
Executive Director
Kairi J. Sariah
Kairi is a USAF Intelligence and Special Operations Veteran. She is the Founder, President, and Executive Director of Veterans Gaming and Mental Health Mission and she truly believes that love for people can and will change the world. Follow her on Twitter to stay up to date on the latest news and resources @realKairi
Director, Detachment 1 - MST & PTSD Support
Tyler W. Christian
Tyler is US Army Veteran (11B) and has dealt with PTSD / MST first hand and plans on changing things for the better for all of us. With his expertise, experience, and encouragement he has proficiently and efficiently developed Peer-2-Peer support program for those in need of a friend, some guidance, or moral support. Tyler has proven to be mission critical to date.
Director of Marketing
Alex "SergeantMurica" Castro
US Army Veteran, Father, and Content Creator. After winning his fight and leaving his career of teaching, he became a Streamer and Content Creator. He was saved by Creators like NeebsGaming, Markiplier, and Ohmwrecker. When he felt these creators' power to lift his life, he dedicated it to passing it forward. After a year of Streaming and Creating for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, he found a home as VGMH's Director of Marketing!
Assistant to The Director
Jessica Holder
Jessica "Star" Holder is the Assistant to the Director of Veterans Gaming and Mental Health and is a strong believer in our mission. Star's service comes in the form of being a loving wife to an Air Force Veteran, and mom to 2 German Shepherds. She finds joy and healing in reading, painting, and gaming together with friends. She has a servants heart along with a bachelors degree in psychology which has helped her find her passion and place here at VGMH.
Director, Detachment 2 - Gaming, Streaming & Outreach
Lexi Zarek
Lexi is a USAF Aircraft Maintenance Veteran dedicated to helping others. Her passion for gaming started at a young age with her first console being a Nintendo® Entertainment System. Her passion for gaming has led her to meet with other Veterans and provide outreach support to them in their times of need. She is looking forward to bringing her experience and passion for gaming and streaming to VGMH moving forward.
Our Founder
Kairi Jaye Sariah
On December 21, 2020, Kairi had effectively decided to end her life. She took a presumably loaded gun, put it to her mouth and pulled the trigger. For reasons still unknown, that gun never fired. After that fateful moment she decided to embark on a journey of the mind in hopes of finding what we all strive for: healing.
Knowing the pain first hand and how bad the "suck" feels when it sucks, she decided to begin a career streaming on Twitch. While she was figuring out the world of streaming, she realized that the more she started to be her true self with no act to put on, the more people seemed to flock to the channel and connect with her. Over the course of a year Kairi dove deep into the world of mental health on a journey to finally learn who she was and to make sense of her mind. Candidly and openly—good or bad—she explored her mind to find healing. Only to prove that if she could do it, so could anyone.
Never in a million years did she expect to be the founder, President and Executive Director of anything, especially a nonprofit organization that is saving and changing lives. She openly admits there are so many things she doesn't know and so many times that she didn't know what she was doing in life, but she knows one thing for sure: that when it comes to mental health and her brothers and sisters in arms, she will give it her all and try her best to continue helping those in need. To read more of her candid journey click the link below.
