Military Spouse JD Network was founded with the novel idea of modernizing licensing rules to allow military spouses to continue their legal careers while accompanying their service member spouse from state to state.

Since then, through the tireless effort of countless volunteers and with steadfast support from our partners, we have broken down barriers to employment for military spouse attorneys around the world, expanded our advocacy efforts to include providing free legal assistance to Gold Star families, training military spouses to shape their communities through political involvement, and building relationships with corporate and government partners to promote meaningful careers for military spouse attorneys.

To help shepherd our mission and guide our ever-expanding reach, MSJDN is excited to announce that we’ve hired our first Executive Director, Cassie Gabelt Byard!

Cassie is a Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, a US Navy veteran, Ohio Supreme Court trained mediator, IBM Certified Analyst, and professor of political science. She holds an M.P.S. from The George Washington University, provides Government Relations representation for Minority Veterans of America, and is a special advisor to AVOW Magazine. Cassie has and continues to provide high-level input to entities of the federal government to improve the availability and accessibility of Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense initiatives for veterans and active duty service members. She has also served as a Stark County Honor Court Mentor (Ohio).

With her years of experience in non-profit and advocacy arenas alongside her unwavering commitment to the growth and development of veterans and military family communities, Cassie brings a unique, effective, and wide-ranging breadth of experience to our organization.
Welcome, Cassie!