Caróle Campbell works as a care manager with Johns Hopkins Health Care, coordinating medical care and community resources for individuals with complex care needs. A Gulf War-era veteran and disabled American veteran, she serves as a subject matter expert for Johns Hopkins Uniformed Services Family Health Plan.

Campbell also relies on her 10 years of active and reserve military duty in the Army Nurse Corps to serve as an advocate for military veterans and their family members.

Outside work, Campbell makes it her mission to educate veterans she meets at her church, health fairs, and various workshops about their potential eligibility for Veterans Affairs benefits. She assists veterans with special needs and circumstances, such as those who are seniors, homeless or suffering with PTSD and other medical conditions, as well as providing information to spouses and caregivers.

Helping men and women who are recovering from domestic violence and intimate partner violence, and even those who are the abusers, is another cause important to Campbell. A survivor herself, she talks to inmates at the Howard County Detention Center, and shares information and resources at her church, and with the Howard County Coalition Dialogue Series, which focuses on topics for teens, such as stalking and bullying.

Campbell is also a board member of the Howard County Coalition to Prevent Intimate Partner Violence.

“What I’ve been through could have torn the fabric of who I am,” says Campbell, the mother of an adult son. “Whatever I’ve gone through is never for me. It’s for someone else. I’ve learned and I’ve grown so I can help someone else.”

She is grateful that her efforts have resulted in tangible outcomes: At least one disenfranchised veteran is now receiving full disability benefits, and a teenager who was being stalked in her church received resources and intervention.