Specialist Brian Wotring

The oldest of six children, Brian was often mistaken for one of the younger siblings – a phenomenon he tried to counter with attempts at proving maturity and responsibility. Such attempts led him to join the United States Army at the age of just seventeen.

While deployed to Iraq, Brian served as a member of a three-person team responsible for the accounting, safeguarding and movement of over $2 billion in U.S. government funds and captured currency. Brian also organized the preparation and disbursement of wellness kits for wounded Iraqi women and children.

Following eight years of military service, Brian took such experiences with him to the University of Utah where he became an advocate for veterans in higher education, organizing the university’s first post-9/11 veterans’ group and working with the Utah Board of Regents to ensure that returning veterans receive resident status for tuition purposes. Brian’s advocating spirit eventually led him to Washington, D.C. where he worked with the Veterans of Foreign Wars to successfully lobby Congress to pass the new Post-9/11 GI Bill.

Though Brian is no longer a soldier, he continually looks to serve both servicemembers and veterans alike. Currently, he is looking forward to the birth of his first child and is enrolled at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he plans to learn the intricacies of law and government in order to become a more effective veteran and human rights advocate.