Why Our Work Matters
Today, the U.S. government spends nearly $1 trillion annually on defense and veterans affairs, more than twice what it spends on health care, education, infrastructure, and diplomacy combined. In contrast, less than 5% of journalism focuses on military service. The problem is growing worse and negatively impacts not only U.S. national security and the viability of the all-volunteer military force, but the everyday lives of veterans, military families, and our nation as a whole. The War Horse team is setting the standard for reporting stories that matter, with diligence and integrity, to rebuild Americans’ trust in the press.
Meet Our Team
Thomas Brennan is the founder and executive director of The War Horse. He served as an infantryman in Iraq and Afghanistan before studying investigative reporting at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. His reporting has appeared in Vanity Fair, Center for Investigative Reporting, and on the front page of The New York Times. Thomas has held fellowships at the Center for a New American Security, The Atlantic Council, and The George W. Bush Institute. Thomas’s feature writing has been awarded by the Society for Features Journalism and the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. His investigative reporting has earned him both a national and regional Edward R. Murrow, two Fourth Estate Awards, and the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Journalism Award. He can be reached at thomas.brennan@thewarhorse.org.
Samantha Daniels is the director of operations for The War Horse. Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Samantha received her bachelor’s degree in international relations from American University in Washington, DC. As a Marine spouse, she has successfully navigated three military moves and supported two deployments. In 2017, Samantha completed a master’s of science in finance at the University of Pittsburgh. She is a FINRA Military Spouse Fellow and passionate about personal finance and wealth-building in the military community. When she is not at her computer, she can be found trying to convince her garden to grow. She and her husband live in Annapolis, Maryland, with their beloved dogs, Clara and Eleanor.
Kelly Kennedy is the managing editor for The War Horse. Kelly is a bestselling author and award-winning journalist who served in the U.S. Army from 1987 to 1993, including tours in the Middle East during Desert Storm, and in Mogadishu, Somalia. She has worked as a health policy reporter for USA TODAY, spent five years covering military health at Military Times, and is the author of “They Fought for Each Other: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Hardest Hit Unit in Iraq,” and the co-author of “Fight Like a Girl: The Truth About How Female Marines are Trained,” with Kate Germano. Kelly is the co-author of “Queen of Cuba: An Insider’s Account of How The Perfect Spy Evaded Detection for 17 Years” with FBI agent Pete Lapp, and “The Unit: My Life Inside America’s Most Secret Military Unit” with retired Sgt. Maj. Adam Gamal. As a journalist, she was embedded in both Iraq and Afghanistan. She is the only U.S. female journalist to both serve in combat and cover it as a civilian journalist, and she is the first female president of Military Reporters and Editors. Kelly can be reached at kelly.kennedy@thewarhorse.org.
David Chrisinger leads writing seminars at The War Horse and directs the Harris Writing Program at the University of Chicago. Prior to joining Harris, David worked at the U.S. Government Accountability Office as a Strategic Planning and Foresight Analyst and as a Communications Specialist. In 2016, David edited a collection of essays–See Me for Who I Am–written by veterans he taught in a first-of-its-kind writing seminar at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. He graduated from the University of Chicago’s MA Program in the Social Sciences in 2010.
Mitchell Hansen-Dewar is a freelance copy editor and managing editor for DigBoston. He lives in Massachusetts with his spouse and daughter. Mitchell holds an associate’s degree from Le Cordon Bleu in Boston and a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he worked on the student newspaper, The Mass Media. He also works restoring antique furniture.
Ben Kalin is the research editor for The War Horse. He worked as a fact-checker for 15 years at Vanity Fair magazine, before starting a full-service fact-checking agency, Fact-Check Pros working with a range of writers such as Ken Auletta, William Langewiesche, Craig Unger, Ezra Klein and former deputy director of the FBI Andrew McCabe. Originally from San Francisco, he graduated with dual bachelor’s degrees in English and Journalism from SI Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two young children.
Kristin Davis is the reflections editor for The War Horse. Kristin is a nationally award-winning journalist who has told stories from living rooms, courtrooms, churches, prison cells, and military bases around the world for publications that include Military Times and Pulitzer Prize-winning The Virginian-Pilot. While working for Military Times, she embedded with the Air Force in Afghanistan and wrote extensively about sexual assault in the military. Kristin started writing stories in second grade in the Air Force town where she grew up and decided then that she wanted to be a journalist. She graduated from Appalachian State University in North Carolina with a degree in journalism. She lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Sonner Kehrt is an investigative reporter at The War Horse, where she covers the military and climate change, misinformation, and gender. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, WIRED magazine, Inside Climate News, The Verge, and other publications. She studied government at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and served for five years as Coast Guard officer before earning a masters in democracy and governance studies from Georgetown University and a masters of journalism from UC Berkeley. She has also worked as a lecturer at UC Berkeley, teaching classes in writing, reporting, and ethics. In her free time, she is trying to learn to windsurf. She can be reached at sonner.kehrt@thewarhorse.org and occasionally on Twitter @etskehrt.
Babee Garcia serves as the audience engagement manager for The War Horse and as a board member for Military Veterans in Journalism. Born and raised in New Jersey, Babee has worked in several areas in communications that range from public relations, to photojournalism, to print writing, to broadcast news. She joins the team after working for WCAV-TV in Charlottesville, VA, for nearly two years as a morning and evening news producer. She also worked for one year as Representative Mikie Sherrill’s digital and press assistant. She served in the Marine Corps as an aviation supply specialist on active duty from 2013 to 2016. She earned her bachelor’s in journalism in January 2019 at Montclair State University, where she also earned multiple awards for her and her team’s reporting in Puerto Rico in 2018.
Randee Howard is the operations associate for The War Horse. Originally from Chicago, IL, she earned her bachelor’s of arts in urban studies from Columbia University in 2021. She was the women’s veterans representative for two academic years and volunteered as a nonfiction writing tutor to incarcerated women at Rikers Island. Prior to her enrollment, she served four years on active duty in the United States Navy as an aviation electrician on helicopters in San Diego, CA. She deployed on USS Makin Island (LHD-8), an amphibious assault ship to Southeast Asia and the Middle East. She also volunteers as the director of policy for Black Veterans Project.
Abbie Bennett is the headline and SEO editor for The War Horse. She is a nationally award-winning journalist covering energy, environment and Capitol Hill for international news service S&P Global and is an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Abbie previously covered Congress, veterans affairs and defense for CBS Radio. Before covering Congress, she was a reporter and online producer for The News & Observer and other McClatchy newspapers, where she covered the environment, local and state government, and led the real-time news team. She also worked at newspapers in Charlotte, Greenville, Fayetteville and Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and lectured at the University of North Carolina and East Carolina University. A graduate of the University of North Carolina with degrees in Journalism and English, Abbie has been recognized with awards for excellence in investigative, enterprise, breaking news and politics reporting by the Society of Professional Journalists, Military Reporters and Editors Association, Columbia University Energy Journalism Initiative, N.C. Press Association and the NAACP. An Army brat and first-generation college graduate, Abbie spends her free time reading historical fiction, watching Carolina basketball, volunteering with local animal rescues and working to keep her giant gray cat and dozens of houseplants happy.
Board of Directors
Michele Flournoy is currently the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of WestExec Advisors, a strategic advisory firm. She served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from February 2009 to February 2012 where she was the principal adviser to the Secretary of Defense in the formulation of national security and defense policy. Michèle began her career as a reporter and has dedicated her life to public service. In 2007, Michèle co-founded the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), where she served as President and later CEO. She now serves on the boards of CNAS, CARE, The Mission Continues, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Amida Technology Solutions. Michèle is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Aspen Strategy Group, and has received awards from several awards from the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the American Red Cross.
Sherman Gillums Jr. is the Chief Strategy and Operations Officer at the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Earlier in his career, Gillums served in the U.S. Marines for 12 years and received an honorable discharge at the rank of Chief Warrant Officer-2 after a career-ending injury while preparing to deploy to Afghanistan. Shortly after, he joined Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) as Associate Executive Director of Veterans Benefits. He later went on to serve as the organization’s first post-9/11-era Executive Director. After a successful period of improving health care and quality of life for catastrophically injured veterans, Gillums joined American Veterans (AMVETS), where he served as the organization’s Chief Strategy and Advocacy Officer.
Gillums has testified before Congress as an expert witness and presently serves on several high-profile committees, such as the Federal Advisory Committee for Veterans’ Family, Caregiver and Survivor as vice chairman alongside chairperson Elizabeth Dole. He was appointed by Governor Ralph Northam to serve on the Fair Housing Board for the Commonwealth of Virginia for a second term. He also sits on advisory boards for Operation Gratitude’s BRIDGE Council and the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. His record of success includes the conceptualization and launch of two highly regarded programs. AMVETS’s HEAL Program received the Academy of United States Veterans VETTY award for leadership in veteran mental health in 2020. Gillums is a graduate of the University of San Diego School of Business Administration and completed his executive education at Harvard Business School.
Keith Goggin After a brief career as a financial journalist, Mr. Goggin spent over 25 years working in the financial industry, first as an employee of the American Stock Exchange and later as a market maker and specialist on the American Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. At various times during the past two decades, Mr. Goggin has been the Managing Member of STR Trading Partners, a founding member and the Managing Member of STR Specialists and a founding member of Integral Derivatives, among other industry roles. Over the course of his career, Mr. Goggin has served on numerous fiduciary and advisory boards. In addition to the Board of The War Horse, he currently serves on the Board of Visitors at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, the Board of Advisors of Columbia Global Reports, the Board of Governors of the Columbia University Club of New York, Columbia University’s Climate Board of Advisors, the Presidents Council for Columbia World Projects, and the board of the Thirty West Forty Fourth Street Foundation. Over the course of his career, Mr. Goggin has also been an active direct investor in private companies doing business in multiple economic sectors, including manufacturing, energy, hospitality, real estate and specialty chemicals, among others. Mr. Goggin holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Colgate University with a concentration in Economics and a Master of Science degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Sue Hoppin is an expert on military spouse and family issues working to bridge the cultural gap between government, private and public groups and military communities. She is an advocate, published author and consultant with more than 20 years of experience and expertise in military community programs. She has a proven record of developing award winning programs focusing on military issues, serving as spokesperson for various organizations and committees, and training top tier military-affiliated groups and organizations. In 2012, Sue was appointed to the Board of Visitors of the United States Air Force Academy and completed her tenure as the board’s Vice Chairman. In 2010, Sue founded the National Military Spouse Network, a professional development and networking membership organization supporting the professional career goals of military spouses. Before founding the NMSN, Sue served as the first deputy director for spouse outreach for the Military Officers Association of America. In 2007, Sue co-authored, “A Family’s Guide to the Military” for the popular Dummies series; the book was selected for First Lady of the Marine Corps’s Recommended Reading List in 2012. Sue volunteers on the Veterans Advisory Committee on Education (2020 – present), as a member of the Madeira School Board of Trustees (2020 – present), the President of the Madeira School Alumnae Council (2017 – present), Board of Directors for Blue Star Families (2010 – 2013) and as Military Family Liaison to Fairfax County School Superintendent’s Business and Community Advisory Council (2009-2012). Sue holds a bachelor’s degree in international studies from the University of Denver, a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Oklahoma and a certificate in nonprofit management from Georgetown University.
Robert J. Rosenthal is a former member and the former executive director of The Center for Investigative Reporting and an award-winning journalist who has worked with The New York Times, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Rosenthal worked for 22 years at the Inquirer, starting as a reporter and eventually becoming its executive editor in 1998. Robert worked as an editorial assistant on the Pulitzer-Prize winning Pentagon Papers Project, and has also won the Overseas Press Club Award for magazine writing, the Sigma Delta Chi Award for distinguished foreign correspondence, and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in international reporting. Robert was a Pulitzer Prize judge four times and has been an adjunct professor at Columbia University and the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate Schools of Journalism.
Robert J. Rosenthal
Senior Advisor
Robert J. Rosenthal is a former member and the former executive director of The Center for Investigative Reporting and an award-winning journalist who has worked with The New York Times, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Rosenthal worked for 22 years at the Inquirer, starting as a reporter and eventually becoming its executive editor in 1998. Robert worked as an editorial assistant on the Pulitzer-Prize winning Pentagon Papers Project, and has also won the Overseas Press Club Award for magazine writing, the Sigma Delta Chi Award for distinguished foreign correspondence, and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in international reporting. Robert was a Pulitzer Prize judge four times and has been an adjunct professor at Columbia University and the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate Schools of Journalism.
Michèle Flournoy
Senior Advisor
Michèle Flournoy is currently the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of WestExec Advisors, a strategic advisory firm. She served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from February 2009 to February 2012 where she was the principal adviser to the Secretary of Defense in the formulation of national security and defense policy. Michèle began her career as a reporter and has dedicated her life to public service. In 2007, Michèle co-founded the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), where she served as President and later CEO. She now serves on the boards of CNAS, CARE, The Mission Continues, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Amida Technology Solutions. Michèle is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Aspen Strategy Group, and has received awards from several awards from the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the American Red Cross.
Partnerships
Thanks to the generous support of our growing community, The War Horse maintains partnerships with the following best-in-class organizations to help accomplish our mission:
Awards & Honors
We’re proud of the work we do, and honored to have it recognized by our peers. The War Horse and members of our staff have been honored for the quality of our work, the ethics of our journalists, and the innovative spirit of our newsroom. Since we began publishing in 2016, The War Horse has received multiple awards:
The Future of The War Horse
We’re mobilizing new and diverse sources of support to establish a promising path forward. As we’ve built the foundation of our newsroom, our team has reimagined what military news can be. We need your help elevating underreported stories, treating readers as partners, and building on our early success to create a nonprofit newsroom that ensures those most affected by war have a prominent voice in the national conversation.
Our History
Since our founding in 2016, The War Horse has grown to become a national leader in the military and reporting communities. Our work has created international headlines and changed multiple military and federal laws, and our supporters include Fortune 100 companies, Ivy League Universities, leading foundations, and philanthropists from around the world.
The War Horse believes that reporting on trauma comes with a great responsibility. Not only do we expect to hold ourselves to these standards, but we encourage our sources and readers to do the same.
