by Mari Radtke
Becky Barrett, soon to be Dahlman took on the challenge to fill the very large shoes of Katie Ginger, both of Hartley, as the O’Brien County Veterans’ Affairs Administrator. Becky is not herself a veteran. Her closest relatives are veterans. And she has spent years in healthcare as a teenager. The last ten years she has spent in nursing homes with many of her patients being veterans. While working as an Occupational Therapist Assistant and as Director of Rehabilitation she learned a much about the struggles of veterans and a little about the resources available to them. She decided this opportunity was a great time to make a career change.
Becky started on her VA Administrator journey in early May 2024. She got maybe a week of in person training and a wealth of on-line resources and webinars. There are also opportunities for additional training.
Becky’s plans are to build on the foundations of programs Katie built while meeting the needs of county Veterans. She is hitting the ground running with outreach, continuing veteran coffees around the county, visiting the long term care centers and more.
When not out working with veterans on their own turf, she is in the office Monday through Friday. She works 32 hours per week for VA and 8 hours each week for General Relief.