Elizabeth Musselman
Elizabeth Musselman built a successful career in finance and technology before meeting her husband Paul, a retired U.S. Army Special Forces veteran. She was immediately drawn to his stories of service as a Green Beret; the breadth of his experiences, the discipline, the world he carried with him. Together, they built a civilian life that felt, by most measures, ordinary.
During those years, Elizabeth attended law school and earned her J.D. while raising two children. But beneath the surface of that ordinary life, her role as a caregiver was quietly taking shape. The cumulative demands of Paul's care, alongside the arrival of their third child, eventually made it untenable to continue on her professional path. Rather than step back, Elizabeth stepped inward, developing a deep interest in mental health, shaped by her family's lived experience and by watching Paul mentor others in the Special Forces community navigating similar struggles.
Paul's service spanned 12 years, during which he served as a Special Operations Medical Sgt., Special Operations Engineer Sgt. and master parachutist with the U.S. Army Special Forces. He completed multiple deployments in Central America and Operations "Desert" and "Uphold Democracy" and accumulated a significant toll of physical and psychological injuries. In the years since leaving service, Paul has experienced what clinicians now recognize as Operator Syndrome; a complex constellation of medical, neurological, endocrine, and psychological conditions common among veterans of sustained high-tempo careers, presenting as chronic pain, sleep disruption, PTSD, and behavioral dysregulation.
It was precisely this constellation that made Elizabeth's caregiving so difficult to name. There was no single defining event, no clear moment of crisis, only many symptoms working in concert to quietly erode the stability of family life. She also struggled to identify as a military caregiver, a title she associated with those who had lived through the weight of deployment, not someone like her. She felt profoundly alone.
That changed unexpectedly. Elizabeth came across a 60 Minutes rerun featuring the Elizabeth Dole Foundation and its work with military and veteran caregiver families. Watching it, she recognized her own story for the first time, particularly the segment on children who absorb the symptoms of a veteran parent. It was a turning point. She no longer felt invisible. And from that moment, she committed to using her skills to make life better for families like hers.
As a Dole Caregiver Fellow, Elizabeth is bringing that mission to policy makers and Special Operations families. Her advocacy centers on a largely overlooked truth: when a veteran is struggling, the entire family system absorbs that struggle. The overlapping, difficult-to-treat symptoms of a combat veteran do not stay contained to the veteran; in fact, they ripple outward. Children experience their own version of that symptom profile, shaped by their developmental stage, their attachment patterns, and the role they occupy in the family.
In her own words: "If a veteran is struggling, the children in that home grow up in a constant state of vigilance, instability, and emotional strain. Without intervention, those children are far more likely to face mental health challenges themselves. That is how trauma compounds across generations. If our goal is truly to support veterans, then supporting caregivers and dependents is not optional, it is essential."