Over the past two years ZeroMils has hosted three national Military Thriving® Change Forums at Georgetown University. In joining forces with more than 350 national leaders from more than 30 states, we developed a Military Thriving® community blueprint to improve public-private sector collaboration and empower Veterans and their families thrive after leaving the military.
Through a series of roundtable discussions, stakeholder meetings, and community wide events in 2025 across 15 regions of the country, we selected 6 to host local Change Forums in 2026-27 including San Diego.
Our Regional Change Forums are designed to accomplish two primary objectives:
1. Create private sector solutions that improve outcomes for service members, Veterans and military spouses in transition; empowering them to make better more informed decisions about the opportunities available to them as students, as employees in targeted industries and as entrepreneurs.
2. Model tailored, hyper local Military Thriving Community playbooks that can be scaled and replicated across states and regions of the country suffering from massive skills gaps with Veterans, military spouses and their families as catalysts for growth, change and impact.
Military Thriving® Regional Change Forum San Diego
August 26
8:00 am
- 3:00 pm
PT
Take Charge of Your Future.
Seats are limited—reserve yours by registering today!
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Agenda
8 am – Registration/ Networking Breakfast
9 am – Opening Keynote – Why a Military Thriving Community in San Diego
9:30 am – 11:30 am – Panels and Fireside Chats on Empowering Service Members, Veterans, Military Spouses in Transition as Students, Employees and Entrepreneurs
11:30 am to 1:30 pm – Working Lunch – Breakout Sessions Modeling and improving local transition programs and outcomes; Modeling a Military Thriving Community Blueprint for San Diego
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm – Town Hall on Community Blueprint and Way Ahead
2:30 pm to 3 pm: Closing Keynote – Changing the broken Veteran Narrative. Why a Military Thriving movement is important to our national security interests at home and abroad.
About Us
ZeroMils is a term of both science and art, used in the military to describe a state of perfection that accounts for accuracy and effectiveness. Once attained, ZeroMils allows you to achieve maximum impact on a target.
Our mission as social impact consultants to corporations and nonprofit organizations is to create Military Thriving cultures and communities. Our vision is to use our experiences to make our history every Veteran’s and Military Spouse’s future—with a focus on small business owners like us.
We are intentional in our efforts to serve alongside organizations and leaders who focus on what we know to be true: that although Veterans and their families face unique challenges, the vast majority of us overcome them and thrive as a result of our service and not in spite of it.
Our Founders
Kevin Schmiegel
CEO
Kevin Schmiegel is CEO at ZeroMils. A retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, Kevin is a mission-focused leader with a proven track record for rapidly scaling nonprofits and a reputation for delivering significant results. Kevin founded Hiring Our Heroes at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and was CEO of two other national nonprofits. Raising $100 million for these causes over a decade, Kevin and his teams have impacted millions of Americans, in and out of uniform. He is a proud husband to Laura and a father of five.
Paul Cucinotta
President & COO
Paul Cucinotta is a retired Marine Corps colonel who after serving on active duty for almost three decades followed his passion for service to the non-profit space to help individuals thrive, while strengthening communities and bridging the civilian service divide. This ultimately led him to founding ZeroMils with fellow Marine Veteran and long-time friend, Kevin Schmiegel where they are creating Military Thriving® cultures and communities with their clients and partners in the places where they live, work and serve. Paul and his wife Beth have four children and three grandchildren, and when not serving their community can be found enjoying the beach on the Crystal Coast of North Carolina.