About Us
The Story of Recognize the Sacrifice:
In late 2008, Kate was sitting behind Jayna in a base gymnasium in Vilseck, Germany, waiting for soldiers to return from a 15-month tour in Iraq. Both nurses, they struck up a conversation about the increasing prevalence of blast injuries and subsequent concussions and traumatic brain injuries sustained by veterans. Since this was of interest- both personal and professional- to them both, in January 2009, they sat down in Jayna's dining room (with loaner Army furniture before Jayna moved back to Washington) with their laptops and created Recognize the Sacrifice. Armed with little more than an unreliable German internet connection, $25.00 to open a savings account, and good old military-wife hutzpah, Jayna & Kate started the recognizethesacrifice.org.
Jayna Moceri Brooks, BSN, MN, RN, Co-founder:
Native of the Pacific Northwest, Jayna graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Seattle Pacific University and worked as a post-partum/medical-surgical nurse out of school. She later earned a Master of Nursing degree from the University of Washington, Tacoma where she focused her studies on communities, populations, and health; with special interest in military communities. She has experience volunteering and working on military installations abroad and within the United States.
Jayna, in addition to running this organization, works as an Emergency Department nurse and is a full-time mom. She is currently married to Jonathan Brooks who is a Captain in the US Army. She was moved to co-found Recognize the Sacrifice in January 2009 after Jonathan suffered a TBI while on a 15 month deployment to Iraq (2007-2008). They are still in the application process for the Purple Heart medal. Jayna's goal in co-founding the organization is to support service members and their families through the complicated application process and to advocate for them to receive proper medical care, rehabilitation, and official recognition of their combat injury.
Kate Froede, BNSc., MSN, RN, Co-founder:
Native of Apopka, Florida, Kate graduated with a Bachelor of Nursing Science degree from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and has worked primarily in Emergency and Trauma settings, spending several years in civilian service for the Department of the Army. She later earned a Master of Science in Nursing degree from Loyola University New Orleans, with specific research focus on Traumatic Brain Injuries (namely mild TBI and injuries sustained from blast exposure in Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom). Kate started this research in 2007, and independently developed datasets and extrapolated potential clinical findings prior to the release of the DoD's large-scale studies in 2009. She has experience volunteering and working on military installations abroad and within the United States.
Currently, Kate is a doctoral student at Vanderbilt University's School of Nursing, and is again focusing academic efforts on TBI and the DoD's practice guidelines and policies regarding injuries which affect soldiers in combat, and the effects of combat trauma on military families. She hopes to assist with Jayna's goal in supporting service members and their families by devoting academic study to these issues, for the betterment of soldiers' outcomes and restoring them and their families to whole after experiencing injuries sustained through military service. Kate is a member of the Emergency Nurses Association, Sigma Theta Tau- International Honor Society of Nursing, and the America Nurses Association. She lives in Augusta, Georgia, with her husband and two children.
In late 2008, Kate was sitting behind Jayna in a base gymnasium in Vilseck, Germany, waiting for soldiers to return from a 15-month tour in Iraq. Both nurses, they struck up a conversation about the increasing prevalence of blast injuries and subsequent concussions and traumatic brain injuries sustained by veterans. Since this was of interest- both personal and professional- to them both, in January 2009, they sat down in Jayna's dining room (with loaner Army furniture before Jayna moved back to Washington) with their laptops and created Recognize the Sacrifice. Armed with little more than an unreliable German internet connection, $25.00 to open a savings account, and good old military-wife hutzpah, Jayna & Kate started the recognizethesacrifice.org.
Jayna Moceri Brooks, BSN, MN, RN, Co-founder:
Native of the Pacific Northwest, Jayna graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Seattle Pacific University and worked as a post-partum/medical-surgical nurse out of school. She later earned a Master of Nursing degree from the University of Washington, Tacoma where she focused her studies on communities, populations, and health; with special interest in military communities. She has experience volunteering and working on military installations abroad and within the United States.
Jayna, in addition to running this organization, works as an Emergency Department nurse and is a full-time mom. She is currently married to Jonathan Brooks who is a Captain in the US Army. She was moved to co-found Recognize the Sacrifice in January 2009 after Jonathan suffered a TBI while on a 15 month deployment to Iraq (2007-2008). They are still in the application process for the Purple Heart medal. Jayna's goal in co-founding the organization is to support service members and their families through the complicated application process and to advocate for them to receive proper medical care, rehabilitation, and official recognition of their combat injury.
Kate Froede, BNSc., MSN, RN, Co-founder:
Native of Apopka, Florida, Kate graduated with a Bachelor of Nursing Science degree from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and has worked primarily in Emergency and Trauma settings, spending several years in civilian service for the Department of the Army. She later earned a Master of Science in Nursing degree from Loyola University New Orleans, with specific research focus on Traumatic Brain Injuries (namely mild TBI and injuries sustained from blast exposure in Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom). Kate started this research in 2007, and independently developed datasets and extrapolated potential clinical findings prior to the release of the DoD's large-scale studies in 2009. She has experience volunteering and working on military installations abroad and within the United States.
Currently, Kate is a doctoral student at Vanderbilt University's School of Nursing, and is again focusing academic efforts on TBI and the DoD's practice guidelines and policies regarding injuries which affect soldiers in combat, and the effects of combat trauma on military families. She hopes to assist with Jayna's goal in supporting service members and their families by devoting academic study to these issues, for the betterment of soldiers' outcomes and restoring them and their families to whole after experiencing injuries sustained through military service. Kate is a member of the Emergency Nurses Association, Sigma Theta Tau- International Honor Society of Nursing, and the America Nurses Association. She lives in Augusta, Georgia, with her husband and two children.
