We do NOT support veterans; We FIGHT for them.

If you found this page after seeing our story — welcome. Stay a minute. We'll show you why the Hall of Fame came to our door.

The Hall Came Knocking

In late February, Pro Football Hall of Famer Roger Wehrli and Brittney Payton — daughter of the late Walter Payton — arrived unannounced at the Warrior Healing Center to present Dr. Tim Kirk, our founder, with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Award of Character, in partnership with USA TODAY and Payton Productions.

Tim is the first veteran ever selected for this national honor — recognizing "everyday Hall of Famers" whose lives reflect the values of commitment, courage, honesty, integrity, and respect.

We're proud of Tim. We're prouder of why they came. Spend a minute with Marlene. She'll tell you better than we can.

Marlene's Words

"For many years, I hid behind alcohol and isolation to not face my military sexual trauma and PTSD. I had a spiritual intercession and gave up alcohol but I had NO support and NO family to catch me. I was suicidal and had great shame and didn’t want to go to a VA facility. I read about Warrior Healing Center and was having suicidal ideation daily. It was a God Send. I walked into that facility and the person at the front desk asked me to fill out an online form that was right there. The person behind that desk offered me coffee and water and showed me around.

I filled out their online form and left back to my isolation and being hyper vigilant and all the stuff that comes with MST and PTSD – hunkered in for the nightmares to come.

The next day, I got a call from a Tim Kirk – initially I had no clue who he was. I never answer my phone but nobody calls me. He left me a voicemail to call him and see if there was anything he could do to help. My first response was, “that is the last thing I want to do is talk to a man about my feelings…”. I blew off the call. He continued to reach out. So I began texting him. And, why not…I let him have all the pain and hurt I had bottled up for so many years. He took it like a champ. He listened and read. Never defending or challenging me. And it was almost everyday or every other day – the check in. I began to compare him to Pancho and I was Don Quixote fighting the world (windmills). And I would tell him who I was fighting that day. And he would line me up with my sword and shield.

My MST and trauma happened at the Air Force Academy in the 1980s — the first four years they finally opened the Academies to women, and it wasn't fun. The women were unprotected and had no one to go to. No one wanted us there. Rape was prevalent from day one, and intense mental and physical abuse was a daily reality. Three years, and I told no one. I found out that Tim was an Academy graduate. That was sheer hell — but he was the only one who could understand what I went through. He shared some of his own personal stories and challenges, and could relate. I never met him for years, and he would encourage me to come out of my shell and meet with him. I said, NO WAY. But someday. Someday. Well, after a year and a half — with his encouragement and his fortitude of staying with me — somehow he was able to get through, to help me understand that life isn't fair, and that it's easy to check out, but if we can all help each other, maybe it'll just be a bit brighter some days.

No one ever truly recovers from trauma nor the impact of Military Sexual Trauma but with soldiers like Tim, we can at least feel understood; that we belong to a group – a clan of survivors; and we can maybe make a difference in helping each other find a path to healing. Tim should have a tattoo on his forehead with the words, “YOU MATTER!” Whatever it takes, Tim is there for you.

With his encouragement and his team’s help, I now volunteer for American Warrior Association and help other female PTSD survivors. I’m organizing groups and activities for our female veterans in the area. And more importantly I’m getting out of my house and feel included into a fellow veteran family."

— Marlene, Air Force veteran

This is what $22 a month builds.

$22 a Month to End 22 a Day

By the VA's count, more than 6,000 veterans have taken their own lives every year since 2001 — the VA's official number is 17 a day, but as it fluctuates, 22 a day has become the symbol. It is important to remember research shows the real number is much higher. Operation Deep Dive by major universities, Duke and Alabama, put the number closer to 44 a day with all things considered. Either way, there are way too many. National efforts have not moved the rate of veteran suicide in America in over 25 years.

WHC's efforts are moving it.

For the price of a weekly cup of coffee — $22 a month — you are moving it with us.

Why It Works

Veterans needed a local unit to fight for them. Not a clinic. A unit. That's what we built.

The Warrior Healing Center brings 65 veteran-serving organizations and programs together under one roof in Sierra Vista, Arizona — a community ranked third in the nation for veterans per capita. Veterans who walk through our door don't have to figure out which agency does what. They don't have to repeat their story across half a dozen offices. The help is here. The people are here. A human always answers our phone. Always.

Suicide is a consequence of hopelessness. We find reasons for hope.

Why We Do This — and Why It's Personal

Cathie Goodman, RN, co-founded the Warrior Healing Center in 2018 where she serves as Director of the Warrior Healing Project and is a board member of the Warrior Healing Center. Her credentials span hospital nursing and electronic medical records implementation at major institutions including the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Her path to veteran service started young: her father is a Vietnam veteran exposed to Agent Orange, later diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes — a presumptive condition of that exposure — that has now passed to two of his children, including Cathie. Her family is among the millions who continue to serve their country long after the war ends. Cathie's nonprofit career began at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (now Breakthrough T1D) and continues at WHC, where the cost veterans' families pay isn't theoretical to her. It's the air she's breathed her whole life.

Dr. Timothy Kirk, Colonel, USAF (Ret.), co-founded the Warrior Healing Center with Cathie in 2018 and serves as Chairman of the Board. Twenty-five years in uniform. Seven command tours. Two continuous years in Afghanistan running more than 350 missions outside the wire. Lead speechwriter for two Air Force Chiefs of Staff and later the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. A doctorate in military strategy. His father flew 200 F-4 combat missions over Vietnam in 1968 and 1969, and came home to a country that had decided to forget the war by forgetting the warriors. When Tim was seven, he watched his dad jog through the neighborhood in military t-shirts turned inside out — so no one could see he'd served. His father passed in 2023, still carrying wounds that were never treated, never named, never honored. The Warrior Healing Center exists so that the next generation of veterans never has to turn the shirt inside out.

What Your $22 Builds

Since 2022, the Warrior Healing Center has:

Completed over 2,700 veteran intakes — growing 28% year over year
Successfully obtained over $4.2 million in verified, durable, tax-free income for veterans through VA disability advocacy
Returned $8.9 million in tax refunds to 50+ veterans and seniors through our on-site AARP Foundation Tax-Aide partnership — over 9,000 returns since 2020
Logged over 60,000 facility sign-ins from veterans who keep coming back — because the Center has become home

All of it delivered by volunteers.

Your $22 — Fully Deployed

100% of donations go directly to the Warrior Healing Project
100% volunteer-staffed — including the founder and director; No paid employees
501(c)(3) — your donation is tax-deductible
Arizona taxpayers: claim a dollar-for-dollar state tax credit through the Qualified Charitable Organization program: QCO Code: 22467
EIN: 84-4586158