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On March 4, 2026, in Louisville, Kentucky, Anthony Shop, co-founder of Social Driver and host of the Chief Influencer podcast, took the stage at the annual Face the Fight Coalition convening to moderate a live panel recording. The room held coalition partners, funders, and leaders who had spent the day immersed in the work of reducing veteran suicide. The conversation centered on how leaders use their platforms, credibility, and consistent presence to make the mission reach further.
That conversation became Episode 150 of Chief Influencer, a milestone episode featuring three leaders who have each made Face the Fight part of their personal mission.
Chef Robert Irvine, host of Food Network's Restaurant: Impossible and founder of the Robert Irvine Foundation, has built a platform rooted in the military community. Through his foundation, he works to carry evidence-based prevention, including promoting secure storage and connection to life-saving resources, into communities that benefit from hearing the message through trusted, familiar voices. His insight: reaching people requires finding the message that connects before people know they need it.
JoAnne Bass, the retired 19th Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force and the first woman to serve in that role, led culture and readiness at the highest levels of the U.S. military. Her focus in this conversation was trust, specifically how it is built through consistent, everyday signals that make help-seeking feel safe long before someone needs to ask.
The Honorable Patrick J. Murphy, an Army veteran, the first Iraq War veteran elected to Congress, and the 32nd Under Secretary of the Army, brought a systems perspective to the hardest question in the room: where are people most at risk of falling through the gaps during transition? His answer pointed to the underused levers that exist outside formal systems of care.
Three through-lines ran across every exchange.
First, influence is earned through consistency and sustained presence. All three panelists have distinguished titles. Each of them grounded their case in visible, long-term commitment rather than credentials alone. What every speaker described, in different language and from different vantage points, was the kind of presence that builds enough trust for someone to raise their hand.
Second, the message has to travel further than the coalition. The people most at risk of veteran suicide are reached through leaders willing to carry the message into their own networks and to simplify it enough that others can carry it further still.
Third, collective action is the only lever large enough for a challenge of this scale. No single organization, platform, or leader can close the gap alone. Face the Fight is building a coalition architecture where individual credibility compounds into something systemic, and this panel modeled exactly that.
Anthony closed the panel with a direct ask: in the next 30 days, choose one concrete way to amplify Face the Fight. An action, not an intention. Whether that means training managers to recognize warning signs, forming a new partnership that extends reach outside the usual channels, or simplifying the message so it is easier to hear, share, and act on, every choice moves the mission forward.
The episode is now live. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the full conversation below.
About Face the Fight Face the Fight is a national coalition working to reduce veteran suicide through collective action, evidence-based prevention, and cross-sector partnership. Learn more at weFacetheFight.org.
About Chief Influencer Chief Influencer is a podcast produced by Social Driver in partnership with The George Washington University College of Professional Studies and The Communications Board. Host Anthony Shop interviews leaders across sectors to uncover how they inspire and influence others. Listen at chiefinfluencer.org.
