Title: Assistant Director of Military and Veteran Affairs
Company: Ocean County College
Location: Galloway, New Jersey, United States
Ryan Luurtsema, Assistant Director of Military and Veteran Affairs at Ocean County College, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Executives for dedication, achievements, and leadership in military services administration and advocacy.
Mr. Luurtsema served his country with the United States Army from 2008 to 2016. As an ammunition specialist at Fort Stewart, Georgia from 2008 to 2012, he maximized efforts to produce quality work in short amount of time with 2 to 5 teams of 5 employees and was recognized for critical thinking, time management, and dynamic skills to implement a same-day training event for lower to senior level personnel. He then flourished as a human resources technician in Wiesbaden, Germany from 2012 to 2016, where his duties included managing and supervising action submissions to exceed company standards for timely submission for personnel actions; mentoring, educating and briefing incoming personnel; and training and educating four rotations of employees to utilize company personnel strength management.
After leaving the Army, Mr. Luurtsema obtained a Bachelor of Arts in hospitality tourism and management from Stockton University in Pomona, New Jersey in 2019. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in organizational leadership from the Colorado State University Global Campus. At Stockton, he served as student veteran president, veteran liaison project manager and veteran policy advocate. During 2018 as a front desk associate with the Flanders Hotel, Mr. Luurtsema handled guest relations and served as a customer service advocate, reservation agent and clientele liaison to company management.
As a veterans coordinator with Ocean County College from 2019 to 2021, Mr. Luurtsema established Ocean county as ranked #1 in New Jersey for community colleges for military-affiliated students and Ranked #11 in the country by Best for Vets, Military Times, from 2020 to 2021. In addition, he developed new targeted comprehensive marketing strategy and objectives for Ocean County College, created the school’s Veteran and Military Resource Center, organized the first annual Veterans Panel Town Hall and fundraised over $15,000 in four months that supported an academic scholarship that created a unique-first time ever, fellowship pilot program in Washington D.C.
Since 2021, as assistant director of military and veteran services at Ocean County College, Mr. Luurtsema oversaw the execution of year-to-year creative engagement events, renovated the Veteran and Military Resource Center, created innovative practices for student-led and student-supporting practices in Military Student Bill of Rights policies within Ocean County College Student Affairs and has led numerous grant applications that have garnered the school over $400,000.
The highlight of Mr. Luurtsema’s career involves the financial literacy for service members. Starting off as a private, he was making $25,000 per year, and to him, he was already rich. He did not receive much guidance throughout his upbringing as a child and young adult. There was no education in the military across the board about investments, banking properly, financial literacy on paying bills on time or scheduling payments. Because of this, one of the things he developed over the years was in-house education programs for any unit in which he was a part. In coming years, one of Mr. Luurtsema’s many goals is to create a stalwart and foundational program for New Jersey and then exercise that national aspect for higher education.
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