Michael McDowell currently serves as the President and CEO of Valor Club USA, where he and his team offer a comprehensive living and learning community to support the unique needs of military transition. From 2017-2019, Dr. McDowell served as the Executive Director of The Soldiers Project, a national organization that offered free, confidential, and unlimited mental and behavioral health for post 9/11 veterans and their loved ones and as the Associate Director and Director of Operations for the Cohen Military Family Clinic at USC from 2016-2017. A retired Marine officer, Dr. McDowell served as a field artillery and civil affairs officer from January 2001 to August 2016 with numerous platoons, battery, and battalion-level commands before his departure from active duty service. He deployed six different times, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Southeast Asia as a member of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit in Okinawa, Japan. He has extensive professional and academic training in organizational leadership, operational planning, and strategy development. Dr. McDowell holds a doctoral degree in Educational Psycholody from USC where he examined the effects of stress and military transition. He also holds graduate degrees from the University of Southern California (MBA, 2015) and Montana State University-Billings (M.Ed, 1994). 

Dr. McDowell also serves as a Los Angeles County Veteran Commissioner and member of the Greater Los Angeles VA Community Veterans Engagement Board (CVEB). He authored a $20M veteran peer support initiative for Los Angeles County in December 2017 and recently completed work on the implementation of this initiative as a member of the Veteran Peer Access Network (VPAN) steering committee for Los Angeles Department of Mental Health (LADMH). As a social entrepreneur, practitioner, and strategist, Dr, McDowell is focused on empirically-based research solutions to develop innovative programming that is supported by data-centered outcomes and long-term financial sustainability.