mission driven
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fall 2025
When Robert “Bob” Notch, MPA ’23, retired from the US Army after nearly three decades of service, he knew he wasn’t finished serving.
A decorated army aviator and senior officer, Notch had flown helicopters, worked logistics and operations, and spent five years shaping policy at the Pentagon including as a senior HR officer while an active duty reservist. But transitioning into civilian life presented a surprisingly steep learning curve—even for someone with his experience who had completed a prestigious Harvard Kennedy School American Service Fellowship for high-ranking leaders.
“I thought I was young enough to have a second career,” he says. “But the job market had changed in the 15 years since I last looked for a civilian role, and I found that my broad military skill set didn’t always translate easily into the private sector.”
His path forward led him to Suffolk’s Master of Public Administration Program and eventually into a groundbreaking public sector role: as founding executive director of the state’s new Office of the Veteran Advocate (OVA), an independent veterans’ advocacy agency unlike any other in the country.
A life of service—and transition
Notch grew up in a small town in Minnesota and left for West Point at 18. Over the next 27 years, he built a career across the globe—serving at Fort Rucker in Alabama, Fort Bliss in Texas, Fort Sheridan in Illinois, and Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, among many other postings.
“I was an aviator, but the army also trained me to be a generalist,” he explains. “I worked in operations, HR, logistics, and policy. You end up knowing how entire organizations function.”
After retiring from the military in 2016, Notch and his wife, a native of Quincy, settled in Massachusetts to be closer to family. He found a good fit in the civilian world at a Boston-based nonprofit, Brighton Marine, working with veterans—but still, something was missing.
“I realized I had my GI Bill,” he says. “So I looked at programs that could bridge the gap between my experience and the civilian world—especially nonprofit and public service.”
Suffolk—which has been recognized nationally as a Military Friendly School for years—and its MPA program checked all the important boxes for Notch.
“The location was a huge decision factor—it’s downtown, surrounded by the institutions where policy gets made,” he says. “But more importantly, the program was practical. Many of my classmates were already working in state and local government.”
Crucially, he adds, the curriculum helped fill in the gaps—“how state agencies work, how nonprofits operate, how policy is formed and administered. I had military and federal experience, but I needed to understand how things worked on the ground here in Massachusetts.”
Classes like Organizational Change gave him the tools to think critically about building new systems—skills that would prove invaluable when he was tapped to lead the newly created OVA. “I leaned on that quite a bit coming into this role,” he says.
A new office for a new kind of advocacy
The Office of the Veteran Advocate was created in July 2022, as part of a broad-based response to systemic failures in care for veterans, most notably the tragic deaths at the Veterans Homes at Holyoke and Chelsea during the COVID-19 pandemic.
These events exposed serious gaps in oversight, coordination, and accountability in the state’s veteran services system, and the OVA was introduced as an independent agency that would help lead the Commonwealth in supporting its veteran population.
Its mission was daunting: create a framework for restoring public trust and making Massachusetts a national leader in veteran advocacy and support. When Notch learned about the new agency and the opening for an executive director, he knew it was a special opportunity.
Unlike the state’s Executive Office of Veterans Services, the OVA does not administer benefits or provide direct support. Instead, the office’s charge is broad and strategic: to monitor, coordinate, and improve veteran services across all state agencies.
“We’re not here to point the finger,” he says.
“We’re here to put an arm around agencies and say, ‘Let’s look at this together and look for a solution.’”
Already, the OVA is focused on preventing the next crisis by building relationships across agencies, analyzing policy outcomes, and—crucially—listening to veterans themselves. They’ve launched a public tip line and are actively investigating cases where systemic problems may be putting veterans at risk.
The bigger picture: supporting all veterans
One of Notch’s key goals is expanding how Massachusetts thinks about its veteran population.
“Right now, most of the focus is on veterans in crisis—those who are homeless, struggling financially, or dealing with health issues,” he says, praising how well state and local veterans’ offices deliver such services overall. “That’s vital work. But it only covers about 5% of the veteran population.”
But the other 95% of veterans? Very often overlooked.
Notch wants to change that. “Massachusetts is losing younger residents to other states. We have labor shortages in tech, healthcare, and green energy. Why aren’t we recruiting veterans and transitioning service members to come here and fill those roles?”
It’s a message he’s taken to policymakers across the Commonwealth. “We can’t just be reactive anymore,” he says. “This office exists to help Massachusetts look ahead—to prevent problems before they start and to create opportunities that bring veterans into the heart of our economic and civic life.”
Today, Notch’s Braintree office includes Suffolk alumni among its staff, including Chief of Staff Scott Pitta, JD ’20, who also served as an army pilot, and research assistant Cody Black, BA ’22, MAAP/MPA, ’25, a marine veteran. And Notch hopes to welcome more public-service-minded veterans to their ranks in the future.
Looking ahead, Notch’s goal is to see the OVA become a model for other states not just in veteran care, but creating economic opportunity. “I want us to be known as the place where systemic problems get solved, where veterans’ voices are heard, and where we never stop looking at that 300-meter target—the big picture.”
Executive Director Robert Notch, MPA ’23, says the Office of the Veteran Advocate exists to “create opportunities that bring veterans into the heart of our economic and civic life.” Photograph by Michael J. Clarke
By Erica Noonan