Texas Lottery® Veteran Recognition: Laurianne Rodriguez

Laurianne Rodriguez was commissioned into the U.S. Air Force as a personnel officer in 2002, and during her four years of active duty service also married her Air Force ROTC sweetheart, started a family and enrolled in graduate school.

On the surface, it's the ideal military life, yet other unique circumstances come into the picture that can only be appreciated, and sometimes endured, through the military lens of duty and faith.

Rodriguez was working toward a master's degree in family studies and human services, conducting research through the local VA, when she and her husband received orders for a permanent change of station from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia to Robins Air Force Base in Georgia. Rodriguez had to pivot on her case study research because there was not a VA close to where she and her husband were stationed. Then, just before their son's first birthday, Rodriguez's husband was deployed.

"This is a prime example of the challenges military spouses experience all the time," Rodriguez said.

In 2006, Rodriguez separated from the Air Force as a captain and "lived the military spouse life," stabilizing her family through deployments and frequent moves, supporting her husband's 20-year Air Force career in aircraft maintenance. Since 2021, Rodriguez has shared her innate sense of service, education and the knowledge of lived experience as a program manager for the Veteran Spouse Network (VSN) at The University of Texas at Austin.

Situated in the Institute for Military and Veteran Family Wellness in UT's School of Social Work, the VSN provides community and peer support for military and veteran spouses and committed partners. In this role, Rodriguez leads educational programming, as well as management of 40 peer leaders nationwide. The peer leaders are instrumental in not only connecting veteran spouses with necessary resources, but also offering empathetic perspectives.

"Cultural competency is important because the experiences and distresses are so unique for military and veteran spouses," Rodriguez said. "It's deployment and reintegration, looking for educational opportunities, or dealing with your own employment challenges. It's hard to create a career for yourself because things happen, and you have to quit and find something new."

Rodriguez and her family were stationed at three different bases in Texas. She volunteered as a Key Spouse and Key Spouse Mentor, and also gave time and energy in communities near Wichita Falls and New Braunfels. In recognition of her service throughout the state, Rodriguez was awarded the prestigious Yellow Rose of Texas award in 2023.

With her husband nearing Air Force retirement, Rodriguez was determined to find a purposeful career opportunity and connected with the VSN at a Hiring Our Heroes event. The programmatic role allows Rodriguez to tap into lineage and life experiences. Coming from a multi-generational military family, Rodriguez was motivated to join the Air Force ROTC as a Baylor University undergraduate student and specialized during uniformed service as a personnel officer and first responder in situations of sexual assault and domestic violence.

Now with the VSN, Rodriguez and her team of peer leaders are helping spouses transition from active duty to civilian life, navigate bureaucratic systems and find appropriate mental health support to sustain quality of life in their families.

"You can't do this without lived experience," Rodriguez said. "To know what's really happening, those day-to-day challenges, decisions, sacrifices – I can advocate for military and veteran families."

Thanks to the Texas Lottery, great things are happening all across Texas. The Texas Lottery consistently contributes nearly $2 billion of lottery revenue each year to good causes like public education and veterans' assistance programs. Beginning with the first veterans' dedicated scratch ticket game in 2009, the Texas Lottery has now contributed over $277 million to the Fund for Veterans' Assistance.

Since 1992, the Texas Lottery has generated more than $41 billion in revenue for the state of Texas. Through strict adherence to its vision, mission and core values, the Texas Lottery is dedicated to ensuring that this support continues. The Texas Lottery's functions and activities are administered by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), the state agency responsible for licensing and regulating a broad range of professions, occupations and industries in Texas.

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Texas Lottery® Veteran Recognition: Laurianne Rodriguez