Rich Blake

Rich, 32, is a Marine Corps veteran (1999-2003) who grew up in Ohio. After serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom and completing his service obligation with two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement medals, Rich settled in Baltimore to pursue his education. As a veteran and clinical psychology student at Loyola University Maryland, Rich felt he could be doing more to serve his new community and began looking online to find a way to do it. In the Fall of 2009, he responded to a blog post by BR looking for veteran artists in Baltimore and introduced BR to fellow 6th Branch founding board members Dennis Robinson, Greg Lamberson and Carl LaFaro. The relationship between VAP and 6th Branch took off and a vision of enriching veteran life through art and community service was born. Rich currently holds a Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology and is actively pursuing a Doctorate in Psychology. In the summer of 2011, Rich was directly commissioned in the US Army as a Second Lieutenant and will assume duties as a Captain and Army psychologist in 2012.