Anthony Woods

Secretary Woods leads the department whose mission is to assist veterans, active duty service members, and their families and dependents in securing benefits earned through uniformed service. 

Prior to his appointment in the Moore-Miller Administration, Tony served as the Executive Director of the Quad Fellowship — a first-of-its-kind fellowship program designed to build ties among the next generation of scientists and technologists from Australia, India, Japan, and the United States.  

Before founding the Quad Fellowship at Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Tony had a successful private sector career at Cisco Systems, The Boston Consulting Group, and Capital One.  

Tony’s military career began when he attended West Point and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He served two tours of duty in Iraq where he earned a Bronze Star for his service. Tony was discharged from the U.S. Army in 2008 under the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy, which barred members of the LGBTQ community from serving openly in the military. Tony worked with advocates to repeal the law and then resumed his service in the U.S. Army Reserve. He currently holds the rank of Major and serves as an intelligence analyst assigned to the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. 

In the public sector, Tony served as a Program Director at ServiceNation — a national nonprofit dedicated to increasing national and volunteer service. Tony continued his public service as a White House Fellow in the U.S. Office of Personnel Management under President Barack H. Obama.

He served on former US Veterans Affairs Secretary, Bob McDonald’s commission on minority veterans and serves on Blue Star Families advisory board on race, equity, and inclusion. 

Tony graduated from the U.S. Military Academy West Point with a B.S. in Economics and Political Science. He earned a Master in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and an Executive MBA from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.