Two sides of one story
Founded by a service member and her mother, we understand both the one who serves and the one who waits and worries at home.
Our story
Two sides of one story.
MI Service Matters was born from two perspectives of military service — the person who serves, and the person who stands beside them. Founded by a logistician with more than 25 years in the United States Air Force, together with her mother.
Two perspectives of the same service
This organization was born from two perspectives of military service: the person who serves, and the person who stands beside them.
For more than 25 years, our founder Rachel has served in the United States Air Force — deploying multiple times, building a career as a logistician, and earning her degree along the way. Her mother has traveled that whole journey with her, experiencing military life not as the service member, but as the mother waiting at home, supporting from a distance, and trying to understand a system that was often unfamiliar.
A gap we felt first-hand
One of the earliest moments that revealed how wide that gap could be came at the very beginning of Rachel's career. She was in Basic Training when the attacks of September 11, 2001 occurred. Years later, her mother shared what that time had been like from the outside — the fear, the uncertainty, and the questions she couldn't get answered. Was her daughter safe? What would happen next? Who could she call? Where could she turn for reliable information?
As the years went on, we realized that experience wasn't unique to us. There is often a gap between the systems and resources available to military-connected people and the families who actually need to understand and reach them.
The questions families shouldn't face alone
What happens when a service member is deployed and can't be reached? When they become seriously ill or incapacitated? When they transition out of the military? When a family suddenly has to navigate benefits, paperwork, and agencies they never expected to face?
And what happens years later, when that service member is a veteran who may not know what benefits they've earned, where to find help, or how to begin — especially our older veterans, some entitled to resources they don't know exist, others unsure how to access them, and some facing health, financial, or housing challenges that make a complicated system feel impossible.
There needs to be a bridge
These experiences led us to the same conclusion: there needs to be a bridge. A bridge between service members and their families. Between veterans and the benefits they've earned. Between families and reliable information. Between community organizations and the people they're trying to serve. And between the many military, veteran, government, nonprofit, healthcare, education, financial, and housing resources that already exist.
Our vision is to be that bridge — a centralized military, veteran, and family resource hub. We don't intend to replace the Department of Veterans Affairs, military programs, veteran service organizations, or the many groups already doing important work. We want to connect them, so that a person who comes to us is introduced to the right resource rather than handed another phone number and left to figure it out alone.
The whole person, prepared before the crisis
Our approach focuses on the whole person and the whole military-connected family — physical and mental wellness, healthcare, financial stability, housing, education, employment, benefits navigation, family preparedness, caregiver support, transition, aging veterans, survivor and end-of-life resources, and peer-to-peer connection.
Just as importantly, we want families to be informed before a crisis occurs — to understand what resources exist, what questions to ask, and where to turn when circumstances suddenly change.
Where do you go from here?
Rachel's career taught her something that became central to this vision. For 25 years, her work has been to identify requirements, locate resources, and make sure what's needed reaches the right place at the right time. Now she and her mother want to apply that same philosophy to people.
We are building the bridge we wish our family had when our journey began — a place where any service member, veteran, family member, caregiver, or support person can start with one question, “Where do I go from here?”, and know they won't have to find the answer alone.
Meet our founder
Rachel Alexander
Founder · U.S. Air Force logistician
MI Service Matters was founded by Rachel Alexander — a logistician with more than 25 years in the United States Air Force — together with her mother, who has stood beside her through every deployment and every uncertainty of military life.
Rachel was in Basic Training on September 11, 2001. While she was inside the military's world, her mother was on the outside: afraid, full of questions, and unsure where to turn. That gap — between the people who serve and the people who love them — became the seed of this mission.
After 25 years of identifying needs, locating resources, and making sure the right thing reaches the right place at the right time, Rachel reached a simple conclusion about the veteran community: sometimes the resource isn't missing. The connection is.
MI Service Matters is the bridge she and her mother wished their family had when their journey began.
What guides us
Our values
The convictions behind everything we do — drawn straight from our family's own experience.
Connection over complexity
Sometimes the resource isn't missing — the connection is. Closing that gap is the whole job.
The whole person, the whole family
Wellness, benefits, housing, work, caregiving, and more — because a life isn't lived one appointment at a time.
A bridge, not a replacement
We don't duplicate the VA, veteran service organizations, or the great groups already doing this work. We connect people to them.
We're building the bridge we wish our family had when our journey began — a place where any service member, veteran, spouse, caregiver, or family member can start with one question, “Where do I go from here?”, and know they won't have to find the answer alone.
Rachel Alexander & her mother · Founders of MI Service MattersOur promise to every person who reaches out
Not sure where to start? That's exactly why we're here.
Whether you're a veteran, a service member, a spouse or parent, a caregiver, or an organization that wants to help — reach out. One message is all it takes to begin, and you won't have to find the answer alone.