QMissions Names Combat Medic and Program Graduate Jessica Burgans as First Executive Director

Ten years after the veteran nonprofit was founded, the woman it once served will lead it

AUBURN, WA / ACCESS Newswire / October 3, 2026 / QMissions, the Auburn-based nonprofit that combines mental health training with international service for veterans and first responders, today announced the appointment of Jessica Burgans, MA, [LMHC], as its first Executive Director.

Burgans is a former U.S. Army combat medic who served on the front lines in Iraq. She is also a QMissions alumna. She first went through the organization’s programming in 2016, one year after QMissions ran its first mission, and she returns now to lead the organization that once served her.

“Jessica has done more in the veteran mental health space than any ten veterans I have worked with combined,” said founder Aaron Quinonez, a Marine veteran known publicly as Sgt Q. “She is proof that this works. She came to us carrying something heavy, she did the work, and she went out and got the education and the license to help other people do the same. There is no one better suited to build what QMissions becomes next.”

Following her service in Iraq, Burgans lived with severe PTSD for years before finding recovery through counseling. That experience redirected her career. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Ministry Leadership from Northwest University and a Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, completing her clinical internship at the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at Valley Cities in Lakewood, Washington, where her entire caseload consisted of post-9/11 veterans, active duty service members, and their families.

She has spent nearly two decades mentoring at-risk youth and has served as a deacon in her church for eight years. She currently maintains a counseling practice in Auburn specializing in trauma and PTSD, marriage and family counseling, and adolescent care.

“I know exactly what it feels like to be the veteran in the back of the room who does not believe any of this is going to help,” Burgans said. “I was her. What QMissions does is different, because it does not just hand you a workbook and send you home. It puts a hammer in your hand, puts you on a build site next to other veterans, and gives you something to serve. That is where it broke open for me. Now I get to build the organization that does that for thousands more.”

What comes next

Burgans steps into the role as QMissions enters a significant expansion. Priorities for her first two years include:

• Extending Operation Restore Hope, the organization’s cornerstone program pairing mental health training with home builds, from a weekend experience into a full year of continuing mental health education.
• Building a clinical measurement framework capable of demonstrating participant outcomes with real data.
• Launching quarterly family programming covering marriage, parenting, communication, and financial health, recognizing that veteran mental health affects entire households.
• Training and licensing veteran leaders to carry the organization’s Giant Slayer workshop into their own communities, churches, and networks.

Burgans begins October 1, 2026. She will also serve on the QMissions Board of Directors.

Quinonez will remain with the organization, shifting his focus to vision, teaching, speaking, and partnership development.

“I am not leaving,” Quinonez said. “My role is changing. The next chapter of QMissions should not be about what God did through me. It should be about how God raised up a struggling combat medic to lead this into places I could never take it alone.”

About QMissions

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Auburn, Washington, QMissions is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit serving veterans, first responders, and their families. The organization combines evidence-informed mental health training with international humanitarian service, most notably through Operation Restore Hope, which pairs the Giant Slayer workshop with home builds in Mexico. Since its first mission in November 2015, QMissions has led teams to Mexico, Cambodia, Malawi, Kenya, Peru, Panama, Brazil, Nepal, Ukraine, and Lithuania, building homes, churches, wells, and hope. Learn more at qmissions.com.

Contact:
Aaron Quinonez, Founder
QMissions
253-344-9544
Mrsq@Qactual.com
qmissions.com

SOURCE: QMissions

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire