VETERAN ALUM PROFILE: Jason Zoesch

By Jacob Ashley

Jason Zoesch – Graduate Alum

Military Service
Marines: 1999 – 2008
0311 Rifleman
U.S. Army: 2008 – 2018
11B Infantryman, 11A Infantry Officer

Degree
Master of Science in Global Supply Chain Management (MSGSCM), Class of 2020

Jason Zoesch served during one of the most tumultuous times in modern American history. Very few of our young men and women signing their names to serve this country could have known their generation would grow only knowing war. There were no conflicts like this in our memory. The media we saw showed us uniformed forces fighting other uniformed forces, engaging in some semblance of rules of war. Not anymore.

Most of these battles would be fought street-by-street, house-by-house, with tactics unproven, against hybrid threats that could look like anyone. Standard operating procedures were constantly changing, but most often due only to loss of life. In certain instances, our forces were ill-prepared and underequipped. Jason fought in the Second Battle of Fallujah, the bloodiest battle of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and the bloodiest battle for the Marines since the Vietnam War. A few short months after Fallujah, he would deploy to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, as a part of the only Marine unit in the country. His job there would be tracking friendly forces, ensuring clear lines of communication, and limiting the threat of friendly fire.

After his years as a Marine, he joined the Oregon Army National Guard as an infantry sergeant. He then began his journey through the Portland State Guard Officer Leadership Development program (see ROTC), later earning his commission as an infantry officer while finishing his Bachelor of Arts in English, Class of 2010. He’d then become a platoon leader twice and a company commander for a logistics unit before being selected as a budget officer at the state’s medical command (MEDCOM) as a budget officer. He says, “There, I managed their budgets and all acquisitions for medical services and supplies. I also did time as a battalion logistics officer, managing the influx of new equipment, plus the standup of a new facility.” He continues, “Being the budget officer, though, really helped me in terms of learning to manage supply chains, as it was the first time I was responsible for end-to-end inventory performance.”

In 2018, Jason retired from the military after nearly 20 years of service. Not only had he realized his supply chain and logistics talents, but he still had earned benefits that could allow him to continue his debt-free education, which would inspire his return to PSU to complete the MSGSCM program, launching his civilian career in the process. He says, “Global Supply Chain Management provided me the lexicon necessary to draw a line between my experience as a logistician and supply chain theory. The case study format in every course kept me constantly engaged in honing my ability to diagnose drivers to business problems, which made me highly confident in prescribing business solutions, which is precisely what I do as a supply chain professional at BPA.”

Jason is currently a supervisory supply systems analyst and manages the materials workgroup at Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). His group handles all material fulfillment, demand planning, and inventory analysis and is responsible for the data held in BPA’s enterprise resource planning (ERP). He states, “The most impactful classes were Managerial Accounting, Production Control, and the Business Intelligence and Analytics series. At BPA, professionally, this is where I live. These three classes, albeit painful, made me the numbers guy here at work, and I take extreme pride in that. You know, sometimes, as a result, I even feel like I’m still in grad school. I just get paid for it now.”

The last thing Jason leaves us with is that we get what we put into these programs, and his professional life has directly resulted from that advice. Whether it had been taking advantage of jobs and opportunities in his military service, spending time with tutors at PSU, or using the career services of the VA, his success has been an incredible consequence of taking the chance to put in the work. And he makes sure to always be available for those looking for the same opportunities.