Paul Muccigrosso ’12: A Lifetime of Helping Veterans

(SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY — March 17, 2025) Veteran. Psychotherapist. Advocate. Paul Muccigrosso ’12 will bring all three roles to his new job as the military and veteran career advisor at Empire State University.

Muccigrosso joined the Office of Careers and Experiential Learning on January 2, in the Cheektowaga, NY location. He will provide direct support to veterans and other military-aligned students and alumni who are looking for jobs or internships.

The role is brand new, and he’s thrilled to be creating it. “We’re doing what’s considered building the plane while we fly method,” he quips. 

Seeing the Need

Muccigrosso grew up in the Buffalo, NY area and joined the U.S. Navy in 1976. He served under three administrations and spent much of that time deployed in the Middle East. He was honorably discharged in 1982.

“I served at time when America was having a very difficult time welcoming people, primarily men, when they came home from their service,” he says. “It was clear that they needed something other than a pat on the back and a hardy well done. Unfortunately, those levels of care were just not readily available.”

Back then, most veterans were expected to enter the civilian work force as postal delivery workers, police officers, fire fighters, or ambulance drivers.

But adjusting to life outside the military was — and often still is — fraught with challenges. Many veterans, he says, wound up incarcerated. Others became perpetrators of domestic violence or victims of alcoholism and drug addiction. Many were physically frail and developed heart disease and hypertension while still in their 30s and 40s.

Muccigrosso said he was among the lucky ones who did not experience these issues. He was married with a family and landed a job in small business development in North Carolina after he left the service.

Even so, he looks back and now knows he could have benefitted from some support services to help him with the transition to civilian life.  He eventually did seek help. “Knowing what I know now, I probably should have explored some level of reintegrative care sooner than I did,” he says.

An Advocate is Born

It was a part-time job helping veterans apply for the GI bill where Muccigrosso found his calling. “We were in a building with poor air conditioning, and it wasn’t very comfortable,” he says. “We used to sit on old metal chairs with these old metal tables with drawers that didn’t open. Veterans would come in with their orders and say ‘I was in the army from ’76 to ’80. What do I do now?’ That’s where I began to feel connected to the idea of providing some level of care, guidance, or advocacy.”

Muccigrosso went on to provide all three. After 9/11, when the number of new military recruits exploded, Muccigrosso became involved in veteran advocacy work for the VA. He also got involved with the Western New York chapter of the Joseph P. Dwyer Peer Support Project, a program that provides social, professional, and academic support for veterans.

But he knew he needed a degree to do more. When a fellow veteran told him about SUNY Empire, Muccigrosso enrolled. He became a teaching assistant for Christi Shorkey, who is still an adjunct. “I’ve been teaching every day since 2014,” says Muccigrosso who teaches social work for Maryville University in St. Louis, MO.

After getting his bachelor’s in human development from SUNY Empire in 2012, he got an MBA at Medaille College and an MSW from the University at Buffalo.   

As a social worker, Muccigrosso developed trauma-informed psychotherapy for veterans.  While at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Buffalo, he created treatment protocols with “self-reinvention” skills. The protocols are designed to desensitize veterans to the long- and short-term effects of chronic and episodic exposure to trauma. 

He went on to open a clinical practice called The Power of Psychotherapy that specializes in patients who have experienced trauma. His work has landed him on the boards of several mental health organizations including the western New York chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

“I’ve had the honor of working with some really anxious people who really needed help,” he says. “Many of these folks still reach out and keep me posted when they have a grandchild or when things aren’t going great and they need to have a conversation.”

Asking for Help

Muccigrosso believes that society owes it to veterans to give them the support they need when they are discharged from active duty. “Statistically, there’s a high probability that vets will have a challenge in translating the skills they learned as an active-duty person or reservist to the civilian work force,” he says.

Many who enter the military are young, physically strong, and emotionally malleable. “It’s easy to encourage loyalty and to indoctrinate mission readiness,” he says. “They are trained to provide help, not to ask for help. But there comes a time when you need to shift gears and know it’s okay to raise your hand and ask for help, guidance, and care. Higher ed is a great place to do that.”    

As students at SUNY Empire, they get plenty of practice. They need help when they learn to use the library, Microsoft Teams, and Brightspace. “They need to be indoctrinated into this new environment,” he says.

Muccigrosso is hoping they’ll reach out to him when it comes time to find an internship or job. And while his new job is not a clinical one, he thinks his experience as a psychotherapist and advocate makes him well suited for this new role in career services.

“My role at SUNY Empire is not clinical but I’m prepared, equipped, and willing to make sure anyone can get the proper care they need quickly,” he says.