About Us


In frustration over the lack of knowlege and connection they felt with the reality of the experience of returning veterans, Bill McMillan and Kim Shelton, spouses and co-directors of the Welcome Home Project, conceived of this program in order to become more involved and to offer a way for the larger civilian community to actively participate in the return of our soldiers.

They contacted Michael Meade to see if he would be interested in bringing his genius for working with myth, stories and traumatized communities into work with veterans. He and his foundation, the Mosaic Multicultural Foundation, co-sponsored the program in May, 2008.  He then led the Memorial Day, 2008 retreat and will continue to offer similar retreats to veterans in locations around the country. (see www.mosaicvoices.org)

The Welcome Home Project Mission is to bridge the historic gap between veterans (including their families) and the civilian communities in which they live. The Welcome Home Project will catalyze meetings and conversations between vets and civilians by promotion of the film Voices of Vets in local communities around the country. It is also our goal to promote:

  • Local civilian communities coming together to create significant welcoming ceremonies of their own, so that the veteran’s truths and traumas can be witnessed, heard and better understood by the general public.
  • Communities of other veterans who can share experiences and support one another in ways that no one else can, because they have been there.
  • Frameworks that help vets create meaning from their experiences, whether they be myths, religious traditions, the arts, rituals, or stories of other vets.
  • Other important programs around the country that support veterans and their families.

Core Staff of the Original Welcome Home Project, May, 2008

Bill McMillan has been a marriage and family therapist for more than 20 years. He has focused his work on adolescents, families, couples, abuse and trauma, rites of passage and stress reduction.  He is currently focusing his work on veterans and their reintegration into civilian life.

Kim Shelton has been making award winning documentaries for twenty five years. Her films, A Great Wonder, Lost Borders, Tuscarora, Cowboy Poets and The Highly Exhalted, have been broadcast nationally and internationally on PBS, POV, National Geographic, The Discovery Channel, BBC and on stations in Europe, Australia, Japan and New Zealand.  For more information, please check the following websites: Bullfrogfilms.com, LostBorderspress.com, and Folkstreams.net.

Michael Meade is a renowned storyteller, author, scholar of mythology and student of ritual in traditional cultures. Meade's hypnotic and fiery storytelling, street savvy, perceptiveness and spellbinding interpretations of ancient myths and symbols illuminate many crises in current culture. He has the unusual ability to synthesize this material, tapping ancestral sources of wisdom and connecting them to the stories people are living today. He has worked with Veterans, street gangs, Native Americans, prisoners, refugees and the homeless as each group has struggled with isolation and the perception that they do not belong, that there is no "home" here. He uses myth and story to help illuminate a path toward purpose and connection to the self and the society in which we all live. (the Mosaic Multi-Cultural Foundation is co-sponsor of the event.)

Peggy Rubin is Founding Director of the Center for Sacred Theater in Ashland, OR and is the principal teaching associate of Jean Houston, Ph.D. Peggy has presented classes, workshops and trainings throughout the world on mythology, theater and Social Artistry. She has studied extensively with Elaine De Beauport, Ed.D., founder of the Mead Institute, leading teacher of humanistic and behavioral applications of current brain/mind research; and with William Emerson, Ph.D., pioneer in the field of pre and peri-natal psychology, and its importance in understanding human development. Her work with different cultures around the world along with her deep intuitive understanding of the role of theater and ritual in healing cultural wounds makes her a vital welcoming voice in work with returning veterans.


Michael J. Maxwell, MS has spent the last thirty years working with combat veterans. In the late 70's he worked for a community based Vietnam Veterans program before he left in 1979 to help develop and implement the first Vet Center in Oregon. He worked at the Portland Vet Center for eight years as a therapist and then as the Team Leader. In 1987 he left the Vet Center to join the Portland VA Medical Center staff to help develop PTSD programs for combat veterans. During the next twenty years he provided individual, family, and group counseling for the treatment of PTSD, helped to create new and innovative PTSD treatment programs in the Medical Center, provided supervision, teaching, and training for therapists, organized and developed workshops and training seminars, participated in PTSD research, presented at local and national PTSD workshops and conferences, published articles and book chapters about the treatment of PTSD, and served as a veterans advocate. Mr. Maxwell retired from full time employment with the VA in 2006 and is currently involved in training, consultation and program development. He is a Vietnam era vet having served in the Army from 1971 to 1973.

Carl Robinson, LCSW, served in the army in Vietnam for two and a half years and has been working with veterans for more than twenty five years. In VA programs in both West Virginia and Oregon, he has worked in both in-patient and out-patient programs at the VA and at Vet Centers in Portland and Salem, focusing on PTSD and other psychological issues faced by returning veterans. As a Native American himself, he has focused much of his work on the spiritual recovery of combat veterans, using Native American and other healing ceremonies to support the deeper healing of veterans and their families. He has also been a mentor to many young therapists now working with veterans in the Portland area, as well as ourtreach coordinator for Native American veterans.

Lauren McLagen, LCSW, began working with veterans in 1997 and now works in the Salem, OR Vet Center, as a part of the Readjustment and Transition Team. Specializing in groups and families dealing with PTSD issues, she also has experience working with women and Military Sexual Trauma, family adjustment issues and support.