Kristofer Goldsmith is the CEO of Sparverius, a veteran-owned open-source intelligence firm specializing in the detection and disruption of today’s greatest threats against democracy: disinformation campaigns and domestic extremism.

Kris is the founder and president of High Ground Veterans Advocacy, a 501c3 not-for-profit, which partners with military and Veterans Service Organizations to train veterans to become grassroots advocates and leaders in their local communities. High Ground Veterans Advocacy was recognized in 2016 by HillVets as one of the nation’s top new veterans organizations.

Kris was born in New York and joined the Army to serve as a forward observer with the Army’s Third Infantry Division shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He deployed with Alpha Company of the Third Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom for the year of 2005. Since separating from the Army with a General Discharge after surviving a PTSD-related suicide attempt, Kris has become an advocate for veterans with PTSD and those with less-than-honorable discharges. Twelve years after his separation from the military, the Army corrected his discharge characterization to Honorable.

As a disabled student veteran using the VA’s Vocational Rehabilitation program, Kris found an opportunity both to recover from PTSD and to continue serving his fellow veterans. At Nassau Community College (NCC), he established a million-dollar veteran-resource facility, which serves as a center for hundreds of student veterans. After two years as president of NCC’s Student Veterans of America chapter, he transferred to Columbia University’s School of General Studies where he recently received a bachelor of arts in political science.

From 2016-2020, Kris worked on the policy and government affairs team at Vietnam Veteran of America, where he had the opportunity to develop and see implemented the congressional budgetary trick that removed the delimiting date for what became the “Forever GI Bill.” As VVA’s chief investigator, he wrote the definitive work on foreign entities that target troops, veterans, and their families online. He believes it is the responsibility of today’s young veterans to keep the motto of Vietnam Veterans of America alive: “Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another.”