Shawn Cosner
Founder & President
U.S. Army, 2000–2004 · Recalled to Active Duty 2006 · Service-Disabled Veteran
Shawn Paul Cosner is the founder of The Eight Fifty Committee, a veteran-founded, veteran-led nonprofit serving more than 21,000 veterans across Preston, Monongalia, Marion, Harrison, Taylor, and Wood counties and surrounding areas. He built the organization on a conviction drawn from his own life: the gap between what veterans are promised and what they actually receive has never closed, and the work of closing it has to happen locally, person to person, in the communities where veterans live. The organization’s name comes from the only 850 Revolutionary War veterans who ever received the pensions promised to the more than 230,000 who served.
A service-disabled U.S. Army veteran, Shawn served from 2000 to 2004 and was recalled to active duty in 2006. Assigned to A Battery, 2nd Battalion, 1st Air Defense Artillery at Fort Bliss, Texas, he served as a PATRIOT missile system operator and maintainer (MOS 14T), deployed to Korea in support of Operation Foal Eagle in 2002 and to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, and held the additional duty of Combat Life Saver for more than 100 personnel. He comes from a military family with more than 300 years of combined service to the United States. His decorations include two Army Commendation Medals and the Army Achievement Medal (3rd Award).
Shawn knows firsthand how hard the transition home can be, and he has spent his post-service career building things that help others make it. He founded and led RESAPT Construction, a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business that was awarded and completed five VA prime contracts totaling $5.93 million between 2009 and 2013, including the $5.1 million Loch Raven Research Building, and served as a subcontractor to a Balfour Beatty joint venture on the National Security Agency’s East Campus facility, bringing his total federal construction experience to nearly $8 million. Today he serves as President of Sparked Technology Solutions, a West Virginia technology company, and as Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer of Patriot Enterprises USA, a service-disabled veteran-owned construction firm. He remains active in the national veteran-entrepreneurship community, participating in the PenFed Foundation Veteran Entrepreneur Program, Patriot Boot Camp at DAV National Headquarters, and the Second Service Foundation. He is currently completing programming through Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF), with an Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans (EBV) application pending interview by Wright State University.
He holds a Juris Doctor from the Appalachian School of Law and a Regents Bachelor of Arts from West Virginia University, where he was named a Presidential Distinguished Ambassador and teaches leadership to fellow ambassadors through his own framework, The Four Pillars of Leadership. He is a published author whose works include the Adventures of Lucky children’s book series, written to give young readers the tools to grow into better people; the 365-day devotional Me to You; and One-America, a work on tolerance and American identity. He is currently pursuing VA-Accredited Claims Agent certification through the VA Office of General Counsel to directly assist veterans with benefits claims, and he leads the Vetworks home repair program, bringing his professional construction experience directly to veterans in need.
As Founder and President, Shawn provides strategic leadership, builds the community and agency partnerships that extend the organization’s reach, and oversees program delivery across the service area. His mission is the one The Eight Fifty Committee was named for: to make sure that this time, the people who served are not left to fall through the cracks.
