Alumnus Joe Ramirez to Serve as Distinguished Guest Speaker at Pepperdine Veterans Day Luncheon

Veterans Day is a time to celebrate the selfless service of the brave men and women who have dedicated their lives to this nation. Their sacrifice for the well-being of others exemplifies the courage Pepperdine seeks to cultivate. 

On Wednesday, November 11, 2026, at 12:30 PM, Pepperdine will host its annual Veterans Day Luncheon at the Brock House on the Malibu campus. Hosted by the Office of the President and Pepperdine Student Veteran Affairs, the event will bring together faculty, staff, students, alumni, and guests to celebrate veterans within the Pepperdine community and beyond. This year’s distinguished guest and keynote speaker will be Pepperdine Graziadio Business School alumnus and United States Marine Corps veteran Joe Ramirez (MBA ’11), chair and CEO of the National Entertainment Awards Academy for Military and Veterans and CEO of VetStreamTV, a streaming platform created for veterans, active-duty military, families, and supporters.

“My dad was in the Air Force for more than 20 years, and I grew up around military bases,” says Ramirez. “When I was in college I knew I needed something that provided a real income. My dad told me not to join the Marines, so of course, I joined the Marines.”

Ramirez served in the Marine Corps as a military police officer from 1986 to 1993, spending his last three years as a traffic and homicide investigator. Although his military service concluded more than three decades ago, his dedication to making a difference continued beyond his time in uniform.

After graduating from the Graziadio School with a master of business administration degree in 2011, Ramirez was later chosen to be commander of the American Legion Post 283, located in the Pacific Palisades. The American Legion is an organization founded by an Act of Congress after World War I dedicated to the welfare of veterans and active-duty personnel. When the Palisades Fire devastated the surrounding community in 2025, under Ramirez’s leadership, Post 283 coordinated relief efforts for residents affected by the fire.

“Joe and his team at the post did what veterans often do: they made a difference,” says Eric Leshinsky, retired Air Force colonel and director of Student Veteran Affairs at Pepperdine. “From initially partnering with first-response agencies, to opening up the Post to serve as the community’s long-term recovery and disaster relief distribution center, Joe and the Post made it happen.” 

Under Ramirez’s leadership, Post 283 established a disaster distribution center, providing essentials like clothing and toiletries to families who had lost their homes. The post also helped families furnish their temporary apartments with necessities and established the Long-Term Recovery Group, which helps manage aid for affected families, including building free homes for those who had lost so much.

Beyond his service to Post 283, Ramirez transformed a small venture to create Christian films into VetStreamTV, a streaming platform committed to reshaping narratives about the American veteran since 2017. 

“There is a narrative that I think all veterans have become very frustrated with: that all veterans are broken,” says Ramirez. “The respect and appreciation for the American veteran has changed since I was a Marine. We wanted to change that.”

As a longtime CEO, Ramirez is helping reshape the narrative around the American Veteran the way he knows best—by using his business acumen to connect veterans’ talents with market demand. 

“There are about 130 million people in the veteran community in the United States now, some of them are great filmmakers who can't get the recognition they deserve through the traditional film industry” says Ramirez. “To that I say, ‘We are the market.’” 

Ramirez has grown VetstreamTV to host more than 165 standalone videos, short films, interviews, and battlefield updates. He highlights the award-winning film Hollywood Grit as a showcase of artistic talent. Ramirez also pioneered the National Entertainment Awards Academy for Military and Veterans, which hosts an annual national military and veteran film festival and an annual MV Awards Gala.

For Ramirez, what started out as a way to create Christian content ended up glorifying God in an entirely different way.

“When they were issuing awards at our first gala at the Beverly Wilshire, I looked around at a packed room of about 600 people celebrating one another,” shares Ramirez. “My wife and I just stared at each other, wondering, “Wow, how did this happen?” It was just too magnificent and surreal to be just us … it had to be God.”

To learn more about the Veterans Day Luncheon and to register, visit the Veterans Day Luncheon website.