VA Swaps Out VR&E Leadership — What Does Chantile Stovall Mean for Veterans?

The VA just made a big move. Nicholas Pamperin is out as Executive Director of VR&E Service. Chantile Stovall is in.

When I asked VA Public Affairs why, they had no comment. When the VA goes quiet, veterans should pay attention.

The VA quietly replaced Nicholas Pamperin as head of Veteran Readiness & Employment (VR&E) with Chantile Stovall, a longtime VA manager who came up through the ranks of VR&E — most recently at the Seattle Regional Office—an office known for fighting hard to deny retraining benefits.

Stovall made $177,000 last year, nearly double the average VA worker’s pay, while veterans still face delays and denials. Notably, the average wage of VA personnel is $105,765.

The switch comes just weeks after Rep. Derrick Van Orden blasted VR&E at a hearing for long wait times, runaway costs, and weak oversight. Pamperin wasn’t there, sparking rumors he was already pushed back to a field office. Now Stovall takes over a program in crisis—and veterans should be asking if she’ll fix it or protect the same broken system.

About VR&E

In 2024, VA reported VR&E spent $2.1 billion the year before to serve nearly 193,000 veterans. But only 12,319 veterans were actually rehabilitated. That number has barely moved in years, even as the program’s budget and staff balloon. Billions are going in, but veterans aren’t seeing the results.

VR&E is billed as the VA’s “premier” program for disabled vets who can’t work due to service-connected conditions. In reality, it’s more often a grind of red tape. Most veterans who succeed do so by pushing through long-term training like law school or medical school—fighting their counselors every step of the way.

For two decades, VA has watered the program down. The 2020 rebrand to “Veteran Readiness and Employment” pushed a new sales pitch—“employment first”—even though most money still goes to education. In 2016, VA cut corners by giving rehabilitation counselors—cheaper and less trained than counseling psychologists—the power to run key assessments. Now, Rep. Derrick Van Orden is floating the idea of letting people with only a bachelor’s degree take over counseling roles, arguing they would be cheaper and cannot do any worse than VR&E is doing now.

If that happens, VR&E stops being a true rehabilitation program. It becomes nothing more than a slightly upgraded GI Bill—with less support, less expertise, and fewer veterans ever getting across the finish line.

Who Is Chantile Stovall?

Stovall has worked in the VA since 2005. She started as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor (VRC) in Alaska and Denver, then moved up through management in D.C., Baltimore, and most recently Seattle—where veterans say the VR&E Division fights to defend denials even when they’re wrong.

Her pay shows steady promotions suggesting VA sees her as a high-performer:

• 2024 salary: $177,043 (up 5.7% from 2023; up ~48% since 2016).
• According to GovSalaries, VA had 479,954 employees in 2024, with an average wage of $105,765 and a median of $89,365—meaning Stovall earns ~67% more than the average and nearly double the median VA worker. GovSalaries+1

The Seattle Connection (Why This Matters)

Seattle’s VR&E Division is known for hard‑line denials and digging in on appeals. That culture doesn’t put veterans first—it protects the program and the budget. Stovall didn’t arrive from outside to reform it; she rose inside it as a career counselor and later a leader. That tells us she knows how to enforce denials—and may bring that same mindset to VR&E nationwide.

Congressional Heat: Van Orden Vs VR&E Leadership

About two months ago (July 16, 2025), Rep. Derrick Van Orden chaired a VR&E oversight hearing and went hard at VA’s VR&E leadership—calling out exploding waivers and eyebrow‑raising cost cases (one case approaching $895,000) while blasting long wait times. His own committee transcript release quotes those stats and his criticism. veterans.house.gov

Pamperin has been the face of VR&E in prior hearings (he testified on Dec. 11, 2024), but outside observers noted he wasn’t at the July hearing, which only raised more questions about who’s actually steering the ship. The current Acting Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Benefits (PDUSB) Margarita Devlin testified instead of Pamperin. House Document Repository+1thenimitzgroup.beehiiv.com

Bottom line from Congress: VR&E is at a crossroads; some rehabilitation plans are not properly managed, wait times for services stretch past 100 days in some offices; and leadership has to answer for it. Much of that pressure will now land on Stovall.

What About Pamperin?

Preliminary report: We’re hearing Pamperin may have been rotated back into a new Regional Office leadership role. He’s held RO leadership posts before. VA hasn’t confirmed the move. Until they do, treat it as a rumor—but a telling one. (We’ve requested comment; none given yet.)

The Questions We Need to Ask Stovall—Now

• Will you fix the wait times and counselor churn that kill cases?
• Will you overturn bad denials quickly—or double down like Seattle?
• Will you be transparent about why leadership changed?

Why Veterans Should Stay Loud

VR&E is supposed to help us retrain, get advanced education, and land real careers. Instead, too many vets are stuck with delays, denials, and dead‑end outcomes—while top VA managers collect six‑figure salaries.

This is our program—not theirs. If we don’t hold the new Acting Executive Director accountable to the reasonable expectations of veterans, nothing changes.