Linda Schwartz

Linda Spoonster Schwartz (born 1944) is an American nurse and veteran advocate. A Vietnam War veteran with the Air Force, she is the former Assistant Secretary for Policy and Planning at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Early life and education

Schwartz was born in 1944 and grew up in Ohio; her father served aboard the USS Susan B. Anthony in World War II. She graduated as a nurse from the St. Thomas Hospital School of Nursing in Ohio and later earned her master's degree from the Yale School of Nursing and a Doctor of Public Health from the Yale School of Medicine. Her doctoral thesis studied the high rate of "cancer and other diseases" faced by women who fought in wars. During her military career, Schwartz earned a Bachelor of Science degree in both psychology and sociology from the University of Maryland. Initially assigned to Tachikawa Air Base in Japan, she served in the Vietnam War, including treating causalities from the Battle of Hamburger Hill. After the war, Schwartz attended flight school and became a Captain and was stationed in Europe before returning to Connecticut. In 1983, she was flying a training mission at 30,000 feet and was injured in a blast concussion when one of the plane's doors blew off. In 2013, President Obama nominated Schwartz to be Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Policy and Planning.

Schwartz has served on the boards of both the Vietnam Veterans of America and the Vietnam Women's Memorial. In 2018, Schwartz was selected as an Honoree by the National Women's History Project In 2025, Schwartz was honored as a Women's Veteran Trailblazer by the Center for Women Veterans