Joseph Kohm III - Saratoga Fellow, 2014
Joseph Kohm III, a 2014 alumnus of JJI’s Saratoga Fellowship for young military leaders, is helping shape policy on some of today’s most consequential cultural issues and driving change from within influential institutions.
Kohm came to the John Jay Institute following his undergraduate education at the Virginia Military Institute. While he greatly valued the rigorous military education he received at VMI, he felt that it was missing a vital link by which to connect his military leadership with his Christian faith. He found that link in community with other junior military officers at the Saratoga Fellowship.
“To see my service and the weight of my responsibility as an officer through God’s eyes, and being equipped with principles from church tradition like Just War Theory to guide my military decision making, was a priceless gift that only the John Jay Institute could have given me.”
After Saratoga, Kohm earned his J.D. at the Regent University School of Law. During that time, he became a student activist committed to turning his pro-life beliefs into real-world results. To that end, he led Regent University’s once-dormant Students for Life of America (SFLA) chapter and set it up to flourish long after his graduation.
Then came four years of active-duty military service, as befitting a son of VMI. Kohm served in the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division as an officer of the First Brigade Combat Team. Upon concluding his time in the military, he turned to a different kind of public service, utilizing his knowledge of law as Director and then Vice President of Policy at the Family Policy Alliance. In this role, he masterminded FPA’s policy strategy and worked with elected representatives around the country to advocate for laws affecting FPA's pro-family issue portfolio.
He wrote the model law protecting children from sex-rejecting procedures that would be upheld by the Supreme Court in U.S. v. Skrmetti. He led FPA’s Save Girls Sports campaign ensuring women’s rights and opportunities in athletics are reserved for biological women – upheld by the Supreme Court in Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J. He spearheaded the coalition work on laws protecting children from exposure to online pornography by establishing age verification requirements to access such content – once again endorsed by the Supreme Court in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton.
Kohm recently departed the Family Policy Alliance, but the meat of his work hasn’t changed. In his new role as Senior Policy Director at Do No Harm, he aims to support the organization’s objective of improving healthcare for all Americans by removing identity politics from medicine. To achieve this, he is drawing up policies to remove ideologically-driven discriminations based on gender theory and DEI from medicine and medical education.
“America's founding documents are a promissory note with a vision of a meritocracy; DEI and gender ideology place identity over merit, making life worse for all Americans,” Kohm explains. “DNH seeks a return to the founding vision.”
When he came to the John Jay Institute, Kohm recalled, he still had much to learn about himself and the kind of person he wanted to become. His experience alongside the other Saratoga Fellows proved formative, teaching him the value of humility and the importance of listening to and learning from others. He remains grateful for the patience and generosity of his classmates, whose example helped shape his own.
This early experience in the Saratoga Fellowship helped guide Kohm as he launched into his career. “What I've been able to accomplish in my professional life was only possible by linking arms with coalitions of Christians spanning the denominational spectrum. Together, we looked real evil in the eye and stood against it in the public square—and won, repeatedly.”
“The John Jay Institute taught me to hold fast to my theological convictions while not allowing them to prevent me from standing shoulder to shoulder with my fellow believers to push the boundaries of Christ’s Kingdom and defend that which matters most to Him.”
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