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James Maxwell

CEO

Cory Maxwell PNG.png

I began my career after high school in the airwing of the Marine Corps. I was an avionics technician on CH-46E helicopters. I deployed twice with my unit to Iraq. Besides general support, one of the missions we carried was Casevac. That mission resonated with me. I was a part of a team working to make a difference and keep people alive.

Growing up in South Florida, I was always in and around the water. I got certified to scuba dive when I got out of the Marine Corps in 2010 but work took me away from the ocean. I always had a fascination with pirates, treasure and the discovery culture that came along with it. Searching to find something long lost was always a voice in the back of my mind. After leaving Intel Corp in Phoenix, this fascination would ultimately lead me to founding DiveTherapy. After leaving Intel, my best friend, Jason (an Infantry Marine) and I decided we wanted to scuba dive for treasure back in South Florida, on the Treasure Coast (coincidentally). We found a school in Vero Beach named the Eastern Academy of Scuba Education that would make us instructors using our GI Bill benefits.

During all of the training and dives, we discovered how therapeutic scuba diving really was. Jason expressed to me how much it helped his PTSD and it really helped both of our physical ailments as well. Out of this discovery was the idea that if it would help us, why can’t this be used to help other Veterans who may be struggling with the same thing! The mission that I had all those years ago in the Marine Corps, finally had a new place to be utilized. After working for over a year in the scuba industry as a Dive Master and Instructor, I chose to return to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach to finish my Bachelor's degree. It was here that I met Chris Crawford and Dan McCabe. The inspiration they showed in wanting to help me grow DiveTherapy, as well as the passion I recognized in them to want to help end Veteran suicide convinced me there would be no better two to ask to grow this organization I have worked so hard to build and care so much about. 

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Since then, I have been working to build the DiveTherapy organization to be able to provide this service to as many Veterans as I can, in an attempt to ease their suffering and give them a tool to put in their arsenal against the struggles they face.

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