Muskegon veteran uses national title to address women veterans’ homelessness

Muskegon resident, attorney and veterans advocate Zaneta Adams is Ms. Veteran America 2026. (Courtesy of Ms. Veteran America)

When a military injury left Zaneta Adams using a wheelchair and unsure of her future, other women veterans helped her see a path forward.

Their support inspired the Muskegon woman to help other women veterans connect. As Ms. Veteran America 2026, she aims to gain support for women veterans and their children who need housing.

“I continue to serve afterward because I feel like it’s a responsibility to make sure that our veterans and our women veterans have been taken care of,” Adams says.

Adams, an attorney and former state and federal veterans affairs leader, earned the title during the competition’s 15th anniversary celebration in Tampa, Florida. She was among 20 finalists and received a $15,000 prize.

The title gives her a national platform to support Final Salute Inc., an organization that addresses housing and financial needs among women veterans and their children. Among her first duties will be taking part in New York City’s Veterans Day parade Nov. 11, bringing her message of support for women veterans to a national audience.

For Adams, that work starts with helping women recognize their military service and find people and programs they can turn to.

“We’re often overlooked in service to this country,” she says.

Emphasis on housing

Final Salute helps women veterans find temporary housing or keep their homes by helping pay overdue rent and utility bills. It also offers work clothes and advice on professional appearance to help women prepare for jobs.

The services help women find housing, stay in their homes, and get jobs that pay enough to cover their bills.

“Some people are employed, but they’re underemployed,” Adams says.

Zaneta Adams is pictured during her military service, top left, and in later years, top right and bottom left. The Muskegon veteran and Ms. Veteran America 2026 advocates for women veterans and their children facing housing insecurity. (Photos courtesy of Zaneta Adams)

Army veteran Maj. Jas Boothe founded Final Salute in 2010 after seeing gaps in help for women veterans and their children.

Adams says housing programs must meet the needs of the whole family.

“There’s not enough opportunities for women to find housing and places where they feel safe for their children,” she says.

The Ms. Veteran America competition requires participants to help raise awareness and money for Final Salute. Her daughters, Ashley and Alayna, saw the competition online and encouraged her to enter.

Adams says the interview, advocacy, and military history components carry more weight than the talent portion. For her talent presentation, Adams lip-synced to Beyoncé’s Run the World (Girls) in the semifinals and Cynthia Erivo’s Stand Up in the finals.

“We’re often overlooked in service to this country, and so those songs meant something to me,” she says, adding that her performance of Stand Up honored the women who helped open doors for her in the military and her duty to help those who follow.

Performing also brought her back to an important part of her recovery. After her injury, singing at an event with Amy Grant and Vince Gill helped her rebuild confidence.

“I had this opportunity to sing, and I did it, and it brought me out of my shell,” she says.

Adams hopes to use her title and speaking events to gain donors and build partnerships with businesses, universities, and community groups that can help women veterans find housing.

Injury, then a difficult recovery

Adams joined the military in Florida in 1998 while attending the University of Central Florida.

Zaneta Adams with Amy Grant. (Courtesy of Zaneta Adams)

“I just wanted to do something bigger than myself,” she says.

Adams served in the Army National Guard and Army Reserve. In 2005, while preparing to deploy to Iraq, she fell from a military truck and badly injured her back. She needed two back surgeries and never made the deployment.

“I was told I may never walk again, and I was in a wheelchair for about two years,” Adams says.

She later used a walker and a cane. She still occasionally uses a cane.

During her recovery, Adams faced depression and suicidal thoughts. Retreats with other women veterans helped her feel less alone. Seeing women who had lost limbs play sports gave her hope.

“I saw them doing these amazing things,” she says. “That was part of the motivation.”

Singing at the event with Grant and Gill helped rebuild her confidence. Therapy also helped her heal.

“Therapy is a big thing as well,” Adams says. “And it took me a while to get there, but I’m there, and I’m not looking back.”

Other initiatives

The retreats helped Adams, but she wanted women to have opportunities to connect beyond occasional events. In 2014, she founded WINC: For All Women Veterans.

“I wanted to create an organization where there were more meetups, more retreats, more opportunities for women to connect and share stories across different branches of service,” she says.

She worked with Challenge America to launch the Military Sisterhood Initiative, an online group where women veterans share stories and resources. The group says it connects more than 5,000 women in the U.S. and abroad.

Adams stepped away from WINC in 2019 when she joined Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration as director of the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency. She became the first woman veteran to serve in Michigan’s Cabinet.

Zaneta Adams with her husband, Joseph, and their six children. ( Courtesy of Zaneta Adams)

In 2023, she joined the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as a deputy assistant secretary. After returning home, she served as a Muskegon County family court referee. She now works as director of partnerships for Veterans for All Voters, a nonpartisan organization focused on election reforms.

Adams says serving others has guided her work. She wants women veterans to know their service matters and that they still have much to offer.

Adams and her husband, Joseph, met in the military and raised six children, including two sets of twins, in Muskegon.

Her daughters, Ashley and Alayna, found the competition online and encouraged her to apply. Years earlier, Adams had taken part in mother-daughter pageants with Ashley to help build her daughter’s confidence. This time, her daughters were encouraging her.

“They actually saw this and said they thought I would be a good fit for it,” Adams says.

She plans to spend the next year sharing her story and building support for Final Salute. She hopes that work will help more women recognize their veteran status and bring more partners and resources to families who need help.

“My hope in this role as Ms. Veteran America is that I can bring more people to the mission, more funders to the mission, more partners to the mission, and more women veterans into their role of owning their veteran status,” she says.

“I can inspire other women to step out of their comfort zone or to step out of their shadows.”