Meet Scott McLean: A Veteran, A Storyteller, A Believer in This Work

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How the founder of One Man One Mic Foundation came to lead the board at Hands for Healing Equine — and why his story matters for the veterans we serve

When Scott McLean talks about veterans and healing, he's not speculating. He's reporting from inside it.

Scott is a 10-year U.S. Air Force veteran, the founder and CEO of One Man One Mic Foundation — a nonprofit that helps veterans process their experiences through podcasting and storytelling — and the founder of the Honor In Ashes Project, which retires unserviceable American flags alongside cremated veterans on their final journey. He hosts the VetsConnection Podcast. He is, by any measure, deeply embedded in the work of veteran wellness.

He's also the new president of our board.

How a podcaster ended up at the barn

Scott and our founder, Suzanne MacPhail, have known each other for nearly 50 years. They grew up together in Winthrop, Massachusetts. Life pulled them in different directions and eventually pulled them back.

When they reconnected in adulthood, Suzanne — already an LMHC and equine-assisted learning practitioner — kept telling Scott about the work she was doing with horses and donkeys. She thought it might help with what he was carrying. He had founded One Man One Mic Foundation by then, having discovered that podcasting and storytelling were powerful tools in his own journey with PTSD. He knew what worked for him. He wasn't sure horses would.

"That's good for you horse people," is roughly how he put it.

Suzanne kept gently suggesting it. He kept gently passing.

Until two trusted sources pointed at the same trail

The thing that finally moved him wasn't a friend. It was his VA psychologist — a clinician with no knowledge of Suzanne, no connection to the New England equine world — who, independently, recommended equine work.

"I was like, 'Goddamn,'" he said on the VetsConnection Podcast. "This thing is all around me."

That's the moment that matters in Scott's story — and the moment that matters for any veteran reading this. He didn't capitulate. He paid attention. When two trusted sources, working from completely different angles, pointed him toward the same intervention, he chose to follow the trail rather than dismiss it.

He went. And what he found there is part of the reason he's now leading our board.

Why peer leadership matters in this kind of work

We could explain why ground-based equine work helps veterans for the next twenty blog posts. None of it would carry the weight of a veteran saying, in his own words, that he was wrong to dismiss it.

Scott's role at Hands for Healing Equine isn't ceremonial. He brings real experience to the table — as a veteran who has navigated PTSD, as a nonprofit founder who has built veteran-serving programs from the ground up, and as a storyteller who knows how to bridge the gap between veteran communities and the resources that can help them.

His insight has shaped how we're building our future veterans program. He's helping us think about what veterans actually want from a healing program (a real task, real responsibility, real skill-building — not just feelings work), how to talk to veterans about it without losing them in the first sentence, and how to build the kind of cohort experience that sticks.

To hear Scott's story in his own words, listen to his recent conversation on the VetsConnection Podcast with Founder and Executive Director, Suzanne MacPhail.

🎙️ Listen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzgRAb8MSVA