ROSIE TORRES
Co-Founder & Executive Director, Burn Pits 360 · CEO, Torres Consulting
Most people fight to change the system. Rosie Torres spent 23 years inside it — then fought to rebuild it from the outside.
A career civil servant at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Torres watched from within as the agency she served failed the man she loved. When her husband, Army Capt. Le Roy Torres, returned from Iraq in 2008 with a lung disease and a toxic brain injury, the system offered delay, denial, and silence. She offered him a promise and a plan.
In 2009, Rosie and Le Roy co-founded Burn Pits 360 from their kitchen table in Robstown, Texas. A year later, when the VA still refused to acknowledge burn pit exposure as service connected, Torres built what the federal government would not: the first independent burn pit registry, a public record that gave veterans and surviving families the evidence no one else would collect. That registry became the evidentiary foundation of a national movement.
In January 2013, Torres’ advocacy delivered its first major legislative milestone when President Barack Obama signed the Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry Act into law mandating the VA establish its own formal registry and directing the agency to begin systematic research into burn pit–related illness. It was the first official federal acknowledgment that the problem existed.
“She didn’t just work inside the system. She rewrote it.”
In July 2022, when the PACT Act stalled in the Senate, Torres led a six-day fire watch on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. On Aug. 10, 2022, she stood beside President Joe Biden as he signed the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our PACT Act into law, The largest expansion of VA health care and benefits in the Department Of Veteran Affairs history, now reaching more than 5 million veterans.
In Texas, her advocacy delivered HB 1315, the Le Roy and Rosie Torres Act, a state law bearing her name that establishes a dedicated Texas burn pit registry and funding stream for outreach, research, and mortality tracking.
Burn Pits 360’s megaphone, carried on the Capitol steps during Fire Watch, now lives in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino, accessioned as a gift of Captain Le Roy Torres and Rosie Torres. From a kitchen table in south Texas to the Smithsonian: their story is now preserved as a landmark chapter in American civil rights and veterans’ justice.
Today, as executive director and co-founder of Burn Pits 360 and CEO of Torres Consulting, Torres leads PACT Act implementation oversight, directs the nonprofit’s national and local programs, and advises government agencies, healthcare institutions, and corporate partners on toxic exposure policy, provider education, and veteran health reform.
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
· Presidential Medal of Freedom — Recommended (×2)
· Silver Patrick Henry Medal 2026
· Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino — Permanent Collection 2026
· The Hill Top Grassroots Lobbyist of the Year 2022 & 2023
· American Thoracic Society Presidential Commendation 2023
· Caller Times Newsmakers of the Year 2023
· LULAC Presidential Commendation Award 2024
· American GI Forum Community Advocates Award 2024
· Robstown ISD Education Foundation Excellence in Leadership Award 2024
· Quincy Institute — Award for Responsible Statecraft 2022
· Reserve Organization of America — Twice the Citizen Award 2022
· National Veterans Legal Services Program — Senator Daniel Inouye Award 2022
· The Bend HER Humanitarian Honoree 2022
· Congressional Briefings & Testimony on Toxic Exposure
· Namesake: Le Roy and Rosie Torres Act (Texas HB 1315)
LEGISLATIVE MILESTONES
· Airborne Hazards & Open Burn Pit Registry Act — signed by President Obama Jan. 2013
· SFC Heath Robinson Honoring Our PACT Act — signed by President Biden Aug. 2022
· Captain Le Roy & Rosie Torres Act (Texas) 2023
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
· Veterans’ health policy & toxic exposure advocacy
· VA systems, implementation & oversight
· Independent exposure registry design
· Legislative strategy & coalition-building
· Nonprofit executive leadership
· Survivor, family & community support · Provider education & clinical partnership
· Media strategy & public narrative
NATIONAL MEDIA COVERAGE
· The New York Times
· The Hollywood Reporter · NPR
· NBC News
· PBS NewsHour
· CNN
· CBS
· Bloomberg
· Washington Post
· Washington Post Live
· Apple TV+
· Politico
· Military Times
· Stars and Stripes
· The Hill
· KFF Health News
· Texas Tribune
· Spectrum News
· News nation
· Univision
· Caller Times
· San Antonio Express News
