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Community Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide: The Role of Social Determinants: Proceedings of a Virtual Symposium (2022)

Chapter: Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Planning Committee Members and Presenters

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Planning Committee Members and Presenters." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Community Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide: The Role of Social Determinants: Proceedings of a Virtual Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26638.
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Appendix B

Biographical Sketches of Planning Committee Members and Presenters

PLANNING COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Timothy J. Strauman (Chair), Ph.D., is a professor and former chair of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University and also professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences in the Duke University School of Medicine. His research interests focus on the psychological and neurobiological processes of self-regulation, conceptualized in terms of a cognitive/motivational perspective, as well as on the relation between self-regulation and affect and how such processes might contribute to psychopathology. His lab’s clinically focused research includes the development and validation of a new self-regulation-based therapy for depression, self-system therapy, and the use of neuroimaging techniques to examine the mechanisms of action of treatments for depression. He is a former president of the Academy of Psychological Clinical Science, a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, a current member of the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences, and a founding fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. He has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from New York University.

Lisa A. Brenner, Ph.D., is a board-certified rehabilitation psychologist, a professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R), Psychiatry, and Neurology at the University of Colorado, as well as Anschutz Medical Campus, and the Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs Rocky Mountain Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC). She is also Vice Chair of Research for the Department of

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Planning Committee Members and Presenters." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Community Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide: The Role of Social Determinants: Proceedings of a Virtual Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26638.
×

PM&R. Brenner is the Past President of Division 22 (Rehabilitation Psychology) of the American Psychological Association (APA) and an APA Fellow. She serves as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation. Her primary area of research interest is traumatic brain injury, co-morbid psychiatric disorders, and negative psychiatric outcomes including suicide. Brenner has numerous peer-reviewed publications, participates on national advisory boards, and has recently co-authored a book titled: Suicide Prevention After Neurodisability: An Evidence-Informed Approach.

Mitzi Fields, M.S.N., is a Colonel in the U.S. Army and is currently serving as the deputy commanding officer/deputy commander for nursing at Fort Bliss in Texas.

Debra Houry, M.D., M.P.H., is the acting principal deputy director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Since 2014, Houry served as director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) at CDC. In this role, she led innovative research and science-based programs to prevent injuries and violence and to reduce their consequences. While at NCIPC, she oversaw the development of comprehensive suicide prevention program at CDC. Houry previously served as vice chair and associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and as associate professor at the Rollins School of Public Health. Houry has participated on numerous public health boards and committees. She has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, and has received numerous awards throughout her career including the APHA Jay Drotman award. Houry received her M.D. and M.P.H. degrees from Tulane University and completed her residency training in emergency medicine at Denver Health Medical Center.

Evelyn L. Lewis, M.D., M.A., F.A.A.F.P., retired from the Navy after 25 years of service and currently serves as president and chairman Veterans Health and Wellness Foundation. She is nationally recognized for her expertise in the areas of Veteran health and health care issues; cultural competency; health and health care disparities and was recently selected to serve as a Senior Scientist/Investigator for the American Academy Family Physicians’ National Research Network. Lewis earned her M.D. from the University of the Health Sciences, the Chicago Medical School and completed a residency in family medicine at Naval Hospital Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL.

Rajeev Ramchand, Ph.D., is co-director of the RAND Epstein Family Veterans Policy Research Institute and a senior behavioral scientist at the

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Planning Committee Members and Presenters." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Community Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide: The Role of Social Determinants: Proceedings of a Virtual Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26638.
×

RAND Corporation. He studies the prevalence, prevention, and treatment of mental health and substance use disorders in adolescents, service members and veterans, and minority populations. He has conducted many studies on suicide and suicide prevention including environmental scans of suicide prevention programs, epidemiologic studies on risk factors for suicide, qualitative research with suicide loss survivors, and evaluations of suicide prevention programs. He has also developed freely available tools to help organizations to evaluate their own suicide prevention programs. He has testified on suicide prevention before the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, and California State Senate. Other current areas of research include military and veteran caregivers; the role of firearm availability, storage, and policies on suicide; the impact of disasters on community health; and using public health approaches to study and prevent hate and violent extremism.

SYMPOSIUM SPEAKERS

John R. Blosnich, Ph.D., M.P.H., is an assistant professor at the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work at the University of Southern California where his research focuses on health equity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals, with a specific emphasis on social determinants of health and suicide risk. He has worked for 10 years with the VA, first with the Veterans Integrated Service Networks Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention and then with the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, where he pioneered research about LGBT veterans. Blosnich has garnered several research awards from both the VA and the National Institutes of Health. Most recently, Blosnich was a 2021 recipient of an National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator Award, which supports his efforts to explore how to expand suicide prevention into nonclinical sectors in which adverse social factors and acute life crises can be targeted for upstream prevention.

Charles Branas, Ph.D., is a professor who directs the Department of Epidemiology and a CDC Research Center at Columbia University. His research extends from urban and rural areas in the United States to communities across the globe, incorporating place-based interventions and human geography. He has led science that generates new knowledge while simultaneously creating positive, real-world changes and health-enhancing resources with local communities. He has worked in multiple Schools of Public Health, Engineering, and Medicine, and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Eric Elbogen, Ph.D., is a research investigator at the National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans and is professor in the Department of Psy-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Planning Committee Members and Presenters." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Community Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide: The Role of Social Determinants: Proceedings of a Virtual Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26638.
×

chiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Duke University School of Medicine. He ran a money management group at the Durham VA for more than a decade and has been Principal Investigator of a randomized clinical trial of a recovery-oriented money management intervention for Veterans and of a nationally representative longitudinal survey of Veterans identifying a link between financial strain and suicidal ideation. Elbogen and colleagues also demonstrated a link between financial strain and suicide risk in the U.S. general population and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Irma Elo, Ph.D., earned her Ph.D. in Demography and Public Affairs from Princeton University. She is the chair of the Sociology Department and a research associate at the Population Studies Center and the Population Aging Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania. She has served as a member and/or a chair of several national and international committees, including chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Center for Health Statistics, member of the Census Bureau’s Scientific Advisory Committee, member and chair of the section on the sociology of population for the American Sociological Association, member of the Population Association of America’s (PAA) board of directors, chair of the PAA’s Committee on Population Statistics, and a member of an International Advisory Board of the Swedish Initiative for Research on Microdata in the Social and Medical Sciences. Her main research interests center on socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in health, cognition, and mortality across the life course and demographic estimation of mortality. In recent years, she has extended this focus to include health and mortality among racial/ethnic immigrant subgroups. She is currently the principal investigator of National Institute on Aging-funded study, Causes of Geographic Divergence in U.S. Mortality.

Pamela End of Horn is a licensed independent clinical social worker in North Dakota and Minnesota. She focuses on Mental Health, specifically Suicide Prevention. End of Horn has worked in Suicide Prevention since 2007 within the Department of Veterans Affairs and Indian Health Service, and her primary goal is to continue working within Suicide Prevention in the American Indian population.

Sandro Galea, M.D., M.P.H., Dr.P.H., is a physician, epidemiologist, and author, is dean and Robert A. Knox Professor at Boston University School of Public Health. He previously held academic and leadership positions at Columbia University, the University of Michigan, and the New York Academy of Medicine. He has published extensively in the peer-reviewed literature, and is a regular contributor to a range of public media, about the social causes of health, mental health, and the consequences of trauma.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Planning Committee Members and Presenters." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Community Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide: The Role of Social Determinants: Proceedings of a Virtual Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26638.
×

He has been listed as one of the most widely cited scholars in the social sciences. He is past chair of the board of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health and past president of the Society for Epidemiologic Research and of the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine. Galea has received several lifetime achievement awards. Galea holds a medical degree from the University of Toronto, graduate degrees from Harvard University and Columbia University, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Glasgow.

Claire A. Hoffmire, Ph.D., serves as a principal investigator and co-lead for the ASPIRE Lab at the Department of Veterans Affairs Rocky Mountain Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC) for Veteran Suicide Prevention and Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Hoffmire is an Epidemiologist and has worked in the field of Veteran suicide prevention since 2012; her research aims to inform evidence-based suicide prevention programs for all Veterans, within and outside the VA. Hoffmire is committed to conducting research which can be leveraged to improve upstream, public-health oriented suicide prevention programs for historically underrepresented and underserved Veterans, such as women Veterans and Veterans not engaged in VA health care.

Debra Houry – see Committee Biographies

Sean Joe, Ph.D., is a nationally recognized scholar on suicidal behavior among Black Americans, particularly regarding the role of firearms as a risk factor, and is expanding the evidence base for effective practice with Black boys and young men. His research focuses on Black adolescents’ mental health service use patterns, and father-focus family-based interventions to prevent urban Black American adolescent males from engaging in multiple forms of self-destructive behaviors. Joe is the president of the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR), whose members represent more than 200 universities and institutions, 45 states in the United States as well as from 15 countries. SSWR advances, disseminates, and translates research that addresses issues of social work practice and policy and promotes a diverse, just, and equitable society. Joe is a Fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, the Society for Social Work and Research, and New York Academy of Medicine. He serves on the Steering Committee of the national Suicide Prevention Resource Center, Standards, Training and Practices Committee of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and the Scientific Advisory Board of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

As founding director of the Race and Opportunity Lab, which exam-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Planning Committee Members and Presenters." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Community Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide: The Role of Social Determinants: Proceedings of a Virtual Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26638.
×

ines race, opportunity, and social mobility with an emphasis on informing policies, interventions, and intra-professional practice to lessen ethnic inequality in adolescents’ healthy transition to adulthood. The lab leading community science project is HomeGrown STL, which is a multi-systemic placed-based capacity building intervention to enhance upward mobility opportunities and health of Black males ages 12-29 years in the St. Louis region. His epistemological work focuses on the concept of race in medical and social sciences.

Nathaniel Mohatt, Ph.D., is a community psychologist and leader of community-based suicide prevention programs within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He is Principal Investigator and Program Lead of the VA’s Together with Veterans Rural Suicide Prevention Program and serves as a consultant for Community-Based Suicide Prevention to the VA’s National Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention. Mohatt holds appointments as an Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and as a Research Psychologist with the VA Rocky Mountain Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center. In his research, he employs community based participatory research and health equity frameworks to develop and implement effective and culturally responsive prevention programs and health care services for rural and indigenous populations.

Holly Raffle, Ph.D., professor of Leadership and Public Affairs, leads the Partnership for Community-Based Prevention (P4CBP) at Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs. As an engaged faculty, she is responsible for leading a portfolio of work centered on community-based behavioral health, focusing on promotion and prevention efforts. Since 2009, the P4CBP has generated nearly $20 million in external funding from partner organizations such as the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OhioMHAS), the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and 22 other sponsors. During that timeframe, the P4CBP has collaborated to provide intensive leadership development, training, technical assistance, implementation support, workforce development, and evaluation services to 84 Ohio communities as they address critical needs and issues related to mental health and substance use disorder. In 2021, OhioMHAS officially named the Voinovich School as the home of the Ohio Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health Prevention and Promotion; Raffle is honored to serve as the founding Faculty Director. Raffle was the recipient of the 2013 Firefly Award from the Fairfield County Family, Adult, and Children First Council recognizing her commitment to community-level prevention. Raffle was the recipient of the 2014 OhioMHAS Prevention Champion

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Planning Committee Members and Presenters." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Community Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide: The Role of Social Determinants: Proceedings of a Virtual Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26638.
×

Award, recognizing her efforts to support state agencies, Behavioral Health Boards, and prevention providers rethink or redesign their prevention systems through the Strategic Prevention Framework. Additionally, she is a Master Certified Health Education Specialist an active member of the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) as well as the Ohio SOPHE, where she served a three-year term on the Board of Directors.

Joseph Simonetti, M.D., M.P.H., earned his M.D. from The Ohio State University in 2008 and trained in Internal Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. He then completed an NRSA health services research fellowship, worked as a senior research fellow at the Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center at the University of Washington and the VA’s Patient Aligned Care Team National Demonstration Lab, and earned his M.P.H. from the University of Washington School of Public Health. Currently, he is a physician practicing within the VA Eastern Colorado Healthcare System, whose research focuses on reducing the burden of intentional and unintentional firearm injuries nationally. Within VA, his focus is on creating infrastructure for stakeholder engagement in firearm-related research and developing Veteran-centered approaches to facilitating lethal means safety as a suicide prevention strategy.

Jack Tsai, Ph.D., serves as campus dean and professor of public health at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. He previously served on faculty at Yale School of Medicine where he directed the Division of Mental Health Services. He has received federally funded grants and published more than 200 peer-reviewed studies on homelessness, severe mental illness, trauma, and health disparities. He has held elected leadership positions in the American Psychological Association and the American Public Health Association, and also serves as Editor-in-Chief for Mental Health Research and the Journal of Social Distress and Homelessness.

Kimberly Van Orden, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC). She directs the HOPE Lab (Helping Older People Engage), which studies programs to promote social connection and healthy aging and prevent suicide in later life. She co-directs the Rochester Roybal Center for Social Ties and Aging, which is focused on promoting social vitality for dementia family caregivers. She co-directs the Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide at URMC, as well as a research fellowship in suicide prevention. She mentors students and fellows and maintains a clinical practice providing evidence-based psychotherapy to older adults.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Planning Committee Members and Presenters." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Community Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide: The Role of Social Determinants: Proceedings of a Virtual Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26638.
×

Nicola Winkel, M.P.A., is project director, Arizona Coalition for Military Families. She specializes in program development and implementation, bringing a mix of planning, project management, communication, team coordination and problem solving skills that drive execution of complex projects and build sustainability. Winkel has worked for more than 20 years in the nonprofit community, including a lead development and implementation role in the creation and growth of the Arizona Coalition for Military Families, a nationally-recognized public/private partnership focused on building Arizona’s capacity to care for and support all service members, veterans, their families and communities. She has also had a principal role in the development and implementation of Arizona’s Be Connected program, which focuses on upstream prevention to positively impact social determinants of health and decrease the risk of suicide. In addition to her work with the Coalition, Ms. Winkel has provided consulting services for state and national initiatives, including the Be Resilient Program with the Arizona National Guard; Continuing education programming with the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education Mental Health Program; Project management of a Department of Defense study on mental health education within the National Guard, including adaptation of the Mental Health First Aid curriculum for use with the military and veteran population; and assisting with development and implementation of the White House PREVENTS Initiative focused on veteran suicide. She has briefed at numerous local, national and international conferences. Winkel holds a M.P.A. from the University of Illinois and a Systems Thinking Certificate from Cornell University. She was awarded the Adjutant General Medal by Major General Hugo E. Salazar for her efforts in implementing the Coalition and strengthening support for Arizona’s military, veteran and family population and recognized as one of the 48 Most Intriguing Women of Arizona as part of the state centennial.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Planning Committee Members and Presenters." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Community Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide: The Role of Social Determinants: Proceedings of a Virtual Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26638.
×
Page 83
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Planning Committee Members and Presenters." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Community Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide: The Role of Social Determinants: Proceedings of a Virtual Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26638.
×
Page 84
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Planning Committee Members and Presenters." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Community Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide: The Role of Social Determinants: Proceedings of a Virtual Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26638.
×
Page 85
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Planning Committee Members and Presenters." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Community Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide: The Role of Social Determinants: Proceedings of a Virtual Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26638.
×
Page 86
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Planning Committee Members and Presenters." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Community Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide: The Role of Social Determinants: Proceedings of a Virtual Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26638.
×
Page 87
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Planning Committee Members and Presenters." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Community Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide: The Role of Social Determinants: Proceedings of a Virtual Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26638.
×
Page 88
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Planning Committee Members and Presenters." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Community Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide: The Role of Social Determinants: Proceedings of a Virtual Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26638.
×
Page 89
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Planning Committee Members and Presenters." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Community Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide: The Role of Social Determinants: Proceedings of a Virtual Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26638.
×
Page 90
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On March 28 and 29, 2022, the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a virtual symposium entitled Community Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide: The Role of Social Determinants to gain a better understanding of social determinants influencing the recent increase in suicide risk and how currently available practice guidelines can inform community-level preventive interventions, particularly those targeting veteran populations. Presenters and participants explored the relevant social, cultural, and economic factors driving changes in suicide risk among veterans and ways that current best practices for suicide prevention and treatment can be applied at the community level. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussion of the symposium.

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