PTSD: National Center for PTSD

Sonya Norman, PhD, Director
Sonya Norman, Director of the PTSD Consultation Program and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, is a clinical psychologist and a researcher in the treatment of PTSD and addictions, applications of Prolonged Exposure therapy, implementation of evidence based treatments for PTSD, novel treatments to address the kinds of problems recently deployed Veterans report, and mental health effects of trauma-related guilt and shame. She is based at the VA San Diego Healthcare System where she previously directed the PTSD treatment program for Veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and served as a consultant for the VA Prolonged Exposure therapy rollout. She served as a member of the VA/DoD PTSD Clinical Practice Guideline workgroup in 2017 and 2022. Dr. Norman has over 170 publications related to PTSD and associated problems. She received her PhD from Stanford University.

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Colleen Becket-Davenport, PsyD
Colleen Becket-Davenport is a clinical psychologist with the National Center for PTSD, Dissemination and Training Division where she is an Implementation Facilitator and the Communication and Training Lead for the Tech into Care program. As part of her role, Dr. Becket-Davenport delivers trainings on VA mental health apps and works with health care teams to incorporate apps into care. She is trained in Prolonged Exposure therapy and Cognitive Processing Therapy and has worked with Veterans from all branches and service eras. Her clinical and research interests include mobile health, military culture, Interpersonal Therapy, and evidence-based treatments for PTSD. She received her PsyD from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at VA New York Harbor Healthcare System, and her postdoctoral fellowship at Weill Cornell's Program for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Studies.

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Ryan Britch, MPA, Program Coordinator
Ryan Britch, Consultation Program Coordinator and Consultant, serves as the initial point of contact for all requests for consultation and assists in answering provider questions about resources. In addition to this role, he works with the team that develops and implements educational and marketing materials for the National Center for PTSD. Prior to joining VA, Ryan worked at The American Legion and for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, where he designed surveys and specialized on Veterans' health policy issues. Ryan served as an Infantryman for 8 years in the Vermont Army National Guard and deployed to Paktia, Afghanistan in 2010. After leaving the military, he joined the Peace Corps and spent over 2 years in the Kingdom of Swaziland working on agricultural, youth, and HIV-AIDS prevention programs. Ryan is a graduate of the University of Vermont and the American University.

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Lisa-Ann Cuccurullo, PsyD
Lisa-Ann Cuccurullo is a clinical psychologist whose current work is focused on facilitating the use of empirically supported treatments by clinicians treating veterans in rural areas. Her clinical work has focused on cognitive behavioral treatments for PTSD and other post-trauma related symptoms. She is trained in Cognitive Processing Therapy and is a consultant in the VA's national rollout of Prolonged Exposure. Prior to her position at the National Center for PTSD, she was the Military Sexual Trauma Coordinator and Assistant Director of Psychology Clinical Training at the Southeast Louisiana Veteran's Health Care System, and a clinical instructor at Tulane University School of Medicine. Dr. Cuccurullo's current research interests focus on implementation of empirically supported treatments and posttraumatic symptom presentation. Dr. Cuccurullo received her doctorate in clinical psychology from La Salle University and completed her clinical internship and a PTSD focused fellowship at the Southeast Louisiana Veteran's Health Care System.

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Brittany Davis, PhD
Brittany Davis is a clinical psychologist in the PTSD Clinical Team at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at the University of South Florida. Her clinical and research interests include best practices for treatment of PTSD and addictions, and novel treatments to address trauma-related guilt, shame, and moral injury. Dr. Davis specializes in Prolonged Exposure (PE) and Concurrent Treatment of PTSD and Substance Use Disorders using Prolonged Exposure (COPE); she is also trained in Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Motivational Enhancement Therapy/Motivational Interviewing (MET/MI), and Present Centered Therapy (PCT). Dr. Davis has served as an investigator, consultant, and treatment adherence and fidelity rater for clinical trials involving PE, COPE, PCT, and a trauma-related guilt intervention. She has worked across a variety of treatment settings. Within the VA, she has worked in both outpatient and residential; and prior to her time in the VA, she worked for a Department of Defense contracted residential facility providing trauma-focused care to active-duty Service members and first responders. Dr. Davis is personally invested in providing high quality care for those that have experienced trauma; and she is interested in helping clinicians provide evidence-based treatment while navigating the nuances and complexities of treating PTSD and co-occurring conditions. Dr. Davis received her PhD from Alliant International University in San Diego, CA. She completed her predoctoral internship and a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship in PTSD and comorbid substance use disorders at VA San Diego.

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Brittany N. Hall-Clark, PhD
Brittany N. Hall-Clark is a Texas-licensed clinical psychologist in private practice and an Associate Professor within the Division of Behavioral Medicine and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Her clinical specialties include trauma, nightmares, insomnia, sleep and anxiety. She has been certified as a Master Prolonged Exposure clinician and has extensive experience in working with active-duty service members and Veterans. She has also been trained in CBT for Insomnia and Nightmares as well as Cognitive Behavioral Conjoint Therapy (CBCT) for PTSD. Dr. Hall-Clark's professional interests include cultural stressors and strengths, the influence of cultural identity, and delivery of culturally-responsive treatment. For 8 years, she worked at the Ft. Hood (now Ft. Cavazos) site of STRONG STAR as a cognitive-behavioral research therapist for several randomized clinical trials focused on PTSD and related conditions in active-duty military personnel and Veterans. Currently, she serves as a consultant with the STRONG STAR Training Initiative. She obtained her PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Hall-Clark completed a 2-year fellowship with STRONG STAR, a multidisciplinary PTSD research consortium.

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Jessica Hamblen, PhD
Jessica L. Hamblen, a clinical psychologist and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, is Deputy Director for Education at the National Center for PTSD. In this capacity she oversees the Center's educational efforts to promote the implementation of evidence-based care for Veterans and trauma survivors through provider training and support and increase awareness of PTSD and engagement in treatment. Dr. Hamblen's interests are in developing, disseminating and evaluating cognitive behavioral treatments for PTSD and related conditions. She is a funded investigator who has conducted several randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating these interventions. Currently she has an RCT focused on the evaluation of an online PTSD program to increase engagement and retention in PTSD treatment. She attended the State University of New York at Buffalo where she obtained her PhD in clinical psychology. She completed her pre-doctoral internship and post-doctoral fellowship at Dartmouth and the National Center for PTSD.

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Mark Hamner, MD
Mark Hamner is a staff psychiatrist in the PTSD Clinical Team at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Health Care System in Charleston, SC and a Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina. He has worked with Veterans throughout his career and continues to maintain a busy clinical practice in the VA PTSD program. His clinical and research interests include pharmacology, combined medication and evidence-based psychotherapy for PTSD, and assessment and treatment of PTSD co-morbidities. He has collaborated on projects investigating other therapeutic approaches in PTSD including mindfulness-based stress reduction. Dr. Hamner also has collaborated on research in the genetics of PTSD. He has lectured and published extensively in these areas and thoroughly enjoys discussing treatment ideas for PTSD with colleagues. He obtained his MD degree from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill where he also completed his residency training.

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Paul Holtzheimer, MD
Paul Holtzheimer is the Deputy Director for Research at the National Center for PTSD, Executive Division. He is a Professor of Psychiatry and Surgery at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, and a staff psychiatrist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and the White River Junction VA Medical Center. Dr. Holtzheimer's clinical and research interests include developing better interventions for PTSD and related disorders, especially for patients with treatment-resistant and comorbid illness. He has expertise in brain imaging and brain stimulation therapies (including transcranial magnetic stimulation, electroconvulsive therapy, vagus nerve stimulation, and deep brain stimulation). A primary aim of his research program is to better understand the neural circuitry of treatment-resistant PTSD, mood and anxiety disorders, and to use this information to develop and advance novel treatment approaches, with a particular emphasis on focal brain stimulation therapies. Dr. Holtzheimer obtained his MD at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and an MS in clinical research from Emory University.

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Sadie Larsen, PhD
Sadie Larsen is a clinical psychologist on the Education Team at the National Center for PTSD and an Associate Professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Larsen specializes in Prolonged Exposure (PE) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and is interested in helping clinicians provide evidence-based treatment while navigating the nuances of particular cases and the administrative and other challenges that come with systems change. Dr. Larsen has served as the Local Evidence Based Psychotherapy Coordinator and founder/lead of the Evidence Based Psychotherapy clinic at the Milwaukee VA. She supervised practicum students, interns and postdoctoral fellows in PTSD, general outpatient therapy, and addressing military sexual trauma. Her primary research interests involve better understanding variation in response to evidence-based treatments for PTSD, cognitive and emotional processes that maintain or alleviate PTSD symptoms, and the unique experiences of Veterans and of men and women who experience interpersonal and sexual trauma. Dr. Larsen received her PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She completed her predoctoral internship at University of Wisconsin and her postdoctoral fellowship in PTSD treatment at VA Boston.

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Kelly Phipps Maieritsch, PhD
Kelly Phipps Maieritsch is a clinical psychologist and Director of the PTSD Mentoring Program, which supports PTSD specialty programs throughout VA. She specializes in questions related to assessment and treatment of PTSD, Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), and outpatient PTSD program management and PTSD-related metrics. She is a national CPT trainer and consultant, has served as a regional mentor in the VA PTSD Mentoring Program, and was Program Manager for the PTSD outpatient specialty program at the Hines VA in Chicago, Illinois (2008-2018). Dr. Maieritsch previously worked in a VA facility in Missouri where she served as Military Sexual Trauma Lead and site coordinator, as well as PTSD outpatient program manager. She has served as therapist, investigator, and adherence and competence rater for several clinical research trials involving CPT. She appreciates the nuances in balancing adherence with clinical flexibility and wants to offer guidance to providers that supports their unique talents while working within these treatment protocols. Her research interests include psychotherapy outcomes, assessment, clinical video technologies and evidence-based psychotherapies, and program evaluation. Dr. Maieritsch received her PhD from Central Michigan University and completed a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Missouri St. Louis, in the Center for Trauma Recovery.

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Elissa McCarthy, PhD
Elissa McCarthy is a clinical psychologist who specializes in the assessment and treatment of PTSD and insomnia. She is a psychotherapist in the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, where she previously worked as a member of the PTSD Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program treatment team and was the New England regional leader of the VA local evidence-based psychotherapy coordinators. She is a national lead for VA's Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia national rollout. Dr. McCarthy's current research interests are focused on studying the effectiveness and implementation of evidence-based psychotherapies for PTSD and insomnia. Dr. McCarthy received her PhD from the University of Connecticut and completed a VA postdoctoral fellowship at the VISN 1 Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Centers (MIRECC) site.

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Todd McKee, MDiv, Program Manager
Todd McKee, manager of the PTSD Consultation Program, serves as a consultant on questions related to educational and clinical resources. In addition to overseeing the day-to-day operations of the program, he answers questions and helps providers find tools, information, courses, patient education materials and other available resources on the National Center for PTSD's website. Mr. McKee worked for many years as a case manager and administrator in a community mental health center and has experience working as a chaplain in health care and correctional facility settings. He understands many of the challenges that providers face in a busy and sometimes stressful work environment and is eager to help clinicians get the information and support they need in an efficient and timely manner. He received his MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary.

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Macgregor Montaño, PharmD, BCPP, Clinical Pharmacy Specialist
Macgregor Montaño is a clinical pharmacist at the National Center for PTSD. In addition to providing consultation on questions related to pharmacologic treatment of PTSD, she has developed nationally-recognized PTSD educational materials and made hundreds of outreach visits across VA providing clinical education and training to promote evidence-based care for Veterans with PTSD. Before joining the Center, she worked in VA Primary Care and Geriatrics clinics in Michigan and Vermont. She is board certified in psychiatric pharmacy and completed the VA Geriatric Scholar Program, a workforce development program to improve care of older adults. Her interests include the development of new pharmacologic treatments for PTSD, reducing polypharmacy and improving medication safety. She understands first-hand the demands on front-line health care providers and wants to help providers sort through the pharmacopeia and patient factors to make wise prescribing choices. She received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Michigan.

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Marianne Silva, LCSW
Marianne Silva is a clinical social worker in private practice in Connecticut and New York who has extensive experience delivering Prolonged Exposure (PE), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) in both residential and outpatient settings. Ms. Silva is certified in EMDR and is an approved consultant through the EMDR International Association (EMDRIA). She served many years in VA Connecticut's PTSD Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program and had a senior role in the outpatient PTSD program, where she was involved in the education, supervision and delivery of evidence-based psychotherapies for PTSD. Ms. Silva is an avid believer in shared decision-making and educating Veterans and families on treatments that are founded in research and clinical expertise. Ms. Silva received her MSW from Columbia University.

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Jennifer Wachen, PhD
Jennifer Wachen is a Clinical Research Psychologist in the Women's Health Sciences Division of the National Center for PTSD at VA Boston and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine. She is a trainer and consultant in Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and serves as a clinician and supervisor within the Women's Trauma Recovery Team at VA Boston. Her research interests include the evaluation of treatment interventions for PTSD and comorbid conditions, factors contributing to treatment engagement and retention, and the relationship between trauma and physical health and psychosocial functioning outcomes. She is particularly interested in improving treatment outcomes for active-duty military and Veterans. Dr. Wachen's Department of Defense-funded research focuses on optimizing CPT in military populations. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at VA Boston.

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Patricia Watson, PhD
Patricia Watson is a clinical psychologist on the Education Team at the National Center for PTSD. Prior to joining the National Center for PTSD in 1998, Dr. Watson was an active-duty Navy psychologist for 8 years, working with adults for 4 years, and children and families for 4 years. Dr. Watson has specialized in disaster response work since 1999. As part of those efforts, she is a co-author of the Psychological First Aid (PFA) Field Guide and the Skills for Psychological Recovery (SPR) Manual, designed to intervene in the immediate and intermediate phases after disasters and terrorism. She has co-edited 3 books on disaster behavioral health interventions, as well as numerous articles, guidance documents, courses and chapters on disaster mental health. She has also specialized in combat and operational stress, military culture, early intervention and resilience. She is a co-author of the Combat Operational Stress First Aid (COSFA) peer support intervention, and Stress First Aid for Firefighters and Emergency Services Personnel and Curbside Manner (a public-facing version of Stress First Aid), as well as creating versions of Stress First Aid for law enforcement professionals, forest firefighters, nurses and rail workers. She is a co-author of toolkits and courses related to burnout and secondary traumatic stress, provider resilience, disaster mental health, police, chaplains, assessment of PTSD, military culture, anger management and sleep management courses. Her education includes a doctoral degree in clinical psychology from Catholic University, and a postgraduate fellowship in pediatric psychology at Harvard Medical School.

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