I graduated from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine in 1988. Located on the grounds of then-Naval Hospital Bethesda, now Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the school was commonly called USUHS or “the military medical school.” I served in the Air Force for 30 years after medical school, and have been in private practice since 2011.

After an internship and five years of primary care and flight medicine, I entered residency training in psychiatry at the combined University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio - Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center program. I served as chief resident during my final year of residency training.

In 2001 I earned a Master of Public Health degree at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts. The focus on Family and Community Health dovetailed with my responsibility to promote force health protection and build healthy military communities. From 2001 to 2003 I trained in occupational and aerospace medicine at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

I served my final eleven years of military service at USUHS where I was director of a research institute. Also, as Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, I taught medical students and testified as a forensic psychiatry expert at military trials. I started my own private practice in 2011.

I’m a Consultant in Psychiatry to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Federal Air Surgeon. I’m also a consultant to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, called upon as needed to assess staff whose mental health condition may affect fitness for duty. I’ve lectured over fifty times on psychological response to disasters, with an emphasis on how people, both in the disaster and responding to it, can help.