The staff of the Vets Return Home Research Group are dedicated to understanding the everyday human challenges and problems facing veterans returning home. They all believe that with the help of returning veterans, research can hold the key to a smoother and healthier transition home; not only for participating veterans but also for future veterans returning from conflict zones.
Karen Seal - Principal Investigator
Dr. Karen Seal is the Lead Investigator of the Vets Return Home Research Group, a staff physician at the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC) and an Associate Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Seal attended Stanford University School of Medicine where she received her medical degree, followed by a residency in Primary Care Internal Medicine at UCSF. Subsequently, she received a Masters of Public Health from UC Berkeley. Dr. Seal has been awarded several grants to investigate the prevalence and predictors of mental health problems in returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and to develop interventions to treat and overcome barriers to mental health care in combat veterans. Dr. Seal has helped establish and is now the Director of the Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) / Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) Integrated Care Clinic at the SFVAMC which provides one-stop primary care, mental health and social services to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
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Linda Abadjian, Ph.D. - Clinical Interviewer
Linda Abadjian received her BA in Government with an emphasis in International Economics from the University of San Francisco. She interned at the San Francisco District Attorneys in the Family Support Bureau before pursuing a career in psychology. She received her MS in Clinical Psychology at San Francisco State University while working within community mental health. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley and was an intern at the Burrell Center in Missouri. Linda began at the San Francisco VA in 2002 as a clinical assessor and has been working with the Vets Return Home research team since 2006. She also conducts psychological evaluations and neuropsychological assessments for multiple studies. Her research interests include veterans' mental health, trauma, alternative methods of psychotherapy, and investigating the impact of HIV, PTSD, and alcohol on neurocognitive functioning.
Daniel Bertenthal, MPH - Statistician
Dan Bertenthal received his B.A. in Sociology of Culture and B.S. in Microbiology from the University of California, San Diego. He continued at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, where he developed quantitative skills while completing an MPH in Epidemiology & Biostatistics. He has worked with health services researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center since 2001.
Coleen Hill, BA - Clinical Research Project Coordinator
Coleen Hill received her BA in Public Health and certificate in Clinical Research Conduct and Management from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to coming to the VA, she worked at a biotechnology company focusing on oncology. She is currently the Project Coordinator for the COACH and ACCESS studies.
Christopher Koenig, PhD - Assistant Professor
Christopher J. Koenig, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in General Internal Medicine at the San Francisco VA. Dr. Koenig specializes in qualitative and ethnographic research methods. While he specializes in using audio- and video- recordings to examine verbal and non-verbal communication patterns in health care settings, he also uses interviews, focus groups, and participant observation to study veteran’s and providers’ cultural knowledge and beliefs about receiving and providing health care. He has studied various aspects of health communication, including the provider-patient therapeutic alliance, multi-disciplinary collaboration and continuity of care, treatment recommendations in acute and chronic illnesses, patient-centeredness, and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Dr. Koenig has published in various journals including Social Science & Medicine, the Journal of General Internal Medicine, Health Communication, and Patient Education and Counseling. He works at both San Francisco and Palo Alto VA, and has successfully written VA and NIH funded grants, including the development and pilot of a TBI screening educational video (PI: Karen Seal, MD) and a national evaluation of the Hepatitis C SCAN-ECHO program (co-PIs: Catherine Rongey, Steve Asch)..
Please click here to download complete CV.
Amelia Lipscomb, B.A. - Project Recruiter
Amelia Lipscomb has a B.A. in English from the University of California, Riverside and is currently pursuing a post baccalaureate certificate from San Francisco State University in preparation for entering graduate school for Nursing. She volunteers at the VA by recruiting participants and assisting with research coordination for ongoing studies.
Nicole McCamish, M.A. - Project Coordinator and Clinical Interviewer
Nicole McCamish received her BA in Psychology from the Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. She received her MA in Psychology at West Chester University in Pennsylvania and completed an internship at Wyeth-Ayerst Pharmaceuticals, sparking her interest in the healthcare industry. She has gone on to pursue a Ph.D. from the California School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles and has completed her pre-doctoral clinical training at UCLA, Semel Institute and UCSF San Francisco General Hospital Ward 82 Psychosocial Medicine. Her past research interests have included comorbid illness, chronic pain and integrative healthcare.
Jose Monroy - Project Recruiter
Jose Monroy is an Air Force veteran and is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in Psychology from San Francisco State University. He volunteers and works as a research assistant at the VA, recruiting participants, as well as assisting in qualitative data analysis for ongoing studies. He is a National Institute of Mental Health COR Fellow and is projected to graduate in May of 2014. Mr. Monroy intends on attending graduate school and study media psychology.
Leonore Okwara, M.P.H. - Program Manager
Leonore Okwara received her BA in Sociology from Fort Hays State University. She received her MPH in Epidemiology from the Public Health program at Eastern Virginia Medical School. She completed a practicum with the Navy Environmental Health Center at the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth in Virginia. The practicum project focused on the impact of war on the mental health of service members and their families. She has experience in coordinating research studies, developing and managing budgets, and grant writing. Her research interests include studies related to mental health, specifically, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Depression.
Gary Tarasovsky, B.S. - Data Manager
Gary Tarasovsky received his B.S. in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles. He has extensive experience performing data management, database design, and application development for several large scale studies.
The “Vets Return Home” study is approved by the University of California, San Francisco and the San Francisco VA Medical Center Committees on Human Research and is sponsored by grants from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense.