Meet The Team

Kristi E. Pruiksma, PhD, DBSM, is an Associate Professor and Licensed Clinical Psychologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. She works with the STRONG STAR Consortium and specializes in behavioral sleep medicine, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for nightmares and for insomnia, and Cognitive Processing Therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Joanne L. Davis, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychology at The University of Tulsa, Director of Clinical Training, Director of the Trauma Research: Assessment, Prevention, and Treatment Center, and Co-Director of The University of Tulsa Institute of Trauma, Adversity, and Injustice. Dr. Davis’ research focuses on the treatment of nightmares and sleep problems in trauma-exposed individuals as well as on prevention efforts regarding the prevalence and impact of interpersonal trauma. She is the developer of a cognitive behavioral treatment targeting nightmares and sleep problems, Exposure, Relaxation, and Rescripting Therapy, and has conducted research to evaluate its efficacy for the past 20 years.

Jessee R. Dietch, PhD, DBSM is an assistant professor of psychology at Oregon State University where she directs the Sleep Health Assessment, Intervention, and Dissemination (SHAID) lab. Her research focuses on development and dissemination of behavioral sleep health interventions.

Brooke A. Fina, LCSW, BCD, is an Associate Professor at UTHSCSA and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She is the Director of Training for the STRONG STAR Training Initiative, a national program dedicated to providing access to quality, evidence-based treatment to veteran-serving clinicians and organizations. She is a clinician, trainer, and facilitates implementation of treatment programs for PTSD. She has expertise in the implementation of and training in CBTi and CBTn.

Alan Peterson, PhD., is a board-certified clinical health psychologist and a Full Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He has significant clinical and research experience in the area of sleep disorders in active duty military personnel. http://www.strongstar.org

Daniel J. Taylor, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology and Director of Clinical Training at the University of Arizona, and a licensed psychologist board certified in both Sleep Medicine and Behavioral Sleep Medicine. He is an expert in cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTI) and the primary investigator of the grant that funded CBTIweb.org.

Hannah Tyler, PhD, APBB, is a licensed psychologist and Assistant Professor with the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Dr. Tyler works with the South Texas Research Organizational Network Guiding Studies on Trauma and Resiliency (STRONG STAR) out of their Fort Cavazos location where she serves as Chief of Psychology, using her expertise to provide training and mentoring while promoting inclusive, safe, and supportive research environments. Dr. Tyler is Board Certified in Behavioral and Cognitive Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology. She serves as a consultant in Cognitive Processing Therapy and is an expert trainer Crisis Response Planning for Suicide Prevention and Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Insomnia and Nightmare.

Sophie Wardle-Pinkston, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist at the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System. Her research focuses on the dissemination and implementation of evidence based behavioral sleep medicine therapies.

Allison K. Wilkerson, PhD., is a licensed clinical psychologist and Associate Professor in the Sleep and Anxiety Treatment and Research Program (SATRP) within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). Her research focuses primarily on evidence-based assessment and treatment for insomnia and other sleep disorders in children and adults with comorbid diagnoses, including substance use disorders and PTSD.

Stacey Young-McCaughan, RN, PhD is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and the Director of Research for the STRONG STAR Consortium. She is a former Army Nurse Corps officer and has conducted studies of sleep in service members. In addition, she has successfully navigated more than 60 research studies through multiple regulatory approvals from DoD, VA, and academic intuitions to conduct the STRONG STAR research.

Courtney Bolstad, PhD, is a licensed psychologist and is currently completing a geropsychology postdoctoral fellowship at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System in San Antonio, TX. Dr. Bolstad completed her doctoral internship at the Birmingham VA, which included successful completion of their accredited behavioral sleep medicine training program. Dr. Bolstad has several peer-reviewed publications on sleep, nightmares, and aging. In addition to her sleep expertise, Dr. Bolstad has achieved provider status in Cognitive Processing Therapy through the VA rollout and uses other trauma-focused interventions in her clinical work.

Rebecca L. Campbell, PhD is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Arizona. Her research focuses on sleep disorders and trauma. She also has interests in the relation between sleep disorders and emotion regulation.

Deanne Hargita is the Manager, Research Compliance at the South Texas Research Organizational Network Guiding Studies on Trauma and Resilience (STRONG STAR) Research Consortium, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. She is a Certified Clinical Research Professional awarded by the Society of Clinical Research Associates (SoCRA). She has significant research regulatory experience and provides regulatory management services to STRONG STAR, supervising and coordinating regulatory efforts to ensure that the research protocols and regulatory documents are in compliance with federal regulations and institutional policies regarding the use of human subjects in research.

William Price is a Research Area Specialist (Associate) for the STRONG STAR research consortium at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Will contributed to the development of this web-based provider training for the behavioral treatment of nightmares. He helped document team decisions, track task progress, enroll alpha and beta testing participants, build a REDCap database, collect provider feedback, and interview website users. Will plans to continue his education in the fall at The University of Tulsa Clinical Psychology graduate program.

Ethan Olson is a Marine Corp Veteran and a Research Area Specialist in Fort Cavazos for the STRONG STAR research consortium at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Ethan provided support in development and management of the REDCap database and helped facilitate Mock therapy sessions of website users. Ethan plans to attend graduate school for Clinical Psychology in the future.

Dr. Balliett is a staff psychologist with the VA Puget Sound Healthcare System. She adapted the ERRT manual for use with military and veteran populations and conducted an open trial of ERRT in a population. She also has expertise employing ERRT in military and veteran populations in group and individual formats and also experiencing combining ERRT and CBTi and implementing nightmare treatment in populations with historical brain injury.

William Brim, Psy.D. is the executive director of the DoD Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP) and an Associate Professor of Medical and Clinical Psychology at the Uniformed Services University. He is a fellowship trained expert in behavioral sleep medicine and lead CBT/BBT-I and Nightmares trainer at CDP providing training, consultation and supervision in behavioral sleep medicine.

Dr. Friedlander is a clinical psychologist whose previous service in the U.S. Army includes a combat tour in Iraq. He currently lives in Washington, D.C. and specializes in evidenced-based psychotherapies for post-traumatic stress disorder, insomnia, and posttraumatic nightmares.

Dr. Gehrman is an Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania and a clinical psychologist at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center. He has served as the lead subject matter expert and trainer for CBTi in the VA healthcare system and has extensive expertise in training providers in sleep-focused treatments.

Dr. Harb served as a principal investigator of DoD-funded randomized controlled trials of sleep interventions for veterans with PTSD and nightmares. She has studied group Imagery Rehearsal therapy, developed a manual combining individual Imagery Rehearsal and CBT-I, and trained and supervised therapists in the delivery of these treatments.

Dr. Miller is a staff psychologist and diplomate in behavioral sleep medicine within the Clinician Investigators Team at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Minnesota. She is the PI of a VA Career Development Award employing ambulatory sleep measurement and CBTN in trauma-exposed veterans.

Dr. Nadorff is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Mississippi State University. He has served as the Director of Clinical Training for the clinical psychology PhD program since 2014. Dr. Nadorff's research examines topics related to suicidal behavior and prevention, behavioral sleep medicine (particularly insomnia and nightmare treatment), and geropsychology.

Dr. Ross is Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He treated Veterans with PTSD at the Crescenz VA Medical Center in Philadelphia for nearly 35 years. His research focused on identifying the pathophysiology of the sleep and nightmare disturbance in PTSD. He has served as PI on two RCTs of CBTn, specifically IRT, in Vietnam and OEF/OIF war combat Veterans with PTSD and recurrent nightmares.

Stefanie T. LoSavio, PhD, ABPP is a licensed and board-certified psychologist who serves as Director of Research & Innovation for the STRONG STAR Training Initiative and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UT Health San Antonio Dr. LoSavio is an expert in evidence-based treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including cognitive processing therapy (CPT), prolonged exposure (PE), and written exposure therapy (WET). She is a CPT and WET trainer and regularly provides consultation for research trials and training initiatives. In her research, Dr. LoSavio studies the effectiveness of interventions and adaptations to treatments and training methods to increase the reach of evidence-based care.