People

Thomas Neylan, MD

Director of the Stress and Health Research Program

M_Psychiatry

Dr. Neylan is a Professor, In Residence in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. He is the Director of the Posttraumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) Clinic and the Stress and Health Research Program at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center. His research has focused on the role of sleep in emotion regulation, cognitive function, and metabolic health, in patients with PTSD and in aging populations with neurodegenerative disorders.

Carolyn Gibson, PhD

Principal Investigator

M_Psych-VAMC-Admin

Dr. Gibson is a psychologist and health services researcher based at the San Francisco VA. She is the Associate Director of the SFVA Center for Data to Discovery and Delivery Innovation (3DI), a VA Health Systems Research Center of Innovation (COIN), and Co-Director of the UCSF Women's Health Clinical Research Center.

Nicholas Holder

Nicholas Holder, PhD

Assistant Adjunct Professor

M_Psych-VAMC-Admin

Dr. Holder's research is focused on improving the quality and effectiveness of mental health treatment for Veterans with military-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Sabra Inslicht, PhD

Principal Investigator

M_Psychiatry

My research goals include: 1) identifying psychobiological causes and consequences of traumatic stress symptoms; 2) utilizing fear conditioning and extinction models to better understand PTSD; 3) characterizing sex differences in the biology of PTSD; 4) improving measurement techniques in the laboratory and the field such as with mobile health devices; and 5) conducting research that will inform novel interventions for ameliorating prolonged PTSD responses.

Shira Maguen, PhD

Principal Investigator

M_Psychiatry

Shira Maguen, Ph.D. is Mental Health Director of the Post-9/11 Integrated Care Clinic and Staff Psychologist on the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Clinical Team (PCT) at the San Francisco VA Health Care System (SFVAHCS), and Professor in the Dept. of Psychiatry, UCSF School of Medicine. Dr. Maguen was appointed to and is now serving on the Creating Options for Veterans' Expedited Recovery (COVER) Commission. She is also the San Francisco site lead for the VA Women’s Practice Based Research Network (PBRN) and Director of the SFVAHCS PTSD MIRECC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship.

Wolf Mehling, MD

Principal Investigator

M_FCM-FamMed-Core-Programs

Dr. Wolf Mehling specializes in family and community medicine as well as integrative medicine.

Mehling earned his medical degree and completed his residency at the University of Hamburg in Germany. He worked in private practice in Germany for 12 years before moving to the United States, where he completed a residency in family practice at Sutter Health. He then completed a clinical research fellowship in family medicine at UCSF.

Kristen Nishimi

Kristen Nishimi, PhD, MPH

Assistant Adjunct Professor

M_Psych-VAMC-Admin

Dr. Kristen Nishimi is a social and psychiatric epidemiologist, an Adjunct Assistant Professor at UCSF in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and a research health science specialist in Mental Health at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Care System. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of California Berkeley, followed by an MPH at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, a PhD in Population Health Sciences at Harvard University, and a post-doctoral fellowship at UCSF and the San Francisco VA Health Care System.

Aoife O'Donovan, PhD

Principal Investigator

M_Psych-Core-Rsch

People who experience traumatic or enduring psychological stress are more likely to develop psychiatric disorders as well as cardiovascular, autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders. Our research is focused on revealing how psychological stress drives the development of mental and physical disorders. Specifically, we aim to identify the psychological and biological factors that account for the adverse effects of psychological stress, and ultimately to drive the development of targeted interventions to reduce such negative effects of stress.

Anne Richards, MD, MPH

Principal Investigator

M_Psychiatry

Anne Richards, M.D., M.P.H., is a PTSD, sleep, and sex differences researcher in the Stress and Health Research Program at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. Dr. Richards also serves as an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of California, San Francisco and is a Staff Psychiatrist at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. Dr. Richards completed her undergraduate education at Harvard University and subsequently received her M.D. and M.P.H. from Columbia University. 

Irina Strigo, PhD

Principal Investigator

M_Psychiatry

Irina Strigo, Ph.D. is Professor-in-Residence in the Department of Psychiatry at UCSF and Research Biologist at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. She received her research training from Columbia University (Radiology), Barrow Neurological Institute (Neurosurgery) and UC San Diego (Psychiatry). She received her Ph.D. and B.Sc. in Physiology from McGill University, Montreal, Canada.