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The Center

The Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress conducts research, education, consultation and training on preparing for and responding to the psychological effects and health consequences of traumatic events. These events include natural (hurricanes, floods and tsunami) and human made disasters (motor vehicle and plane crashes, war, terrorism and bioterrorism). The Center’s work spans studies of genetic vulnerability to stress, individual and community responses to terrorism, and policy recommendations to help our nation and its military and civilian populations.

As part of the Department of Psychiatry of our federal medical school, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), the Center was established in 1987 as a public private partnership of USUHS and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine.

The Center’s approach integrates science, clinical care, community needs and the health of the nation.  Its team is multi-disciplinary with expertise in disaster psychiatry, military medicine and psychiatry, social and organizational psychology, neuroscience, family violence, workplace preparedness and public education.

The Center’s Director, Robert J. Ursano, M.D., Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, is world-renown for his leadership and scholarship in disaster planning, preparedness, response and recovery. 

Center activities include conducting brain imaging studies on victims of motor vehicle crashes, researching the effects of 9/11 on Pentagon employees, developing military health fact sheets to improve the well-being of deployed soldiers and their families, writing books and articles that advance the science, treatment and management of trauma and consulting with Congress, public health and business leaders on mitigating traumatic stress.