National Biodefense Science Board (NBSB) Disaster Mental Health Subcommittee

Invited Experts Biographies

Elizabeth Boyd, Ph.D.

Elizabeth Boyd is an enrolled member of the Seneca Nation of Indians.  Since completing her Ph.D. in 1992, she has taught in the Clinical Psychology doctoral program at the University of South Dakota.  She is involved in a number of projects seeking to train culturally competent clinical psychologists and to develop culturally responsive mental health services for Native American communities.  As a faculty member in the University of South Dakota Disaster Mental Health Institute, she has responded to a number of local and national crisis and disaster situations.  Her work with tribes has focused on crisis response team development, effects of trauma, youth suicide and community building.  She is the immediate Past President of the Society for Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues of the American Psychological Association.

Lisa M. Brown, Ph.D.

Dr. Brown is the Assistant Clinical Director of Disaster Behavioral Health Services for the Florida Crisis Consortium of the Florida Department of Health and an Assistant Professor at the Florida Mental Health Institute and the University of South Florida, College of Medicine.  Dr. Brown has considerable research experience in developing and evaluating programs to protect, preserve, and restore individual and community mental health at all phases of a disaster.  Much of her work has focused on issues unique to special needs populations, most notably children and older adults, confronting hurricanes and other disasters.

Brian William Flynn, M.A., Ed.D.

Dr. Flynn serves as Associate Director, Center for Studies of Traumatic Stress, and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, MD.  Dr. Flynn focuses on the psychosocial consequences of large scale psychological trauma; emerging infectious disease; terrorism; and governmental and organizational preparedness, response, and recovery.  Dr. Flynn has worked with states to ensure disaster mental health preparedness and has provided technical assistance on disaster mental health for state and local entities.  Dr. Flynn is a former RADM/Assistant Surgeon General in the US Public Health Service.

Jack Herrmann, M.S.Ed., NCC, LMHC

Mr. Herrmann serves as the Senior Advisor for Public Health Preparedness of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.  He served as the New York State Disaster Mental Health Lead, coordinating the Family Assistance Center set up in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, and the Client Services Administrator, overseeing disaster mental health, physical health, and family assistance services for the Red Cross Disaster Relief Operation following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  Mr. Herrmann directed the development of a state-wide disaster mental health training program for the New York State Department of Health and the New York State Office of Mental Health.

Stevan E. Hobfoll, M.A., Ph.D.

Dr. Hobfoll is Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Rush Medical College.  His work includes disaster, terrorism, and war research, and he has authored publications spanning topics such as community resilience; social support; impact of terrorism, stress and self-efficacy; and his widely-praised conservation of resources theory.  He has additionally served as a consultant and contributor to a number of policy-making guidelines from organizations such as the World Health Organization, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the American Psychological Association.

Gerard A. Jacobs, Ph.D.

Dr. Jacobs is the Director of the Disaster Mental Health Institute, a South Dakota Board of Regents State Center for Excellence, and a Professor in the APA-approved doctoral Clinical Psychology Training Program at the University of South Dakota.  He has served as a member of the National Academies of Sciences Institute of Medicine Committee on Preparing for the Psychological Consequences of Terrorism.  The American Red Cross has asked Dr. Jacobs to establish disaster relief operations and he has been recruited by the American Psychological Association to provide guidance on disaster-related task forces and to help the association plan its response to the December 2004 Tsunami. 

Russell Thomas Jones, Ph.D.

Dr. Jones is a Professor of Psychology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and a clinical psychologist who specializes in clinical child psychology, community psychology, and issues related to disasters and terrorism.  He is a member of the Terrorism and Disaster Branch of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.  Dr. Jones was deployed as the team leader for a group of mental health consultants assigned to Gulf Port Mississippi following Hurricane Katrina.  He is a member of the Hurricane Katrina Community Advisory Group administered by the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. 

Ann E. Norwood, M.D.

Dr. Norwood is a Senior Associate at the Center for Biosecurity, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.  Dr. Norwood is a psychiatrist and she has great familiarity with military and veterans affairs health care systems, as well as practical policy experience from her four years of work experience in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.  She served as Chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s disaster committee for three years.  Dr. Norwood has publications and national reputation in the area of public health risk communication and has experience in fatality management planning and response. 

Betty Pfefferbaum, M.D., J.D.

Dr. Pfefferbaum is a general and child psychiatrist, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.  She is the Director of the Terrorism and Disaster Center of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.  Dr. Pfefferbaum has been working in disaster and terrorism mental health since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, when she served on the board of the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and assist in planning and organizing disaster mental health services for the community.    

Josef I.Ruzek, Ph.D.

Dr. Ruzek specializes in early intervention for trauma survivors and has been active in development and evaluation of early preventive interventions for disaster and terrorism survivors, returning Iraq War personnel, and patients seen in hospital trauma centers.  Dr. Ruzek’s current position is Acting Director of the Dissemination and Training Division of the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.  He is also co-director of an early intervention clinic serving Bay Area trauma survivors and co-chair of the Early Intervention special interest group of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. 

 David Schonfeld, M.D., FAAP

Dr. Schonfeld is a developmental-behavioral pediatrician and a nationally and internationally recognized expert on pediatric bereavement and the mental health needs of children during disasters, emergencies, and traumatic events.  Dr. Schonfeld is Director of the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement and Director of the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, as well as a member of the National Commission on Children and Disasters and American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) Disaster Preparedness Advisory Council. He is also a professor adjunct of pediatrics at the Yale University School of Medicine.  He was co-editor of the AAP’s and AHRQ’s Pediatric Disaster and Preparedness: A Resource for Pediatricians and has served on numerous boards, panels, and commissions, including the AAP’s Task Force on Terrorism, the National Children’s Study Federal Advisory Committee, and the Advisory Board to Families of September 11.

Robert J. Ursano, M.D.

Dr. Ursano is currently a Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.  He is also Director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress and he is Editor of Psychiatry, the distinguished journal of interpersonal and biological processes.  He has extensive experience in the Department of Defense, groundbreaking work and expertise in disaster psychiatry, dedicated advocacy for patients, and detailed knowledge of health care and health research.  Dr. Ursano was the first Chairman of the American Psychiatric Association’s Committee on Psychiatric Dimensions of Disaster.