Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care (CIVIC)

Khaya D. Clark, PhD is a Research Investigator at the National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research and Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology at the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU). In her role as a rehabilitative researcher, Dr. Clark uses implementation science, human factors frameworks, quality improvement models, and qualitative, mixed-methods approaches to understand processes that support, or impede, the implementation of evidence-based practices in VA and Department of Defense rehabilitative settings. Dr. Clark's areas of research include the use of Veterans' health narratives on chronic health conditions to inform research, system improvement, and clinical services related to the provision of tinnitus management, and the implementation of ototoxicity management guidelines (with Dr. Konrad-Martin) in VA and non-VA settings.

Laura Coco, AuD, PhD is the Director of the Community-Engaged Research for Communication Access (CERCA) Lab and an Assistant Professor in the School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at San Diego State University. Dr. Coco received her Doctor of Audiology (AuD) from the University of Texas and her PhD from the University of Arizona. She completed postdoctoral training at Oregon Health & Science University and at the Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care. Dr. Coco’s research focuses on the development and evaluation of hearing healthcare models and interventions to improve communication outcomes for individuals with hearing loss. Her work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research, the VA Rural Health Resource Center, and multiple community and foundation partners. Dr. Coco specializes in Community-Based Participatory Research, establishing academic-community partnerships to design and implement health interventions. Her current projects include identifying hearing healthcare needs, developing service delivery strategies, and creating preventive interventions for populations at increased risk of hearing loss. Dr. Coco teaches graduate and undergraduate students, contributing to clinical and research training in audiology and communication sciences.

Brooke Jespersen, PhD, MA is an Affiliate Investigator at CIVIC and faculty at the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health. Dr. Jespersen’s research focuses on supporting Veterans to age in environments congruent with their preferences and needs by adapting, testing, and implementing Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) interventions. She is currently completing a two-year VA Office of Rural Health Career Development Award examining implementation of Age-Friendly Health Systems in rural Community Living Centers (i.e., VA nursing homes). Dr. Jespersen also contributes to projects on home- and community-based LTSS, housing insecurity, and rural health. Trained as a medical anthropologist, she employs qualitative, ethnographic, and mixed methodologies to elicit Veterans’ perspectives and situate research findings within their broader context. Dr. Jespersen completed a Health Systems Research Advanced Fellowship at CIVIC (2023-2026) and holds a PhD in Anthropology from Case Western Reserve University.

Dr. Ingrid Lindquist is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Arthritis and Rheumatic Diseases at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), a Staff Rheumatologist at the VA Portland Health Care System, and an affiliate investigator at the Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care (CIVIC). She earned her BA in molecular biology from the University of Pennsylvania and worked in genomics at the National Center for Genome Resources before completing her medical degree at the University of New Mexico. She then moved to Portland for her Internal Medicine residency and Rheumatology fellowship at OHSU, including a T32 postdoctoral fellowship in the Pulmonology and Rheumatology divisions studying the inflammatory lung disease sarcoidosis. In her research at VA Portland, Dr. Lindquist investigates rheumatic conditions including giant cell arteritis (GCA) and sarcoidosis using data driven computational genomics analyses to improve diagnosis and treatment. She also co leads the development of a combined Rheumatology–Ophthalmology fast track clinical workflow for individuals with suspected GCA at VA Portland. She is honored to continue growing her work at the VA while providing high quality rheumatology care to Veterans.

Dr. Abby Mulcahy is an Investigator at the Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care at the VA Portland Healthcare System and an Assistant Professor of Public Health at Pacific University. Dr. Mulcahy trained in political science, public health, health policy, and health services research. Dr. Mulcahy concurrently completed the VA Advanced Fellowship in Health Services Research and the AcademyHealth Delivery System Science Fellowship at the Portland VA, 2021-2024. Dr. Mulcahy’s research focuses on Veterans with disabilities, including measures of disability and experiences of specific disabling health conditions (Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) in Veteran populations. Dr. Mulcahy also focuses on access to and experiences of receiving care for LGBTQ+ Veterans, particularly primary care and affirming care experiences for transgender and gender diverse Veterans. Additionally, Dr. Mulcahy’s research centers around places where identities overlap, including overlaps between aspects of rurality, race, sexuality, gender, and disability, and access to care.

Dr. Mulcahy often collaborates with the VA Office of LGBTQ+ Health and VA Office of Rural Health. Outside of VA, Dr. Mulcahy is a member of the Disability and Wellness Research Collaborative at Oklahoma State University and is a consultant on the National Survey on Health and Disability within the Institute of Health and Disability Policy Studies at the University of Kansas. Dr. Mulcahy teaches and advises undergraduate public health students at Pacific University and mentors graduate students at various institutions, including the OHSU/PSU School of Public Health.

Reid F. Thompson, MD, PHD, is an Associate Director of the VA National Radiation Oncology Program, and an Associate Professor of Radiation Medicine and Biomedical Engineering at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). Dr. Thompson serves on the VINCI Field Advisory Committee and represents the VA on the White House Cancer Moonshot Task Force for Data and Innovation. Dr. Thompson has been conducting VA research since 2016 and is a VA CSR&D Career Development Awardee (2019-2024). He clinically specializes in treating skin cancers with radiation, and his research interests are in precision oncology, with special emphases on cancer immunotherapies and radiation treatments and outcomes.

Vanessa C. Somohano, MA, PhD, is a CIVIC Affiliate Junior Investigator and Affiliate Professor at Pacific University, School of Graduate Psychology. Her primary research interests involve understanding mechanism maintaining comorbid PTSD and substance use disorder (PTSD-SUD), and ways to adapt and improve interventions for this comorbidity within marginalized populations. She completed her Ph.D. at Pacific University in 2020 and was the recipient of an R36 dissertation award through the National Institute on Drug Abuse, through which she conducted a pilot randomized-controlled trial of a trauma-integrated adaptation of mindfulness based relapse prevention for women with PTSD-SUD. After completing her pre-doctoral internship at the Southern Oregon VA, she accepted a postdoctoral position in the VA’s NW Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Centers (NW MIRECC) program. During her fellowship, she was awarded a VA HSR SWIFT award to analyze VA electronic health record data on rates and predictors of evidence-based psychotherapy utilization for PTSD among those with comorbid SUD. Her current research aims to identify gender differences in risk factors for worsening PTSD, substance use, and suicide outcomes in Veterans over time; understand women-relevant mechanisms underlying interventions for PTSD-SUD, and investigate trauma-informed and culturally-relevant adaptions to mindfulness-based interventions for substance use disorders.

Donald Sullivan, MD, MA, MCR is an Associate Professor and Associate Fellowship Program Director in the Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Oregon Health and Science University. He received his M.D. from the University of Arizona, and completed residency at the University of Maryland and fellowship at OHSU. His primary research focus is on improving the quality of palliative and end-of-life care among patients with serious illness. Dr. Sullivan is also interested in enhancing comprehensive cancer care among persons diagnosed with lung cancer. Specifically, he is interested in improving patients' and families' outcomes and experiences through advances in the delivery of care as well as patient participation in treatment decision making. He has methodological expertise in mixed-methods, qualitative, and population-based database research. Dr. Sullivan is or has been funded by the National Institutes of Health- National Cancer Institute and National Institute on Aging, American Thoracic Society, American Lung Association, the American Cancer Society, Borchard Foundation, Knight Cancer Institute, Medical Research Foundation, and UPENN Roybal Center. Dr. Sullivan also enjoys providing clinical research mentorship to medical students, residents, fellows, and post-doctoral candidates at OHSU and CIVIC. Dr. Sullivan teaches pulmonary medicine at the OHSU School of Medicine and within the Department of Medicine at OHSU. Clinically, he provides pulmonary and critical care medical services at OHSU.

Belle Zaccari, PsyD is an Affiliate Investigator at the VA Portland Health Care System (VAPORHCS), Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care (CIVIC), a staff psychologist in the Rural TeleMental Health Clinic of the VAPORHCS, and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). Dr. Zaccari completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the VA’s Northwest Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Centers program before securing a Learning Health Systems K12 award. Primarily, her yoga-focused research seeks to improve care for Veterans with PTSD that is complicated by chronic pain, rurality, or experiences like military sexual trauma. She also leverages evidence-based psychotherapies and yoga in novel ways for Veterans. Dr. Zaccari is the PI on an Office of Rural Health funded grant that explores the acceptability and viability of asynchronous web-delivered yoga for rural Veterans with chronic pain.