Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care (CIVIC)
Affiliate Investigators
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.
Catherine Hwang, MD, is a general internist and health services researcher at the VA Portland Health Care System and Oregon Health and Science University. She completed her public health training at Johns Hopkins, served as an Epi Scholar at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, and worked in the Division of Epidemiology at the US Food and Drug Administration. She subsequently completed medical school at the University of Washington, residency at Virginia Mason Medical Center, and fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Catherine is passionate about connecting with her patients in personable and meaningful ways. Her scholarly interests include improving access, affordability, and adherence to prescription medicines.
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.
Chris Stauffer, MD is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Oregon Health & Science University, Physician-Scientist with the VA Portland Health Care System, and dual board-certified in Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine. Dr. Stauffer is the Director of the Social Neuroscience & Psychotherapy Lab, which aims to maximize the benefits of psychotherapy through the adjunct use of social psychopharmacology, such as oxytocin, MDMA, and psilocybin. Current studies include psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for Veterans with methamphetamine use disorder and MDMA-assisted group therapy for Veterans with PTSD. Dr. Stauffer serves as Supervisor and Educator of MDMA-Assisted Therapy and is a member of the Oregon Governor's Psilocybin Advisory Board.
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.
You can contact Donald Sullivan by email at Donald.Sullivan3@va.gov or at sullivad@ohsu.edu.
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). Her research interests include: telehealth modalities, chronic pain, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), women Veterans, and complementary and integrative health (CIH). Dr. Zaccari is the PI on a Learning Health Systems K12 targeting CIH approaches for pain and PTSD in rural Veterans. She completed her PsyD at Adler University, Chicago in 2014 and completed a two-year advanced research postdoctoral fellowship at the VISN 20 Pacific Northwest Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC) in Portland, OR in 2016.
