VISN 1 CDA Award Recipients
2024-2026
Kennedy, Katherine, PhD. VA Providence Healthcare System. Project Title:
“Understanding the Role of Nursing Assistant Training on Veteran and Staff Outcomes in VA Community Living Centers: Pilot to National Study”
O’Malley, Kelly, PhD. VA Boston Healthcare System. Project Title:
“Transforming Trauma-Informed Care in VA Community Living Centers"
Van Patten, Ryan, PhD. VA Providence Healthcare System. Project Title:
“Telehealth-based evaluations of cognitive functioning and mental health in a national sample of Veterans with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures: A feasibility study"
Webermann, Aliya, PhD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title:
“Clinical impacts of the military sexual trauma disability claims process"
2023-2025
Manning, Edward, MD, PhD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title: “Aging of the Human Pulmonary Artery: From Gene Expression to Tissue Remodeling"
Peltier, MacKenzie, PhD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title: “Proof of Concept: Brexanolone to target stress-induced alcohol use among male and female Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)”
Tobochnik, Steven, MD. VA Boston Healthcare System. Project Title: “Effect of glioma genetic variation and local neuronal activity on peritumoral epileptogenicity"
Wesolowicz, Danielle, PhD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title: “Development of an adaptive text message intervention to enhance use of pain self-management strategies”
2022-2024
Aunon, Frances, PhD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title: "Pre-piloting a motivational interviewing-based intervention for lethal means safety in primary care"
DiSano, Krista, PhD. White River Junction Healthcare System. Project Title: "Neuroinflammation and neuropsychiatric consequences of brain injury: Determining the role of central nervous system barrier integrity in mediating outcomes"
Gaffey, Allison, PhD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title: "Sleep, multi-morbidity, and healthcare utilization: A coordinated approach to improve sleep health outcomes for Veterans"
Hartman, Rebecca, MD, PhD. VA Boston Healthcare System. Project Title: "Risk Prediction of Aggressive Melanoma in Veterans"
Sung, Minhee, MD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title: "Factors that impact long-term buprenorphine retention among Veterans with opioid use disorder: A mixed-methods study"
2021-2023
Ankawi, Brett, PhD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title: "Tailoring Pain Treatment to Activity Patterns"
Erqou, Sebhat, MD, PhD. Providence VA Medical Center. Project Title: “Improving quality of cardiovascular care in Veterans living with human immunodeficiency virus infection”
Levis, Maxwell, PhD. White River Junction VA Medical Center. Project Title: "Leveraging Natural Language Processing to Evaluate Suicide Risk in Electronic Medical Record Notes"
Martin, Ashley, PhD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title: "Understanding the impact of acute and chronic cannabinoid exposure in Veterans using simultaneous magnetoencephalography and electroencephalography"
Noller, Crystal, PhD. White River Junction VA Medical Center. Project Title: "Neuromodulation to Alter Acute Inflammation and Neuropsychiatric Deficits Following Traumatic Brain Injury"
Warren, Allison, PhD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title: "Examining patient and provider challenges of sex-based clinical reminders among transgender Veterans"
2020-2022
Connolly, Samantha, PhD. VA Boston Healthcare System. Project Title: "Examining Implementation of VA Video Connect within Mental Health Clinics"
Cherry, Jonathan, PhD. VA Boston Healthcare System. Project Title: “Investigating the full spectrum of neuroinflammatorygenetic phenotypes present in Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy”
Girgenti, Matthew, PhD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title: "Single-cell molecular mechanisms of PTSD and suicide"
Kroll-Desrosiers, Aimee, PhD. VA Central Western Massachusetts. Project Title: "Depression Care Pathways among Perinatal Veterans Receiving Veterans Health Administration Care"
McClendon-Iacovino, Juliette, PhD. VA Boston Healthcare System. Project Title: "Talking about Racism: Evaluation of a Group Intervention to Reduce Race-based Stress among Veterans of Color"
Quach, Emma, PhD. VA Bedford- Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital. Project Title: "Supporting older Veterans with dementia to live at home: A focus on family caregivers and formal long-term services and supports (LTSS)"
2019-2021
MacLean, Robert, PhD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title: “Opioid and Pain Cognitive Bias Modification in Opioid Use Disorder”
Relyea, Mark, PhD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title: “Identifying strategies for intervening in Veterans’ sexual and gender harassment”
Schindler, Emmanuelle, MD, PhD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title: “Short- and Long-Term Efficacy and Safety of an Indoleamine Serotonin2A Receptor Agonist in the Treatment of Post-Traumatic Headache in Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injury”
Tolchin, Benjamin, MD, MS. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title: “Electronic motivational interviewing for veterans with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures: development and feasibility testing”
2018-2020
Edmond, Sara, PhD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title: “Pain Shared Medical Appointment to Refocus Treatment”
Holzhauer, Cathryn, PhD. VA Central Western Massachusetts HCS. Project Title: “Emotion dysregulation as a therapeutic target in women Veterans with alcohol misuse”
McConeghy, Kevin, PharmD, MS, BCPS. Providence VAMC. Project Title: “Antimicrobial Allergies and Veteran’s Health: Uncharted Territory in Antimicrobial Stewardship”
Portnoy, Galina, PhD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title: “Detection of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Perpetration among Veterans”
Riblet, Natalie, MD, MPH. White River Junction VAMC. Project Title: “Prevention of suicide in Veterans through brief intervention and contact (V-BIC): a pilot study”
Sherif, Mohamed, MD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title: “Using EEG to investigate the rapid anti-depressant effect of intravenous ketamine in veterans diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression”
2017-2019
Averill, Lynnette, PhD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title: “Intrinsic Functional Connectivity and Cognition in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder”
Branch-Elliman, Westyn, MD, MMSc. VA Boston Healthcare System. Project Title: “Improving Veterans' Care by Expending Infection Prevention to Outpatients”
Driscoll, Mary, PhD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title: “Peer Support in the Chronic Pain Experience of Women Veterans”
Rinne, Seppo, MD, PhD. VA Bedford Medical Center. Project Title: “Organization of Care for Veterans with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease”
2016-2018
Henderson, Eric, MD. White River Junction VAMC. Project Title: “How Patient-Centered is Their Care? Assessing Decision Quality and the Role for Shared Decision-Making in Veterans Receiving Treatment for Hip or Knee Osteoarthritis”
Kim, Bo, PhD. VA Bedford VAMC. Project Title: “Examining Veterans’ transitions from specialty mental health to primary care”
Schroeck, Florian, MD, MS. White River Junction VAMC. Project Title: “Towards Risk-Aligned Care for Veterans with Early Stage Bladder Cancer”
Sippel, Lauren, PhD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title: “Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Affective Functioning: A Test of the Potentially Normalizing Effects of Oxytocin”
2015 - 2017
Anne Black, PhD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project title: "Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) for Sexual Risk Behavior"
Kali Thomas, MD. VA Providence Healthcare System. Project title: "Evaluating Cash Benefit Programs for Veterans' Long-Term Care"
Kevin Jensen, PhD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project title: "An Investigation on the Genetics of Nicotine Withdrawal and PSTD"
Melissa Wachterman, MD. VA Boston Healthcare System. Project title: "Deciding about Dialysis: Decision-Making Among Older Veterans with End-Stage Renal Disease "
Haley J. Morrill, PharmD. VA Providence Healthcare System. Project title: "Drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria in the New England VA Healthcare System: Advancing Antimicrobial Stewardship efforts"
2014-2016
Guneet Jasuja, PhD. Bedford VAMC. Project title: "Understanding testosterone prescribing in the VHA"
Hamada Hamid, MD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project title: "Non-epileptic seizures in the Veterans Health Administration"
Hillary Mull, PhD. VA Boston Healthcare System. Project title: "Characteristics of outpatient surgery in VISN 1 medical facilitites"
Mohini Ranganathan, MD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project title: "Can Gly1 inhibition facilitate the effects of cognitive remediation on cognitive deficits in Schizophrenia?"
Toral Surti, MD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project title: "Cognitive remediation for perceptual deficits in schizophrenia"
Varsha Vimalananda, MD. Bedford VAMC. Project title: "Improving coordination of specialty diabetes care in the era of PACTs"
2013-2015
Brian Borsari, PhD. Providence VAMC. Project title: "Coding laboratory for therapist-client interactions"
Paul Greenberg, MD. Providence VAMC. Project title: "Process Quality and Outcomes in Cataract Surgery"
Nikki Stricker, PhD. VA Boston Healthcare System. Project title: "Does retrogenesis explain regional white matter integrity in Mild Cognitive Impairment?"
Eric Hermes, MD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project title: "Implemetation of computer-based cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia among Veterans with non-psychotic mental health disorders as an alternative or adjunct to pharmacologic treatment"
Kathleen Akgun, MD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project title: "Quality outcomes and patient satisfaction associated with medical intensive care unit admission"
2012-2014
Suzannah Creech, PhD. Providence VAMC. Project title: "Intervention to improve intimate relationships and social support in women veterans"
Amy Linsky, MD. VA Boston Healthcare System. Project title: "Patient and provider perceptions of intentional medication discontinuation"
Andrew Sewell, MD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project title: "What are the contributions of the cannabinoid system to alcoholism?"
Jeffrey Haspel, MD, PhD. VA Boston Healthcare System. Project title: "The role of marcoautophagy in cellular damage during sepsis"
Aryeh Herman, PsyD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project title: "Genetic moderators of intravenous nicotine responses in humans"
2011-2013
Aisling Caffrey, PhD. Providence VAMC. Project Title: "Comparative effectiveness of antimicrobials for the treatment of MRSA"
Rebecca Deason, PhD. VA Boston Healthcare System. Project Title: "New flexible learning in patients with Alzheimer's disease"
Frank Drescher, MD. White River Junction VAMC. Project Title: "CT pulmonary angiography for suspected pulmonary ambolism"
Eric Jackson, PhD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title: "The impact of acute stress on emotional learning and memory in PTSD"
Jennifer Primack, PhD. Providence VAMC. Project Title: "Men's stress workshop: treatment development, acceptability and feasibility"
2010-2012
Megan Kelly, PhD. Bedford VAMC. Project Title: A mindfulness and acceptance-based smoking cessation treatment for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder.
Brenda Petrella, PhD. White River Junction VAMC. Project Title: The role of MT1-MMP in renal tumorigenesis.
Brian Shiner, MD. White River Junction VAMC. Project Title: Developing tools to assess the quality of clinical care for PTSD.
Christopher Sullivan, PhD. Bedford VAMC. Project Title: Therapeutic Neurogenesis: Retromer couples the secretion of ApoE and Wnt protein in the brain.
Jack Tsai, PhD. VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Project Title: Pilot study of an alternative supported housing approach.
