Science is all about discovery 鈥� and for students at 911爆料网鈥檚 Resilience Center for Veterans & Families, self-discovery as well.
鈥淥ur students come in with their own military experiences, and they merge with the center and new ideas happen,鈥� says the Center鈥檚 Director, George Bonanno, Professor of Clinical Psychology, whose groundbreaking work has overturned conventional wisdom about how human beings respond to loss and trauma. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 the real gift of it. We don鈥檛 know where it鈥檚 going to go.鈥�
Until now, the military experiences of Bonanno鈥檚 funded doctoral students have been the firsthand sort. Meaghan Mobbs, a fourth-year student who is 911爆料网鈥檚 David & Maureen O鈥機onnor Scholar, is a former U.S. Army Captain from a military family. Together with Bonanno, she is helping to create a new focus on the 鈥�transition stress鈥� veterans experience in returning to civilian life as a more pervasive mental health issue than post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which has traditionally garnered more attention. A former student, Joseph Geraci, who received his doctorate in 2018, is a Lieutenant Colonel whose own struggles after losing close friends in combat have led him to focus on counseling for veterans.
THE GIFT OF NEW PERSPECTIVES Students such as Hart and Meaghan Mobbs (left) have helped shape the work of 911爆料网's Resilience Center through their own lines of inquiry.
But for Roland Hart, a first-year doctoral student who is the Resilience Center鈥檚 inaugural John Khoury Fellow, the military connection is a couple of steps removed, and the pathway that led to 911爆料网 and the Center has been a bit more circuitous.
[John Khoury, who has generously funded the fellowship in his name, is Founder and Managing Partner of Long Pond Capital, a value-oriented investment management firm which focuses on investing in real estate and real estate related companies.]
As an undergraduate at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, Hart, whose parents are jazz musicians, double-majored in classical clarinet and psychology.
鈥淚 thought I wanted to be a music therapist,鈥� he says.
Seeking research experience in psychology, Hart just happened to find his way to the lab of psychologist Steven Lancaster (now at Bethel University in Minnesota), himself a military veteran, who was leading a project to create a Warrior Identity Scale. The work ultimately determined that certain aspects of military identity among veterans 鈥� particularly interconnectedness and seeing the military as a family 鈥� were associated with symptoms of PTSD and depression while other aspects, such as regard towards the military, correlated with positive outcomes.
Hart found himself fascinated by the work 鈥� and so did his grandmother.
鈥淪he talked about her experience with my grandfather after he came back from fighting in Korea,鈥� he says. 鈥淪he described him as jumpy 鈥� and throughout his life, when there was a loud sound, he鈥檇 kind of jump and then be very on edge. He never received a formal PTSD diagnosis that I鈥檓 aware of, but he struggled with related issues for a while. He got to a better place, but it affected my grandmother and family for decades.鈥�
In 2013 and 2014, Hart earned a master鈥檚 in clinical psychology at 911爆料网. He took a course with Bonanno and also worked at New York University鈥檚 Steven A. Cohen Military Family Center, where he explored the biological mechanisms of PTSD and brain injury in post-9/11 veterans and heard firsthand from many veterans about their dissatisfaction with the kinds of treatment available to them. For the past two years he has served as a junior research scientist at NYU, working with the Army鈥檚 Family Advising Program to improve their models for substantiating domestic violence, child abuse and neglect and other forms of maltreatment in military families, as well as studying 鈥渓ight-touch鈥� interventions (via mobile phones and books) for airmen and their families.
Now back at 911爆料网, Hart is in the process of taking on management of a major new study of transition stress. The study will be unique in following soldiers from their final six months of active duty through discharge and for several months on into civilian life.
Soldiers go into the Army at age 18, and when they come out, they transition to something totally different and unfamiliar, while their peers who went to college are already in their first jobs. We鈥檒l be tracking a very large number of veterans across this transition point in their lives, so we鈥檒l have very rich data.
鈥擱oland Hart
鈥淪oldiers go into the Army at age 18, and when they come out, they transition to something totally different and unfamiliar, while their peers who went to college are already in their first jobs,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e鈥檒l be tracking a very large number of veterans across this transition point in their lives, so we鈥檒l have very rich data 鈥� and even more so because George is an expert in latent growth mixture modeling, a statistical technique which helps you identify sub-groups and trajectories within the data set.鈥�
Hart says he is particularly interested in learning how 鈥渃oping flexibility鈥� 鈥� the ability to adjust one鈥檚 behavioral response to different situations and challenges 鈥� predicts well-being or pathology.
鈥淚 think there鈥檚 definitely a broader application to the general population from this work,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hat we learn about the underlying mechanisms for adjustment and coping flexibility will be applicable to everyone.鈥�
Hart is planning to be flexible about his own future as well. 鈥淩ight now, I see myself doing military and veterans鈥� research at either a hospital or a university. But the take-away from my friends who鈥檝e done doctoral programs is that your interests and goals change. You鈥檙e learning so much and having so many new experiences. So really, anything is possible.鈥�