James A. Naifeh, PhD

Dr. James A. Naifeh is Research Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Assistant Scientific Director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Following an undergraduate education at the University of Colorado, Dr. Naifeh received his PhD from the University of South Dakota, where he completed the Doctoral Specialty Track in Clinical/Disaster Psychology and served as a Morgan Fellow in the Disaster Mental Health Institute. He completed his clinical internship in the Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care System and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Dr. Naifeh’s research aims to advance understanding of mental health risk and resilience in military personnel through the identification of psychological, environmental, and neurobiological factors associated with suicide, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other adverse health outcomes. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on these topics. He has also served as an investigator on studies funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, Department of Defense, and Department of the Army. Included among these is the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS), the largest epidemiological and neurobiological study of mental health risk and resilience ever conducted in the U.S. military, along with its longitudinal continuation and expansion (STARRS-LS).