UCLA experts: Veterans issues
For military veterans and their families the effects of combat on the body and psyche often linger long after the fighting has ceased. From issues like access to proper physical and mental health care to homelessness to employment, UCLA has experts who can offer insights into the problems veterans face and solutions. Click an expert’s name for a detailed biography and contact information.
Dr. Patricia Lester
Lester is the director of the Nathanson Family Resilience Center and she co-developed the family-centered preventive intervention FOCUS which was designed to promote mitigate stress in families facing adversities and has been implemented by the United States Navy and Marine Corps. Lester has done extensive mental health work with female veterans, veterans and families/children, military families and formerly homeless female veterans in transitional housing.
Gary Blasi
Blasi, professor of law emeritus at the UCLA School of Law, is an expert on public interest policy and law, who has done extensive work and written about advocacy on behalf of homeless veterans and problems with housing, particularly in downtown Los Angeles.
Mark Kaplan
Kaplan is a professor of social welfare in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and an expert on suicide, who has studied suicide and its risk factors particularly among veterans and older vulnerable populations. Kaplan has testified before the Senate Special Committee on Aging at its hearing on veterans’ health and was a member of the Expert Panel on the Veterans Administration Blue Ribbon Work Group on Suicide Prevention in the Veteran Population.
Dr. Kenneth Wells
Wells, professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a professor of health services in the Fielding School of Public Health, is an authority on mental health and homelessness, including among military veterans.
