Gregory G. Homish, PhD (Phase 1 & 2): Principal Investigator for the Operation: SAFETY (Soldiers And Families Excelling Through the Years) research study at the State University of New York at Buffalo (UB). Dr. Homish is an Associate Professor in the UB School of Public Health & Health Professions Department of Community Health & Health Behavior. He also holds appointments in the Departments of Family Medicine and Pediatrics. He is trained as a psychiatric epidemiologist and has focused his research on the mental and physical health of couples over time. Dr. Homish has been the PI or Co-I on a variety of studies including intervention trials, large sample survey designs, evaluation and implementation studies, technology transfer studies, and epidemiologic studies. He has worked with community samples as well as specialized samples such as firefighters, police, and military. His work has been funded by the National Institutes on Health, the Veterans Administration, and foundations. Dr. Homish also serves as the Alternate Sector Leader for Emergency Mental Health component of the County's Specialized Medical Assistance Response Team. Dr. Homish is a member of a number of professional organizations including the American Public Health Association and the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation .
Lynn Kozlowski, PhD (Phase 1): Co-Investigator on Operation: SAFETY. Since 1975, his research has focused on cigarette smoking, multiple drug use and their relationships with other health behaviors. He has also published in the area of stress and tobacco use and the use of multiple substances by couples. Dr. Kozlowski has contributed to four different Surgeon General Reports on smoking and health, and two National Cancer Institute Monographs. He has also consulted on tobacco related issues with the Federal Trade Commission and the Food and Drug Administration. He recently led a group of experts producing a consensus statement on the use of over the counter nicotine replacement products in smoking cessation. In 2008 he was appointed to Dean of the School of Public Health and Health Professions and served in that role until June 2014.
Kenneth E. Leonard, PhD (Phase 1 & 2): Co-Investigator on Operation: SAFETY. Dr. Leonard is the Director of UB's Research Institute on Addictions and a Research Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at UB. Dr. Leonard is a licensed clinical psychologist. Dr. Leonard has served as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on clinical, epidemiological, and laboratory studies funded by a NIH and other federal agencies. Dr. Leonard's research career has focused on the bidirectional relationships between substance use and social/interpersonal relationships.
Bonnie M. Vest, PhD (Phase 2): Co-Investigator on Operation: SAFETY. Dr. Vest is a Research Assistant Professor in Family Medicine and is trained as a medical anthropologist with experience in ethnographic, qualitative, and health services research. Dr. Vest’s past research has focused on the experiences of National Guard soldiers, particularly during times of transition from military to civilian status, and their identity conceptions as citizen-soldiers in the post-9/11 era. Currently, Dr. Vest is leading a project to assess civilian primary care providers' knowledge and attitudes, and confidence in caring for service members, veterans and military family members among their patients. In addition to her research interests in veterans and military service members, Dr. Vest has experience with mixed-methods program evaluation of translational research in clinical and community practice settings.
John M. Violanti, PhD (Phase 1): Co-Investigator on Operation: SAFETY. Dr. Violanti is a Research Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, School of Public Health& Health Professions at UB. He is a Vietnam-era veteran and has conducted previous research and given presentations to military personnel on issues of deployment, PTSD, and suicide. He has provided leadership and successful completion as Principal Investigator on four previous stress related research projects. Dr. Violanti is the PI on a longitudinal follow-up examination of the impact of stress on health and also working on a project involving the long term effect of stress and trauma on police officers who were involved with hurricane Katrina.
D. Lynn Homish is the project director on Operation: SAFETY. She has served as a project director since the start of the study in June 2013. Homish has directed a number of R01 studies funded by the National Institutes of Health. She has overseen the recruitment, enrollment and longitudinal follow-up of various special populations (e.g., substance using women seeking both inpatient and outpatient care and men with prostate cancer care making a treatment decision) throughout the last 15 years. These studies have included data collections at multiple facilities in the communities as well as a national, multi-site study. Homish has extensive knowledge about training and supervising staff in data collection and research protocol aspects.
Deborah Saltino is a Research Support Specialist on Operation: SAFETY. She has worked at University at Buffalo for 18 years on research studies in the departments of Epidemiology and Environmental Health and Community Health & Health Behavior. Ms. Saltino also oversees the School of Public Health & Health Professions Center for Health Research which is home to Operation: SAFETY. Ms. Saltino has a BS degree in Criminal Justice from Buffalo State College.
Jessica Kulak
Jessica Kulak, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Health, Nutrition, and Dietetics Department at Buffalo State College. She received her doctoral and MPH degrees from UB in the Department of Community Health and Health Behavior. Previously, Kulak received her master’s degree in school and community mental health counseling from the University of Rochester.
Kulak has published peer-reviewed journal articles on tobacco policies in nursing homes, cessation patterns among African Americans, nicotine content of tobacco products and research guidelines for monitoring the global tobacco use epidemic. Her current research focuses on addictions, including tobacco control efforts for emerging and non-traditional tobacco product use, with an emphasis on relevant policy implications. She is particularly interested in tobacco use among the military and reservists.
Post-DoctoralJennifer Fillo, PhD: Research Associate on Operation: SAFETY. Dr. Fillo is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Clinical and Research Institute on Addictions at UB. She received her BS in Psychology from Carnegie Mellon University in 2008 and her PhD in Psychology from the University of Minnesota in 2014. Prior to coming to UB, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Houston, where she served as project coordinator for a DOD-funded study examining the effects of deployment on the spouses and children of service members. Dr. Fillo’s research interests lie at the intersection of close relationships, stress, and health. She is particularly interested in how individuals and couples respond to stressful life transitions (e.g., military deployment and reintegration, transition to parenthood), including how they regulate the emotions that arise in stressful situations and the implications for these tendencies for physical health and health behavior (e.g., substance use).
Erin Anderson Goodell, PhD, MsC: Erin is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research interests include risk and protective factors for substance use and violence in military populations, focusing on reserve component personnel and interactions with their families and social groups. Erin has 12 years of experience working in military health studies, including work as a research assistant for Army STARRS through Harvard Medical School and research associate for RTI International’s Substance Abuse Epidemiology and Military Behavioral Health program. Prior to beginning her PhD, Erin received her Master of Science in Epidemiology from Harvard University’s School of Public Health and Bachelor of Science in Public Health from the University of North Carolina’s School of Public Health.
GraduateRachel Hoopsick, MS, MPH, CHES: Research Assistant on Operation: SAFETY. Ms. Rizzo is pursuing a PhD in Community Health & Health Behavior at UB's School of Public Health & Health Professions with an interest in evidence-based treatment and prevention of substance use disorders. Prior to beginning her PhD, Ms. Rizzo completed her MS in Epidemiology (2012) and MPH in Health Services Administration (2013) at UB. Ms. Rizzo is a Certified Health Education Specialist with several years of experience in public health research, teaching, and practice in WNY.
UndergraduateKennedy George: Undergraduate research assistant on Operation: SAFETY and is currently pursuing a BS in Public Health from UB's School of Public Health and Health Professions as well as a minor in Biology. After graduation, she plans on pursuing a graduate degree in Public Health.
Alexandra Kouptsova: Undergraduate research assistant on Operation: SAFETY. Alexandra is currently pursuing a B.S. in Public Health. After graduation, she plans on pursuing a dual Masters of Social Work and Masters of Public Health in community health and health behavior. Her areas of interests include mental health, especially in low-income youth of color, and public health interventions to reduce mental healthcare access disparities.
COL (retired) Paul T. Bartone, PhD: Consultant for Operation: SAFETY. He serves currently as Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University. Bartone has taught strategic leadership at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University, and at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, where he also served as Director of the West Point Leader Development Research Center. As a U.S. Army Research Psychologist, Bartone also served as the Consultant to the Surgeon General for Research Psychology, and as the Assistant Corps Chief for Medical Allied Sciences. He is a past-President of the American Psychological Association's Division 19, Society for Military Psychology, a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, and a charter member of the Association for Psychological Science. Bartone's research has focused on understanding and measuring resilient or "hardy" responding to stress, identifying underlying biomarkers for resilience, and applying this knowledge to improve selection, training and leader development programs. He holds a Top Secret security clearance.
Jack R. Cornelius, MD, MPH: Consultant for Operation: SAFETY. Dr. Cornelius is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh and has been a faculty member at the Veterans Administration (VA) Pittsburgh Healthcare System for the last ten years. Additionally, he has served as the Director of the VA Comorbidity Clinic during that time as a faculty member of the VA MIRECC Comorbidity center grant. Prior to that time, he was the Medical Director of a 28-bed dual diagnosis addiction psychiatry inpatient unit for ten years. He has over 25 years of experience in diagnosis and treatment of adults and adolescents. Dr. Cornelius has been the Principal Investigator on a number of federally funded grants.
Stephen Maisto, PhD: Consultant for Operation: SAFETY. Dr. Maisto is a Professor in the Department of Psychology, Syracuse University and Acting Executive Director of Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 2's Center for Integrated Healthcare. Dr. Maisto has over 30 years of research and clinical experience. His current research program involves projects in the areas of clinical course and relapse of AUDs in adults and adolescents, treatment process and outcome, and the integration of the treatment of behavioral health problems in the primary care setting.
Operation: SAFETY would like to thank previous staff for their contributions: