Speaker biographies

Brig. Gen. Rhonda Cornum, M.D., is the director of Comprehensive Soldier Fitness in the U.S. Army. She was commissioned into the Army and began a nutrition and biochemistry research career in 1978 before she attended medical school. In 1987, she transferred to the Army Aeromedical Center at Fort Rucker, Alaska, first as Chief, Primary Care and Community Medicine, then Chief of Aviation Medicine. In 1990, Dr. Cornum was assigned as the flight surgeon to the 2/229 Attack Helicopter Battalion in Iraq. During the last week of February 1991, while performing a search and rescue mission for a downed Air Force F-16 pilot, her Blackhawk helicopter was shot down and five of the eight-person crew were killed. The three survivors, including Dr. Cornum, were captured by Iraqi forces. She was repatriated on March 6, 1991. After returning to the United States, Dr. Cornum attended Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base and began urologic surgery training. Following graduation in 1998, she was staff urologist at Eisenhower Army Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia. She is board certified in urology and a fellow in the American College of Surgeons and Aerospace Medical Association. She took command of the 28th Combat Support Hospital at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on July 25, 2000. In this position, she deployed as the Medical Task Force Commander to Bosnia for Stabilization Force 9, and deployed three subordinate units to Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom. After that command tour, she attended the National War College and graduated in June 2003. Dr. Cornum then commanded Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany. During this time, Landstuhl cared for over 26,000 war veterans, including 5,540 battle injuries.

Thomas Donnelly is a resident fellow in defense and security policy studies and the director of the Center for Defense Studies at AEI. He is the author, with Frederick W. Kagan, of Ground Truth: The Future of U.S. Land Power (AEI Press, May 2008); the coeditor, with Gary J. Schmitt, of Of Men and Materiel: The Crisis in Military Resources (AEI Press, 2007); and the author of The Military We Need (AEI Press, 2005), Operation Iraqi Freedom: A Strategic Assessment (AEI Press, 2004), and several other books. From 1995 to 1999, he was policy group director and a professional staff member for the House Armed Services Committee. Mr. Donnelly also served as a member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. He is a former editor of Armed Forces Journal, Army Times, and Defense News.

Col. Charles W. Hoge, M.D., is an attending psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he supervises residents and treats service members, veterans, and families. He has directed the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) Land Combat study and the fielding of annual Mental Health Advisory Teams (MHATs) to Iraq and Afghanistan. Dr. Hoge deployed to Iraq as an MHAT2 team leader in 2004. His research program has been responsible for increased war-related funding for mental health initiatives, the postdeployment health reassessment, revised Army Combat and Operational Stress Control doctrine, improved distribution of mental health professionals in-theater, stigma reduction programs, and standardized training for deploying behavioral health personnel. From 1989 to 1991, he served in the U.S. Public Health Service as an Epidemiology Intelligence Service officer at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), where he learned epidemiology and led several infectious disease outbreak investigations. He joined the Army in 1991 and spent the next six years studying the treatment and prevention of tropical infections that affect U.S. soldiers deployed to developing countries. In 1997, he refocused his medical expertise to psychiatry and completed his residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 2000. Between 2000 and 2009, Dr. Hoge directed a prominent research program that focused on mitigating the mental health impact of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He served as director of the division of Psychiatry and Neurosciences from 2004 to 2009. He has approximately 100 per-reviewed publications, including lead articles on his mental health research in the Journal of the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine, as well as a landmark article in the New England Journal of Medicine on mild traumatic brain injury among U.S. troops returning from Iraq.

Brig. Gen. Colleen McGuire is director of the U.S. Army Suicide Prevention Task Force. She began her military career with a commission in the U.S. Army Military Police Corps. She has held key command and staff billets from platoon level to the Army staff and graduated from the Military Police Officer Basic and Advanced Courses, the Command and General Staff College, the Public Affairs Officer Course, and the Army War College. Brig. Gen. McGuire's awards and decorations include the Legion of Merit with 2 oak leaf clusters, the Bronze Star Medal, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal with 4 oak leaf clusters, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the Army Commendation Medal with 3 oak leaf clusters, the Army Achievement Medal with 3 oak leaf clusters, the Iraqi Campaign Medal, the Senior Parachutist's Badge and the Army Staff Identification Badge.

Sally Satel, M.D., is a resident scholar at AEI. She is also the staff psychiatrist at the Oasis Clinic in Washington, D.C. She has served on the advisory committee of the Center for Mental Health Services of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and in summer 2003, she was a member of the Fowler Commission that investigated sexual misconduct at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Dr. Satel was an assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine from 1988 to 1993. From 1993 to 1994, she was a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow with the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee. Dr. Satel has testified before the House Ways and Means Committee, the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, the Senate Special Committee on Aging, and the House and Senate Veterans' Affairs Committees. She has written widely in academic journals on topics in psychiatry and addiction medicine and has published articles on cultural aspects of medicine and science in the New York Times, The New Republic, Commentary, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, and the Wall Street Journal. Dr. Satel is the author of PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine (Basic Books, 2001), coauthor of One Nation Under Therapy (with Christina Hoff Sommers; St. Martin's Press, 2005), and editor of When Altruism Isn't Enough: The Case for Compensating Kidney Donors (AEI Press, 2009).

Nate Self is the former Ranger captain who led a team of Rangers in 2006 to rescue a missing-in-action Navy Seal in the mountains of Afghanistan. The ensuing battle of Takur Ghar (translated "Tall Mountain"), also known as the Rescue on Roberts Ridge, made Capt. Self famous. For his heroism, he was awarded the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and the Purple Heart. His story, Two Wars: One Hero's Fight on Two Fronts—Abroad and Within (Tyndale House Publishers, 2008), was featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, on NBC's Dateline, and in other books. He has been celebrated and examined as a model of exemplary leadership both in combat and in civilian life.

Richard Tedeschi is professor of psychology and coordinator of the clinical/community psychology graduate program at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. There he conducts research on trauma and posttraumatic growth, teaches personality psychology and psychotherapy, and supervises graduate practica. He is a licensed psychologist specializing in bereavement and trauma and leads support groups for bereaved parents for a nonprofit organization in Charlotte, where he also maintains his private practice. He has coauthored several books on trauma, bereavement, and posttraumatic growth, including Helping Bereaved Parents (Brunner-Routledge, 2004) and the Handbook of Posttraumatic Growth (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006). He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA) and serves as a consultant to APA in developing materials on trauma and resilience for use by psychologists and the public. He also appeared in the APA/Discovery Channel documentary on coping with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. He has provided workshops on trauma and posttraumatic growth for groups such as the police and military and various universities and professional organizations in psychology.

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