Talk to the Veterans Crisis Line now
An official website of the United States government
Gregory Simon is an investigator at Group Health Research Institute, Seattle, WA, and a psychiatrist in Group Health's Behavioral Health Service. He is also a Research Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington and chair of the national scientific advisory board of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance. Dr. Simon completed residency training in internal medicine at the University of Washington, residency training in psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and fellowship training in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars program at the University of Washington. Dr. Simon's research focuses on improving access to and quality of care for mood disorders, both unipolar depression and bipolar disorder. Specific areas of research include improving adherence to medication, increasing the availability of effective psychotherapy, evaluating peer support by and for people with mood disorders, suicide prevention, cost-effectiveness of treatment, and comorbidity of mood disorders with chronic medical conditions. Dr. Simon currently leads the Mental Health Research Network – an NIMH-funded cooperative agreement supporting population-based mental health research across 11 large healthcare systems.
Nicole Hart is CEO of ARVets, a nonprofit organization established in 2011 in North Little Rock, AR. ARVets' mission is to enhance the overall quality of life for Veterans and their families by improving access to resources and strengthening support systems through all phases of the military life cycle. A combat Veteran, Ms. Hart was deployed to Iraq in 2004 with the 39th Infantry Brigade and was a member of Headquarters Company Support Battalion, which lost the most soldiers in a single tour for the Arkansas National Guard during Operation Iraqi Freedom. In 2007, Ms. Hart was appointed Military and Veterans Affairs advisor to Governor Mike Beebe. She also represented the Governor's office on the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force and had oversight of more than 30 boards as a special liaison. She was a member of the Arkansas Yellow Ribbon Taskforce, which conducted an in-depth analysis of the needs of Arkansas Veterans and how efficiently those needs were being met. Ms. Hart also serves in numerous other capacities, as a member of the Arkansas Veterans Commission and the Community Advisory Board for the Translational Research Institute at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. In addition, she's on the Executive Committee for VA HSR&D's Mental Health Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (MH-QUERI) and chairs their stakeholder's council, spearheading policy development for research and implementation for Veterans' behavioral health programs.
Carolyn Clancy is the VHA Chief Medical Officer. Prior to that, she was named VA's Interim Under Secretary for Health on July 2, 2014. In this role, Dr. Clancy oversaw the healthcare needs of millions of Veterans enrolled in VHA, the United States' largest integrated healthcare system, with more than 1700 sites, including hospitals, clinics, long-term care facilities, and Readjustment Counseling Centers. Prior to assuming the duties of the Interim Under Secretary for Health, Dr. Clancy was the Assistant Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Quality, Safety, and Value, where she served as the Chief Quality Management Officer for VHA — planning, directing, coordinating, and evaluating VHA's national quality, safety, and value-producing programs and approaches. Dr. Clancy also served as Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), from February 2003 through August 2013.
