Valerie A. Stander, Ph.D
Dr. Valerie Stander has worked as a research psychologist at the Naval Health Research Center (NHRC) for more than 20 years studying the health and wellbeing of military personnel and their families. Within the NHRC Military Population Health Directorate, Dr. Stander is currently the Principal Investigator of the Millennium Cohort Family Study, a 21-year longitudinal program of research documenting the impact of military life stress on family relationships.
Dr. Stander is also co-Principal Investigator in a research collaboration with Abt Associates evaluating the efficacy of a pilot implementation of HealthySteps© supported by the Defense Health Agency and the Office of Military Community and Family Policy. Her specific areas of interest include risk factors for interpersonal aggression, including patterns of family violence as well as sexual aggression among military personnel. She currently serves as co-chair of a Defense Health Program Joint Program Committee-5 working group for research on Early Assessments and Interventions to Support Service Member and Family Psychological Health. Dr. Stander earned her Ph.D. in Family Studies at Purdue University, and is happy to have the opportunity to collaborate with researchers at the Purdue Military Family Research Institute on the ongoing Operation Military Experience (OpMe) study. Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Military Operational Medicine Research Program, this study offers a unique opportunity to understand the long-term implications of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom deployment-related family separations on adolescent development.
