Our Leadership
The Joining Forces–UB team is made up of dynamic faculty, staff, and students who are committed to excellence in veteran and military family care.
Lisa Butler, PhD
Joining Forces–UB Founder and Co-Director; Instructor, Introduction to Issues in VMF Care and the VMF IPE Seminar; Associate Professor, School of Social Work; Military Family Member
“Developing a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of both military culture and individual experience — what veterans have faced, their reactions and responses, and the challenges that they and their families may have in reintegration — is part of being trauma-informed when it comes to serving this population."
Veteran-related research interests: Identifying the care needs of veterans and their families; anticipatory trauma symptoms in military family members; teaching students about working with veterans and military families.
Joining Forces–UB Co-Director; Research Associate Professor, Family Medicine, University at Buffalo; Military Family Member
Bonnie Vest is a medical anthropologist specializing in qualitative methods and program evaluation.
“My research focuses on the many complex and intersecting factors that impact the well-being of military service members, veterans, and their families. Only through understanding, and then addressing these factors through research and education, can we help make a difference in individuals’ lives.”
Veteran-related research interests: Post-deployment transitions and reintegration, the role of civilian primary care in caring for military populations, healthcare utilization and help-seeking, mental health, substance use, military identity
Steering Committee Members
David Gerber, PhD
University of Buffalo Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus; Senior Fellow, Department of History; Senior Fellow, UB Center for Disability Studies
“History provides a significant framework for examining the assumptions behind the continuities from war to war in the making of public policy for assisting military veterans; what we learn or fail to learn from past practices has an important bearing on our successes and failures in the present.”
Veteran-related research interests: Prisoners of War in the Pacific Theater of Operations and the Consequences of Long-term Captivity, 1942-
Katie McClain-Meeder, LMSW
Clinical Associate Professor, School of Social Work
Veterans and military families deserve to have care providers that understand and appreciate the complex set of challenges associated with military service. It is our hope to illuminate some of these challenges and to subsequently positively impact care for veterans and military family members.
F. Paul Muccigrosso II, BS, MSW, MBA
United States Navy Veteran; Faculty – Maryville University School of Social Work
“Having served in the 1970’s – 1980’s, men and women of uniform didn’t have the benefit of having access to comprehensive mental health care (either from the VA or any other resource) making treatment for high levels of trauma and/or stress nearly impossible; my gravitation to social work and UBSSW in particular, allowed me the opportunity to learn a great deal and to treat these members. I am grateful for the chance to continue serving in that way.”
We are fortunate to have had a talented team of faculty and students that contributed to the project.
Any reference to branches of the United States armed forces—either in copy or through the use of still or motion visuals—does not constitute an endorsement of the university by the United States Department of Defense or any unit thereof.
