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Baccalaureate, Master's & Professional Graduation

Nikki Wooten, PhD

Making Change Happen:

Dr. Nikki R. Wooten has been a member of the U.S. military since 1989, when she enlisted in the Army Reserves. Since that time, she’s served in enlisted and officer roles in the armed forces. Currently, a Major(P)  in the District of Columbia Army National Guard, Dr. Wooten has been in the military during two major conflicts, the Persian Gulf War and Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

Now, Dr. Wooten combines her almost two decades of clinical social work experience with her military background to conduct research that can influence military health policy. She would like her research to create meaningful conversations among senior military leadership and military health policymakers about gender, racial, and ethnic differences in behavioral health problem presentation and service utilization. Such discussions would ideally center on disparities in military and veteran health care and stigma and vulnerability among military personnel and veterans. These conversations could result in changes that range from gender-sensitive assessments for post-deployment problems to better mental health services for all military personnel.
 
Dr. Wooten is inspired to continue this work by her fellow soldiers and family members, several of whom are serving or have served in the military. “I can put a face and a name to some of the outcomes from my research,” she said. Bringing together this personal knowledge with her in-depth understanding of military policies, Dr. Wooten is able to develop research with the potential to have the greatest impact on eliminating disparities in military and veteran healthcare.

 Research Background:

Dr. Wooten’s research interests include military service and deployment stressors, post-deployment  substance use, psychological problems, and behavioral health service utilization in military and veteran populations. Her current research investigates the early identification of substance use and psychological problems among Army women to identify gender differences in post-deployment behavioral health, gender-specific treatment targets, and factors associated with substance use, psychological problems, and behavioral health service utilization.

Research Projects (recent)

  • 2012, Co-Investigator. In the Community Mental Health Training for Social Workers Program (ICMH). PI: Lena Lundgren, PhD, Boston University. HRSA 1M01HP251960100. Funded: September 2012-August 2015.
  • 2011, Co-Investigator. Early Identification of Substance Use and Psychological Problems in Army Women Veterans. National Institute on Drug Abuse Diversity Supplement to First Longitudinal Study of Missed Treatment Opportunities Using DoD and VA Data. PI: Mary Jo Larson, PhD, Brandeis University. Funded: July 2011-June 2013.
  • 2010, Co-Investigator. First Longitudinal Study of Missed Treatment Opportunities Using DoD and VA Data. PI: Mary Jo Larson, PhD, Brandeis University. NIDA R01DA030150. Funded: July 2010-June 2014.
  • 2009, Principal Investigator. Deployment Risk and Resilience among Global War on Terrorism Army National Guard Women Veterans: Biopsychosocial and Mental Health Outcomes. Department of Veterans Affairs Predoctoral Fellowship, Funded: September 2009-November 2010.

 Selected Publications

  • Wooten, N. R., Smith-Osbourne, A., & Hassan, A. (Guest Editors) (accepted for publication). Special Issue: Military Social work education: Innovative strategies and future directions for social work practice. Journal of Social Work Education. (click link above for Call for Papers).
  • Wooten, N. R. (in press). A bioecological model of deployment risk and resilience. (Special Issue: Military Social Work). Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment.
  • Wooten, N. R., Mohr, B. A., Lundgren, L. M., Adams, R. A., Merrick, E. L., Williams, T. V., & Larson, M. J. (in review). Gender differences in substance use treatment utilization the year prior to deployment in Army service members. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.
  • Ramsberger, P., Wooten, N. R., & Rumsey, M. G. (Eds.). (2012). A history of the research into methods for selecting and classifying U. S. Army personnel, 1917-2009. Lewiston, NY: Mellon Press.
  • Wooten, N. R. (2012). Deployment cycle stressors and posttraumatic stress symptoms in Army National Guard women: The mediating effect of resilience. Social Work in Health Care, 51, 828-849.
  • Larson, M. J., Wooten, N. R., Adams, R. S., & Merrick, E. L. (2012). Military combat deployments and substance use: Review and future directions (Special Issue: Addiction-Related Issues among Active Duty Military, Veterans and Their Families). Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions, 12, 6-27.
  • Wooten, N. R., Kim, H. J., & Fakunmoju, S. B. (2011). Occupational stress in social work practice. In J. Langan-Fox & C. Cooper (Eds.), Handbook of stress in the occupations (pp. 71-90). United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing.
  • Wooten, N. R., Fakunmoju, S. B., Kim, H. J., & LeFevre, A. L. A. (2010). Factor structure of the Job-Related Tension Index among social workers. Research on Social Work Practice, 20, 74-86.

Selected Presentations

  • Wooten, N. R. (2013, March). Prescription opioid use in miltary and veteran populations. Oral presentation accepted at the 2013 NASW-SC Spring Symposium. Columbia, SC.
  • Wooten, N. R., Mohr, B. A., Lundgren, L. M., Adams, R. A., Lorenz, L., Williams, T. V., Jeffery, D. D., & Larson, M. J. (2012, October). Gender differences in substance use treatment utilization the year prior to deployment in Army service members. Poster presentation at the NIDA Diversity Supplement Workshop. Bethesda, MD. Funded by NIDA Diversity Supplement.
  • Larson, M. J., Mohr, B. A., Lorenz, L. S., Adams, R. A., Wooten, N. R., Funk, W., Merrick, E. L., Jeffery, D. D., & Williams, T. V. (2012, October). Can we improve linkage of soldiers to post deployment alcohol use assessment and treatment services? Poster presentation at the annual meeting of the Additions Health Services Research Conference. New York, NY.
  • Larson, M. J., Adams, R. A., Funk, W., Hopkins, L., Mohr, B. A., Merrick, E. L., Wooten, N. R., Jeffery, D. D. (2012, June). Military lifetime behavioral health utilization in a cohort of deployed Army service members by substance abuse and non-substance abuse groups. Poster presentation at the Annual Meeting of College on Problems of Drug Dependence. Palm Springs, CA. Funded by NIDA Director’s Travel Award.
  • Wooten, N. R. (2012, March). Deployment stressors among Army National Guard Women veterans. Oral presentation at the Biennial Symposium of the National Association of Social Workers-Massachusetts.
  • Wooten, N. R., *Demir, M. R., & *Stokes, C. (2012, March). Opioid misuse in military and veteran populations. Oral presentation at the Biennial Symposium of the National Association of Social Workers-Massachusetts.
  • Larson, M. J., Funk, W., Mohr, B., Adams, R. S., Merrick, E., Harris, A., Wooten, N. R. Merrick, E. L., Harris, A., Jeffery, D. D. (2011, November). Pre-deployment behavioral health history and post-deployment mental health referrals of Army service members.  Poster presentation at the 35th Annual Conference of the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse. Arlington, VA.
  • Wooten, N. R., Funk, W., Adams, R. S., Hopkins, L., Jeffery, D. D., & Larson, M. J. (2011, October). Gender differences in pre-deployment behavioral health utilization in active duty Army service members. Poster presentation at the annual meeting of the Additions Health Services Research Conference. Falls Church, VA. Funded by NIDA Diversity Supplement / NIAAA Travel Award.

Awards and Honors

  • 2012  National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). NIDA Director’s Travel Award and Grant-Writing and Career Workshop at College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD) Annual Meeting, 9-14 June 2012, Palms Springs, CA.
  • 2012  National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). NIDA Special Populations Research Development Seminar Series Workshop. 23-24 April 2012, Bethesda, MD.
  • 2011 National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) Travel Fellowship to 2011 Addictions Health Services Research (AHSR) conference. Falls Church, VA.
  • 2010 National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Social Work Research Scholar; NIDA Blending Conference Early Career Social Work Research Mentoring Initiative (April 23-24, 2010). NIDA addictions research mentoring and travel fellowship to Blending Conference.
  • 2008 Predoctoral Fellow, Department of Veterans Affairs Social Work Pre-Doctoral Fellowship,  Veterans Administration Maryland Health Care System, Baltimore campus.
  • 2007 Council on Social Work Education Minority Fellowship, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Fellowship Program, sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA); 2007-2009
  • 2006 Research Fellow, Consortium Research Fellows Program, Selection and Assignment Research Unit, U. S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI); 2006-2009
  • Phi Kappa Phi, University of Maryland, Baltimore Campuses
  • Licensed Certified Social Worker-Clinical, Maryland #09954, August 1998-Present
  • Licensed Independent Social Worker-Clinical Practice, South Carolina #10229, November 2012-Present

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