Holloway Faculty Page

Phone: 301-295-3271
E mail: mholloway@usuhs.mil
Associate Professor of Medical & Clinical Psychology
Education: B.S. (1994) in Biology, B.A. in Psychology, Minor in English Literature, University of California, Irvine; M.A. (1997) in Pre-Clinical Psychology, Chapman University; Ph.D. (2003) in Clinical Psychology, Fairleigh Dickinson University; Postdoctoral Fellow (2005), Department of Psychiatry's Center for the Treatment and Prevention of Suicide, Center for Cognitive Therapy, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
 
Curriculum Vitae
 
Research and Teaching
Recent Publications
Professional Activities

Laboratory for the Treatment of Suicide-Related Ideation and Behavior

Research and Teaching

Research Topics: Dr. Holloway's research focuses primarily on the development and empirical validation of cognitive behavioral interventions for the prevention of suicide among military personnel and family members with suicide-related ideation and/or behaviors. Currently, Dr. Holloway is engaged in the implementation of four randomized controlled trials (RCTs) at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry and at the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Department of Psychiatry. Additional research topics that examine modifiable risk (e.g., trauma) and protective factors (e.g., social support) associated with military suicide-related behaviors are also studied in order to inform evidence-based approaches to primary, secondary, and tertiary suicide prevention efforts. Other interests include evaluation of suicide prevention programs, deployment related factors and suicide, healthcare utilization post psychiatric hospitalization, adapting cognitive behavior therapy for brain injured populations, psychotherapy outcome research for mood/anxiety disorders, meta-analytic approaches, and factors such as researcher allegiance often associated with treatment outcome.

Current Grant Support: 1) USUHS intramural new faculty startup package; 2) Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP); 3) Military Operational Medicine Research Program (MOMRP); 4) National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD); 5) United States Marine Corps Suicide Prevention Program; and 6) United States Navy Suicide Prevention Program
 
Medical Student Teaching: Lectures on causes and prevention of burn-out among health professionals, suicide, and psychological assessment.
 
Graduate Student Teaching: Foundations of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Clinical Psychology Skills; Case Seminar; Psychopathology (Lecture on Mood Disorders); Health Psychology (Seminar on Suicide & Medical Illness).
 
Mentoring: Dr. Holloway is currently supervising 6 Clinical Psychology Ph.D. students and 4 Postdoctoral Fellows in research and clinical work. Furthermore, she serves as a clinical advisor for other Ph.D. students and is one of the three core faculty supervisors for Case Conference. As the Internship Coordinator, Dr. Holloway mentors doctoral students in the process of securing an APA-approved internship site.

Selected Recent Publications

Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M., Cox, D., & Greene, F. (in press). Post-admission cognitive therapy: A brief intervention for psychiatric inpatients admitted after a suicide attempt. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice.
 
Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M., Cox, D., Fritz, L., & George, B. (in press). An evidence informed guide for working with military women and veterans. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice.
 
Cox, D., Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M., Szeto, E., Greene, F., Engel, C., Wynn, G., Bradley, J., & Grammer, G. (in press). Gender differences in documented trauma histories: Inpatients admitted to a military psychiatric unit for suicide-related thoughts or behaviors. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease.
 
Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M. (in press). Lessons learned from a soldier's suicide in Iraq. A response to Russell Carr [Peer commentary on the journal article "When a solider commits suicide in Iraq: Impact on unit and caregivers"]. Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes.
 
Department of Defense Task Force on the Prevention of Suicide by Members of the Armed Forces. (2010). The challenge and the promise: Strengthening the force, preventing suicide and saving lives. Washington, DC.
 
Stirman, S. W., Brown, G. K., Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M., Fox, A., Chohan, M., & Beck, A. T. (in press). Participation bias among suicidal adults in a randomized controlled trial. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior.
 
Martin, J., Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M., Lou, K., & Tucciarone, P. (2009). A comparative review of U.S. military and civilian suicide behavior: Implications for OEF/OIF suicide prevention efforts. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 31(2), 101-118.
 
Tomak, S. L., Wechsler, F. S., Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M., Virden, T. B., & Nademin, M. E. (2009). An empirical study of the personality characteristics of internet sex offenders. Journal of Sexual Aggression, 15, 139-148.
 
Nademin, E., Jobes, D. A., Pflanz, S. E., Jacoby, A. M., Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M., Campise, R., Joiner, T., Wagner, B. M., & Johnson, L. (2008). An investigation of interpersonal-psychological variables in Air Force suicides: A controlled-comparison study. Archives of Suicide Research, 12(4), 309-326.
 
Bhar, S. S., Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M., Brown, G. K., & Beck, A. T. (2008). Self-esteem and suicide ideation in psychiatric outpatients. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior, 38(5), 511-516.
 
Joe, S., Woolley, M. E., Brown, G., Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M., & Beck, A. T. (2008). Psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory-II in low income African-American suicide attempters. Journal of Personality Assessment, 90(5), 521-523.
 
Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M., Brown, G. K., & Beck, A. T. (2008). Suicide. In M. Whisman (Ed.), Adapting cognitive therapy for depression: Managing complexity and comorbidity. New York: Guilford Publications, Inc.
 
Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M., Wenzel, A., Lou, K., & Beck, A. T. (2007). Differentiating cognitive content between depressed and anxious outpatients. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 36, 170-178.
 
Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M. (2006). Meta-Analysis. In N. J. Silkind (Ed.), Encyclopedia of measurement and statistics. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Professional Activities

Selected Professional Activities: Dr. Holloway is a certified member of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy and a member of the American Psychological Association, the American Association of Suicidology, and the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. She serves as a full member of the USUHS Institutional Review Board (IRB), a member of the Department of Defense Suicide Prevention and Risk Reduction Committee (SPARRC), and the Chair of the American Association of Suicidology's IRB Task Force. Dr. Holloway has served on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Exploratory Team on international military suicide as well as the Defense Health Board (DHB) Task Force on the Prevention of Suicide by Members of the Armed Forces (for recently released report, click here ). Most recently, Dr. Holloway has been selected to chair the NATO Research Task Group on international military suicide. Dr. Holloway is a licensed psychologist with a private practice in Chevy Chase, Maryland where she provides individual cognitive behavior therapy to adults, families, and couples.
 
Selected Awards and Honors: Cinda Helke Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Advocacy — Student Nominated (2009); Marquis Who's Who in American Education Faculty Recognition Award (2003-2004).

Contact Information

Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
4301 Jones Bridge Road
Bethesda, Maryland 20814-4799


Center for Deployment Psychology
Center for Health Disparities