Carrie Elk, PhD, assistant professor of nursing, was recently appointed the military liaison for the USF College of Nursing.

In this new role, Dr. Elk will develop and maintain relationships with service members and their families, military agencies and veteran groups by increasing the visibility and involvement of the college in the military community locally, regionally and nationally. She will also explore and encourage potential education, service and research collaborations.

Carrie Elk, PhD

Dr. Elk leads the clinical military mental health specialist team for the federally-funded RESTORE LIVES (Research to Improve Emotional Health and Quality of Life among Service Members with Disabilities) project. She is an investigator for one of the studies evaluating Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), a therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder that integrates one-on-one therapy and back-and-forth eye movements, similar to those experienced in REM sleep, to help people replace disturbing images from a life-threatening experience with something positive.

Dr. Elk supports and hopes to expand the RESTORE LIVES project, which was established to help soldiers of Iraq and Afghanistan, heal from symptoms of combat exposure, including post traumatic stress and mild traumatic brain injury. The project builds upon the larger veterans reintegration strategy at USF, tapping into the University’s vast interprofessional resources in education, research and service to help develop innovative interventions.