Patricia Lester

Dr. Patricia Lester, the Jane and Marc Nathanson Family Professor of Psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and an expert on how families deal with trauma like natural disasters, military deployments, illness, shootings and violence.

Lester has applied her experience and expertise in mental health and family resiliency to female veterans, veterans and families/children, military families, formerly homeless female veterans in transitional housing.

Lester, who is the director of the Nathanson Family Resilience Center and medical director of Child and Family Trauma Service, co-developed the family-centered preventive intervention program called FOCUS, which was designed to promote resilience and mitigate stress in families facing adversities. FOCUS has been implemented by the United States Navy and Marine Corps.