Jennifer “Gala” True, Ph.D.

Gala True is a medical anthropologist and folklorist whose research focuses on the role of narrative and ethnography to reduce barriers to care and improve post-deployment health outcomes for combat veterans. She recently completed an intervention study investigating the use of Life Story interviews to decrease social anxiety and PTSD symptoms for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Her current work involves using visual images and first-person narratives to sensitize VA clinicians to deployment and post-deployment experiences and perspectives of returning combat veterans, and to promote patient-centered care at the VA.