Contributions/Features

• "Veterans' mental health" (11 November 2019). Live television interview with Judi Gadson at WIS-TV on the
  unique mental health challenges faced by veterans.
• Based on the Journal of Traumatic Stress publication, Drs. Adams, Larson, and Wooten have been invited by the
  Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) to conduct the
  monthly “live” webinar they host for providers in the DoD and VA. The webinar will be conducted on October
  27th and is titled: Postdeployment Gender Differences in PTSD and Unhealthy Drinking.
  https://www.dropbox.com/s/5pq56hqoojms2uw/DCoE_OPS_PH_Webinar_October-2016_PostDeployment_Gender_Differences_PTSD_Presentation_508_v1.0_2016-11-04.pdf?dl=0
• Cited in Reuters’ Health News, August 10, 2016: The association of combat exposure and injuries with behavioral
  health problems among enlisted female Army members returning from Iraq or Afghanistan.
  http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-ptsd-women-combat-idUSKCN10L2FJ
• South Carolina Star Behavioral Health Providers’ Training Program. (2015, January 6). Television interview with
  WLTX. http://www.wltx.com/story/news/military/2015/01/06/usc-gets-grant-to-train-health-care-providers-inptsd/21366959/
• South Carolina Star Behavioral Health Providers’ Training Program. (2015, January 7). Radio interview with
  107.5 The Game.
• South Carolina Star Behavioral Health Providers’ Training Program. (2015, January 8). Newspaper interview
  with The Daily Gamecock.
• Episode 120 - Dr. Nikki Wooten: Gender differences among Army service members in substance use treatment
  utilization during the year prior to deployment. (2013, May 27). inSocialWork Podcast Series. [Audio
  Podcast] http://www.socialwork.buffalo.edu/podcast/episode.asp?ep=120

Research Expertise

• Substance use and psychological problems in military personnel and veterans

• Gender differences in military behavioral health service utilization

• Post-deployment mental health

Background

USC Associate Professor Nikki Wooten is a tenured faculty member in the College of Social Work where she teaches military social work and psychopathology graduate courses. She conducts behavioral health services research on military and veteran populations and has a research appointment at the William Jennings Bryan Dorn Veterans Administration Medical Center.  

Wooten received her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, Baltimore in 2009 and is principal investigator of Behavioral Health Care in Army Warrior Transition Units (the Army Warrior Care Project), funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.  For the past six years, Wooten served on the board of directors of the Dorn Research Institute at the Dorn VAMC. 

Wooten has over 31 years of military service and is a lieutenant colonel in the U. S. Army Reserves. She currently serves as a small group instructor for the Staff Officer’s Course at the U. S. Army’s Command and General Staff College. Wooten previously served in the District of Columbia National Guard (1994-2014) as Crisis Action Team Operations Officer (Domestic Operations Center and Army Operations Center, Pentagon), Company Commander, Secretary General Staff, Aide-de-Camp, and logistics officers and in the U. S. Army Reserves as an enlisted soldier (1989-1993).