Biography
Dr. Ritchie is the Chief Clinical Officer,Department of Mental Health, for the District of Columbia. She recently retiredfrom the Army and concluded five years as the Director of the Proponency ofBehavioral Health Director at the Office of the US Army Surgeon General. Shehas held numerous leadership positions within Army Medicine, to include thePsychiatry Consultant. She trained at Harvard, George Washington, Walter Reed,and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and has completedfellowships in both forensic and preventive and disaster psychiatry. She is aProfessor of Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of the HealthSciences.
An internationally recognized expert, she brings a unique publichealth approach to the management of disaster and combat mental health issues.Her assignments and other missions have taken her to Korea, Somalia, Iraq, andCuba. She has over 130 publications, mainly in the areas of forensic,disaster, suicide, ethics, military combat and operational psychiatry, andwomen’s health issues. Major publications include “The Mental Health Responseto the 9/11 Attack on the Pentagon”, “Mental Health Interventions for MassViolence and Disaster” and “Humanitarian Assistance and Health Diplomacy: Military-Civilian Partnership in the 2004 Tsunami Aftermath”. She is currentlythe senior editor on a forthcoming Military Medicine text on Combat andOperational Behavioral Health, the Textbook of Forensic Military Mental Health,and the Therapeutic Use of Canines in Army Medicine.