SCHOLAR DIRECTORY

LCDR Jane Abanes’ medical career started in 1995 as a Navy Hospital Corpsman. Later commissioned as a Navy Nurse Corps Officer, she served in various settings including medical surgical ward, inpatient psychiatric unit, case management department, post-anesthesia care unit, and general surgery clinic. Her passion for mental health began during her post-master’s studies at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). As a PMHNP/CNS student at UCSF, she was a domestic violence counselor and victim’s language advocate at a women’s shelter, served San Francisco’s homeless population as a counselor, and volunteered in Haiti during the cholera epidemic as a Nurse Practitioner and mental health educator. As a board-certified PMHNP, she served Marines and Sailors with PTSD and other mental health illnesses and led civilian and junior personnel in military treatment facilities: (a) Deployment Health Center, Marine Corps Base, Hawaii; (b) Mental Health Department and Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Program Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; and (c) Marine Corps Air Station, Yuma, Arizona. She completed her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree from Vanderbilt University and received the Board of Directors’ (BOD) Graduate Student Scholar Award. Her work entitled, “Using a web-based patient-provider messaging system to enhance patient satisfaction among active duty Sailors and Marines seen in the psychiatric outpatient clinic: a pilot study” was chosen as the Rear Admiral Betsy Niemeyer Award for Evidence-Based Practice. She is currently enrolled in the PhD program at Vanderbilt University with plans to study the physiological effects of acupuncture for service members with PTSD.