MIRECC / CoE
Leadership and Senior Staff | Rocky Mountain MIRECC
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Our Mission & Vision
The mission of the Rocky Mountain MIRECC is to study suicide with the goal of reducing suicidal ideation and behaviors in the Veteran population. Towards this end, the work of the Rocky Mountain MIRECC is focused on promising clinical interventions, as well as the cognitive and neurobiological underpinnings of suicidal thoughts and behaviors that may lead to innovative prevention strategies.
The vision of the Rocky Mountain MIRECC is to increase information and treatment options available to Veterans, their families and the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) so that care decisions and care provided are aimed at decreasing suicide risk.
Contact Us
If you have questions or comments, please reach out to us via email: RockyMountainMIRECC@va.gov.
Staff
Leadership - Denver
Research Core Leadership
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Nazanin Bahraini, PhD (she/her)
Acting Director and Clinical Research Psychologist, Rocky Mountain MIRECC
Department of Veterans Affairs, Rocky Mountain Regional VAMC
Aurora, CO
Email: Nazanin.Bahraini@va.gov
Publications: PUBMED | Google Scholar
Nazanin Bahraini, PhD, is a Clinical Research Psychologist. She is the Acting Director at the Rocky Mountain MIRECC. She is also an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Her areas of research interest include dissemination and implementation of evidence-based practices in suicide prevention and novel, transdiagnostic treatment approaches for mental health conditions.
Education Core Leadership
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Sean Barnes, PhD (he/him)
Acting Director of Education and Clinical Research Psychologist, Rocky Mountain MIRECC
Department of Veterans Affairs, Rocky Mountain Regional VAMC
Aurora, CO
Phone: 720-723-6560
Email: Sean.Barnes2@va.gov
Publications: PUBMED | Google Scholar
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Lauren M. Borges, PhD (she/her)
Acting Director of Training and Clinical Research Psychologist, Rocky Mountain MIRECC
Department of Veterans Affairs, Rocky Mountain Regional VAMC
Aurora, CO
Phone: 303-916-0128
Email: Lauren.Borges2@va.gov
Publications: PUBMED | Google Scholar
Clinical Core Leadership
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Bridget B. Matarazzo, PsyD (she/her)
Director of Clinical Services, Rocky Mountain MIRECC
Department of Veterans Affairs, Rocky Mountain Regional VAMC
Aurora, CO
Email: Bridget.Matarazzo@va.gov
Publications: PUBMED | Google Scholar
Bridget B. Matarazzo, PsyD, is the Director of Clinical Services at VA's Rocky Mountain MIRECC for Suicide Prevention. She is Co-Director of VA's Suicide Risk Management Consultation Program and leads a team that provides implementation support for multiple national VA suicide prevention programs, such as the VA Suicide Risk Identification Strategy. She is also an Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Colorado, School of Medicine.
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Hal S. Wortzel, MD
Director VA Advanced Fellowship Program in Mental Illness - Psychiatry
Director of Neuropsychiatry Consultation Services
Co-Director of the Suicide Risk Management (SRM) Consultation Program
Rocky Mountain MIRECC
Department of Veterans Affairs, Rocky Mountain Regional VAMC
Aurora, CO
Phone: 720-723-6481
Email: Hal.Wortzel@va.gov
Publications: PUBMED
Dr. Wortzel is a forensic neuropsychiatrist at the Rocky Mountain MIRECC, where he serves as Director of Neuropsychiatric Consultation Services and Co-director for the Suicide Risk Management Consultation Program. He is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at of the University of Colorado, and serves as the Michael K. Cooper Professor of Neurocognitive Disease, and as Faculty for the Program in Forensic Psychiatry. Areas of research/scholarship interest include suicide risk management, aggression, and suicide in the context of PTSD and TBI, brain injury litigation, and the application of emerging neuroscientific tools to the legal arena.
Data & Statistical Core Leadership
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Jeri E. Forster, PhD (she/her)
Director of Data and Statistical Core, Rocky Mountain MIRECC
Department of Veterans Affairs, Rocky Mountain Regional VAMC
Aurora, CO
Phone: 720-938-2708
Email: Jeri.Forster@ucdenver.edu
Publications: PUBMED
Leadership - Salt Lake City
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Deborah Yurgelun-Todd, PhD
Associate Director, Rocky Mountain MIRECC
Department of Veterans Affairs, Salt Lake City VAMC
Salt Lake City, UT
Phone: 801-582-1565 x2821
Email: Deborah.YurgelunTodd@va.gov
Publications: PUBMED | Google Scholar
Dr. Yurgelun-Todd is an Associate Director for the Rocky Mountain MIRECC and a USTAR Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Utah School of Medicine as well as the Director of the Cognitive Neuroimaging Laboratory at the Brain Institute at the University of Utah. Her research focus is on identifying the neuropsychological and neurobiological bases of major psychiatric disorders including substance abuse and mood disorders.
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Perry F. Renshaw, MD, PhD, MBA
Medical Director, Rocky Mountain MIRECC
Department of Veterans Affairs, Salt Lake City VAMC
Salt Lake City, UT
Phone: 801-582-1565 x2776
Email: Perry.Renshaw@va.gov
Publications: PUBMED | Google Scholar
Dr. Perry Renshaw is a USTAR Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Utah School of Medicine as well as the Director of the Magnetic Resonance Laboratory at the Brain Institute at the University of Utah. Prior to Dr. Renshaw's recruitment to the University of Utah and the Rocky Mountain MIRECC in 2008, he spent fifteen years on the psychiatry faculty at Harvard Medical School, where he served as director of the Brain Imaging Center at McLean Hospital. His work with the Rocky Mountain MIRECC has focused on the role of altitude as a novel risk factor for suicide.
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Erin C. McGlade, PhD (she/her)
Clinical Research Psychologist & Co-Director of the VASLC Advanced Fellowship Program in Mental Illness Research and Treatment, Rocky Mountain MIRECC
Department of Veterans Affairs, Salt Lake City VAMC
Salt Lake City, UT
Email: Erin.McGlade@va.gov
Publications: PUBMED | Google Scholar
Dr. McGlade is Co-Director of the Advanced Fellowship Program in Mental Illness Research and Treatment at the Salt Lake City MIRECC and an Associate Professor in the University of Utah School of Medicine and Huntsman Mental Health Institute (HMHI). Her research interests include the neurobiological bases and clinical correlates of suicide behavior in female Veterans.
Last Updated 10 February 2025