Contact Information

Medical and Clinical Psychology: Faculty


Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Medical and Clinical Psychology
4301 Jones Bridge Road
Bethesda, Maryland 20814-4799
Phone: (301) 295-3271
FAX: (301) 295-3034
Email: marjan.holloway@usuhs.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Holloway Lab


Marjam Holloway, Medical and Clinical Psychology

Marjan G. Holloway, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Medical & Clinical Psychology
Clinical Internship Coordinator
Education: B.S. (1994) in Biology, B.A. in Psychology, Minor in English Literature, University of California, Irvine; M.A. (1997) in Pre-Clinical Psychology, Chapman University; Ph.D. (2003) in Clinical Psychology, Fairleigh Dickinson University; Postdoctoral Fellow (2005), Department of Psychiatry's Center for the Treatment and Prevention of Suicide, Center for Cognitive Therapy, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Research and Teaching

Research Topics: Dr. Holloway's research focuses primarily on the development and empirical validation of cognitive behavioral interventions for the prevention of suicide among military personnel and family members with suicide-related ideation and/or behaviors. Currently, Dr. Holloway is engaged in the implementation of four randomized controlled trials (RCTs) at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry and at the Ft. Belvoir Community Hospital, Department of Psychiatry. Additional research topics that examine modifiable risk (e.g., trauma) and protective (e.g., social support) factors associated with military suicide-related behaviors are also studied in order to inform evidence-based approaches to primary, secondary, and tertiary suicide prevention efforts. Other research topics include evaluation of suicide prevention programs, deployment related factors and suicide, healthcare utilization post psychiatric hospitalization, adapting cognitive behavior therapy for brain injured populations, psychotherapy outcome research for mood/anxiety disorders, meta-analytic approaches, and factors such as researcher allegiance often associated with treatment outcome.

Current Grant Support: 1) USUHS intramural new faculty startup package; 2) Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP); 3) Military Operational Medicine Research Program (MOMRP); 4) National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD); 5) United States Marine Corps Suicide Prevention Program; 6) United States Navy Suicide Prevention Program; and 7) United States Air Force Suicide Prevention Program.

Medical Student Teaching: Lectures on causes and prevention of burn-out among health professionals, suicide, and psychological assessment.

Graduate Student Teaching: Foundations of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Clinical Psychology Skills; Case Seminar; Psychopathology (Lecture on Mood Disorders); Health Psychology (Seminar on Suicide in the Medically Ill; Psychiatric Comorbidity and Medical Conditions).

Mentoring: Dr. Holloway is currently supervising 6 Clinical Psychology Ph.D. students, 3 Postdoctoral Fellows, and 2 licensed Psychologists in research and clinical work. Furthermore, she serves as a clinical advisor for other Ph.D. students and is one of the three core faculty supervisors for Case Conference. As the Internship Coordinator, Dr. Holloway mentors doctoral students in the process of securing an APA-approved internship site.

Selected Recent Publications

Ireland, R., Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M., & Brown, D. G. (in press). Ongoing efforts to address the public health problem of military suicide within the United States Department of Defense. In J. Amara & A. Hendricks, (Ed.), Military medical care: From predeployment to post-separation. Abingdon: Routledge.

Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M., & Balakar, J. (in press). Treating Veterans and military families. In G. P. Koocher, J. Norcross, & B. Greene (Eds.), Psychologist' desk reference 3rd edition. New York: Oxford University Press.

Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M., Cox, D., & Greene, F. (2012). Post-admission cognitive therapy: A brief intervention for psychiatric inpatients admitted after a suicide attempt. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 19, 233-244.

Knox, K., Stanley, B., Currier, G., Brenner, L., Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M., Brown, G. (2012). An emergency department-based brief intervention for Veterans at risk for suicide (SAFE VET). American Journal of Public Health, 102(S1), S33-S37.

Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M., Bhar, S., Brown, G., Olsen, C., & Beck, A. T. (2012). Changes in problem solving appraisal after cognitive therapy for the prevention of suicide. Psychological Medicine, 42, 1185-1193.

Cox, D., Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M., Greene, F., Bakalar, J., Schendel, C., Nademin, E., Jobes, D., Englert, D., & Kindt, M. (2011). Suicide in the United States Air Force: Risk factors communicated before and at death. Journal of Affective Disorders, 133, 398-405.

Dennis, J., Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M., Cox, D., & Brown, G. (2011). A guide for the assessment and treatment of suicidal patients with traumatic brain injuries. Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, 26, 244-256.

Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M., Cox, D., Fritz, L., & George, B. (2011). An evidence informed guide for working with military women and veterans. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 42, 1-7.

Stirman, S. W., Brown, G. K., Gharamanlou-Holloway, M., Fox, A., Chohan, M., & Beck, A. T. (2011). Participation bias among suicidal adults in a randomized controlled trial. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 41, 203-209.

Cox, D., Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M., Szeto, E., Greene, F., Engel, C., Wynn, G., Bradley, J., & Grammer, G. (2011). Gender differences in documented trauma histories: Inpatients admitted to a military psychiatric unit for suicide-related thoughts or behaviors. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 199, 183-190.

Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M. (2011). Lessons learned from a soldier's suicide in Iraq. A response to Russell Carr [Peer commentary on the journal article "When a solider commits suicide in Iraq: Impact on unit and caregivers"]. Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes, 74, 115-117.

Department of Defense Task Force on the Prevention of Suicide by Members of the Armed Forces. (2010). The challenge and the promise: Strengthening the force, preventing suicide and saving lives. Washington, DC.

Professional Activities

Selected Professional Activities: Dr. Holloway is a Diplomate of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy and a faculty member of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy in Philadelphia. She serves as a full member of the USUHS Institutional Review Board (IRB), a member of the Department of Defense Suicide Prevention and Risk Reduction Committee (SPARRC), and a Scientific Advisor to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Dr. Holloway has served on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Exploratory Team on international military suicide as well as the Defense Health Board (DHB) Task Force on the Prevention of Suicide by Members of the Armed Forces (recently released report ). Most recently, Dr. Holloway has been selected to chair the NATO Human Factors and Medicine Research Task Group (HFM-RTG-218) on international military suicide. Dr. Holloway has served as a trainer for the Center for Deployment Psychology; moreover, she has provided training and supervision on cognitive behavioral assessment and management of suicide for civilian, DoD/VA, and international providers. Dr. Holloway is a licensed psychologist with a private practice in Bethesda, Maryland where she provides cognitive behavior therapy to adults, families, and couples.

Selected Awards and Honors: 2012 Fellow, Summer Institute on Randomized Behavioral Clinical Trials, National Institutes of Health, Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research; 2009 Recipient of the Cinda Helke Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Advocacy - Student Nominated.