Dr. Elizabeth Holmes
Director of Assessment, Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership
Doctor Holmes was born in the U.S Navy Hospital, Chelsea, Massachusetts, and spent her childhood as part of a Navy family. Community minded at an early age she was a founder of the Franklin, Massachusetts, Youth Council and was a volunteer for five years at Wrentham State School for the Mentally Retarded.
She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology with a minor in Urban/Suburban studies from the University of Bridgeport. During her undergraduate years she was a student resident advisor and worked for the City of Bridgeport as a deputy probation officer. She completed post-graduate studies in the University of Bridgeport's College of Education earning a Master of Science degree in School Psychology and performing her internship at local public elementary and high schools and at a private school for autistic children.
Dr. Holmes matriculated to the California School of Professional Psychology in San Diego. She was accepted into the United States Navy Health Professions Scholarship Program and was commissioned a Lieutenant Junior Grade, Medical Service Corps. Her doctoral dissertation was "Individual Learning Styles and the Marital Interactive Process."
After receiving her doctoral degree, Dr. Holmes performed an internship in Clinical Psychology at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, MD. She was subsequently assigned duties as Chairman of the Department of Behavioral Psychology at the National Naval Dental Center where she became widely published and nationally known for her research in Temperomandibular Joint Pain. She also accepted an appointment as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Georgetown School of Dentistry.
Dr. Holmes was then assigned to the National Naval Medical Center. During her assignment she became a Navy pioneer in Health Psychology.
She developed health promotion programs in smoking cessation, weight control, stress management, and cardiac rehabilitation and authored the Navy Surgeon General's Manual for Stress Control provided to flag officers. She supervised the mental health care of casualties from Beirut and Grenada and published research in the area of Combat Psychology.
As a consultant to the National Science Foundation, Dr. Holmes screened personnel volunteering to winter-over in isolated stations in Antarctica. She became the first female military psychologist to travel to the South Pole to debrief personnel at the end of their winter isolation. During her stay in the Antarctic she was asked to consult with the "Footsteps of Scott" expedition on team selection before the ultimate success of that expedition. She was awarded the Antarctica Service Medal and invited to become a member of the Society of Woman Geographers.
Dr. Holmes was selected to become the Head of the Mental Health Division of the Navy's first HIV program. During her tenure over 600 patients were treated in what ultimately became a prototype program. She helped author and narrated the Navy's film on the HIV program. She was also invited to become a reviewer for the National Register of Health Care Providers in Psychology.
Dr. Holmes entered private practice in the Tidewater, Virginia, area and continued Naval service as a reservist becoming the Commanding Officer of a medical detachment. Continuing in her commitment to community service she was elected a trustee of the AIDS Foundation, Inc., in the commonwealth of Virginia. She made guest appearances on several local and national television shows discussing different areas of applied psychology.
Dr. Holmes was examined and certified as a Diplomate in Clinical Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology becoming one of only a few military psychologists to become board certified. She also became a Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Psychotherapists.
Dr. Holmes was asked to return to active duty to head a suicide research project with the Marine Corps, the largest such study ever undertaken in the military. During this tour she was appointed by the Commanding General, U.S. Marine Corps Bases, Pacific, as the officer-in-charge of a special team sent to Camp Pendleton, California, to intervene after a cluster of several suicides there in early 1993. Dr. Holmes was also officer-in-charge of a medical team sent to the Soloman Islands with 7 Medal Of Honor recipients during the 50th Anniversary remembrance of the Battle of Guadalcanal.
Dr. Holmes was Head of the Psychology Section, and served as Chairman of the Department of Leadership, Ethics and Law at the United States Naval Academy. She also headed the highly visible Eating Disorders Program. In 1996, she became the first woman Naval officer to attain the academic rank of full Professor at the Naval Academy.
She served an overseas tour at the Naval Hospital, Rota, Spain, and returned to the Naval Academy where she was Deputy Director of the Character Development Division and was selected to be a Fellow at the Center for the Study of Professional Military Ethics. She retired from Naval service and is currently heading research into assessment of individual ethical development and developing a model for ethical decision making at the James B. Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership. Dr. Holmes recently completed the traditional El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage across Northern Spain.