Joseph Geraci, a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army (Infantry), is director of military relations within the Columbia University Teachers College / Resilience Center for Veterans & Families. He was commissioned as an Infantry Officer in 1998 following graduation from the United States Military Academy (USMA), and along with his extensive military training and combat experience, he recently defended his clinical psychology doctorate dissertation from Teachers College.
As an academic and mental health provider, Geraci has utilized his personal experiences in combat to better understand the challenges facing veterans. From 2008-2011, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at USMA. He taught courses focused on leadership and psychology with a special emphasis on teaching leaders to develop resilience in their subordinates. Based on this course material, he developed leadership training that he provided to active duty units prior to deployments to Afghanistan and then in 2012 conducted a long-term study in Afghanistan to measure the effectiveness of the training. Additionally, he received his license as a New York State Mental Health Counselor by providing over 3,000 hours of psychotherapy for veterans (and emergency service personnel from 9/11) and their families.
Joseph Geraci continues research with veterans in New York City in an attempt to mitigate veteran suicide and post-traumatic stress levels through a peer mentorship program called ProVetus.