Biography
Dr. E. Alison Holman, PhD, FNP conducts research to identify early predictors of trauma-related health problems that can be targeted for secondary interventions to prevent the morbidity and mortality associated with both individual (e.g., abuse, stroke) and collective trauma exposure (e.g., 9/11 terrorist attacks, mass shootings, COVID-19 pandemic). She focuses on early trauma-related cognitive, emotional, social, behavioral, and physiological processes that may explain how psychological trauma affects mental and physical health problems. She has served as Principal Investigator or co-PI on several community-based studies of coping with a variety of collective traumas (e.g., wildfires, terrorism, COVID-19) that were funded by the National Science Foundation and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation. After the September 11th terrorist attacks her team conducted a 3-year prospective, longitudinal study of coping in a nationally representative sample to examine the cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and social processes affecting mental and physical health following this national collective event. She subsequently received the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholars award (2010-2013) to expand the 9/11 study to examine genetic susceptibility to acute stress and subsequent trauma-related health outcomes. Drawing from prior theoretical and empirical work on stress response, she examined how stress-related genetic processes were associated with 9/11-related mental and physical health problems. She received National Institute of Nursing Research funding for a 5-year longitudinal study on the impact of genetic susceptibility to stress in functional rehabilitation outcomes following stroke. In early 2020, her team started an NSF-funded prospective longitudinal study of responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, and related compounding, cascading collective traumas (e.g., economic downturn, political polarization, racial trauma, climate) among a nationally representative sample of Americans. Finally, she has also extended her work to address historical collective trauma and its implications for both mental and physical health disparities across generations of Black and Indigenous Americans.
Dr. Holman teaches courses that address compassionate care for underserved populations, strategies for reducing biases in healthcare, interdisciplinary approaches to understanding how compassion manifests in healthcare delivery settings, and climate resilience.
Research Interests
Acute stress; individual & collective trauma; media exposure to collective trauma; predictors of trauma-related health problems; intergenerational transmission of trauma-related health problems; temporal disintegration; time perception.
Education
2001 Family Nurse Practitioner Certification, Department of Family Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine
1996 Ph.D. Psychology and Social Behavior (Health Psychology) , School of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine
1992 M.A. Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine
1989 B.A. with Highest Honors in Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz
1981 B.S. Nursing Summa Cum Laude with Highest Honors in School of Education, San Francisco State University
Honors and Awards
- 2022 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies Innovation Award, Given to an individual or group who has used innovative methods to advance the field of traumatic stress in the areas of prevention, research, treatment, teaching, policy and advocacy.
- 2022 American Psychological Association Division 56: Trauma Psychology Award for Outstanding Contributions to Practice. This award recognizes distinguished contributions to Trauma Psychology practice and theory.
- 2019 Selected Member, Academy for Behavioral Medicine Research
- 2019 Athalie Clark Achievement Award for Research, UC Irvine School of Medicine
- 2018 Fellow American Academy of Nursing
- 2016 University of California, Irvine Academic Senate Distinguished Mid-Career Faculty Award for Service
- 2014 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies’ Frank Ochberg Award for Media and Trauma Study 2014
Publications
2013 – Life Events Exposure in Boston Marathon Bombing
2023 – Did COVID-19 Put Us in a Time Warp? Research Indicates Pandemic Changed Our Perception of Time
Silver Stress and Coping Lab News Media and Blog Articles
Silver Stress and Coping Lab Television/Radio/Podcasts/Webcasts
Silver Stress and Coping Lab Webinars
