Patricia Elizabeth Lester

Dr. Patricia E. Lester serves as Department Vice Chair and Professor-in-residence in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. She holds the Jane and Marc Nathanson Endowed Chair and directs research through the UCLA Nathanson Family Resilience Center within the Division of Population Behavioral Health.

Dr. Lester's research spans trauma informed care, family resilience, population behavioral health, and prevention, with specialized focus on military families and children affected by parental HIV/AIDS. Her work bridges clinical practice with population-level interventions to enhance family resilience across diverse contexts including military deployment, HIV/AIDS, and other traumatic stressors. She has developed and implemented evidence-based interventions like the Families OverComing Under Stress (FOCUS) program for military families.

Her publication record demonstrates consistent scholarly productivity with over 50 publications spanning two decades. Recent work shows a shift toward school-based interventions, telehealth delivery of resilience programs, and biological investigations of trauma and resilience through multi-omics approaches. Her research has been continuously funded by NIH grants including studies on veteran families, parental wartime deployment, and somatization in adolescents of parents with AIDS.

• NIH R01HD072324: Promoting Resiliency in Veteran Families with Young Children (2013-2019)
• NIH R03HD049451: Parental Wartime Deployment on Adjustment in Children (2005-2009)
• NIH K23MH002050: Somatization in Adolescents of Parents with AIDS (2000-2006)

Dr. Lester mentors numerous researchers and clinicians in family resilience and collaborates extensively with military, healthcare, and community organizations. Her work has influenced policies and practices related to military family support and trauma-informed care across multiple systems including education, healthcare, and community services.