Sonja V. Batten, Ph.D.

Sonja V. Batten, Ph.D., is Senior Psychological Health Advisor at Booz Allen and leads the firm’s Behavioral Health Community of Practice. Prior to joining Booz Allen, she worked in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in the role of Deputy Chief Consultant for Specialty Mental Health. Her responsibilities included supervising the development of mental health policy related to women’s mental health, military sexual trauma, PTSD, suicide prevention, and substance use disorders, including collaboration with the Department of Defense. She also led the VA’s innovative nationwide mental health public awareness campaign Make the Connection, which won more than 50 awards in 2 years, and spearheaded its complementary social media component.

Dr. Batten was the first Deputy Director of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury and the first Associate Director for Women’s Health Research at Yale University. While leading the outpatient and residential PTSD programs for the VA Maryland Health Care System, she established its first mental health outreach and clinical program for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno. She is also a certified executive coach and Prosci change management practitioner.