Marines


Deputy Dir. of Psychological Health

CDR (USPHS) Meena Vythilingam is a board certified psychiatrist and the Deputy Director of Psychological Health for the US Marine Corp.  She attended Yale University School of Medicine for her residency training in psychiatry in addition to training at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India.  After her post-doctoral fellowship at Yale University, she served on the faculty as an Assistant Professor.  She then led clinical research for 8.5 years at the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Bethesda, MD. Over the course of her time at Yale, NIMHANS and the NIMH, CDR Vythilingam published more 75 peer-reviewed articles on posttraumatic stress disorder, depression and psychological resilience.  She joined the Department of Defense (DoD) in 2009 as the Deputy Director of Psychological Health (PH) Strategic Operations at Force Health Protection & Readiness, in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) where she led policies on deployment mental health assessment and combat operational stress. She also served in leadership positions in the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) where she led numerous DoD PH efforts including program evaluation. She has received numerous awards to include the DoD and USPHS Meritorious Service Medals, Commendation Medals, Applied Public Health Physician of the Year, and an Army Achievement Medal.

Meena Vythilingam, M.D.

Commandar, USPHS

meena.vythilingam@usmc.mil

703-604-4597

Headquarters Marine Corps