COL Ritchie is the Director of the Proponency of Behavioral Health Director at the Office of the US Army Surgeon General. She has held numerous leadership positions within Army Medicine, to include the Psychiatry Consultant. She trained at Harvard, George Washington, Walter Reed, and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and has completed fellowships in both forensic and preventive and disaster psychiatry. She is a Professor of  Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Her  assignments and other missions have taken her to Korea, Somalia, Iraq, and Cuba.  She has over 130 publications, mainly in the areas of forensic, disaster, suicide, ethics, military combat and operational psychiatry, and women’s health issues. Major publications include the textbook, “Mental Health Interventions for Mass Violence and Disaster” and “Humanitarian Assistance and Health  Diplomacy: Military-Civilian Partnership in the 2004 Tsunami Aftermath”. She  is currently the senior editor on a forthcoming Military Medicine text on Combat and Operational Behavioral Health. An internationally recognized expert, she brings a unique public health approach to the management of disaster and combat mental health issues.