Dr. Lynette Hamlin Named Inaugural Director of USU’s Military Women’s Health Research Program

Dr. Lynette Hamlin was recently appointed as the inaugural director of the Military Women’s Health Research Program at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USU). Hamlin will lead and oversee the university’s research efforts on the health of military women. USU President, Dr. Jonathan Woodson, made the designation on December 4, 2023.

Hamlin is professor and associate dean for Faculty Affairs for USU’s Daniel K. Inouye Graduate School of Nursing (GSN). She earned her B.S. in Nursing and M.S. in Nursing as a maternal-child clinical nurse specialist from Loyola University of Chicago. She later earned her post-master’s certificate in nurse-midwifery from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a PhD in Nursing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She joined the USU faculty in 2016. Her research focuses on women’s access to care, nurse-midwifery outcomes, health services research, and quality of care issues.

In addition to her accomplishments as an educator and clinician, Hamlin is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, the American College of Nurse-Midwives, and a participant in the Department of Health and Human Services 2003 Primary Health Care Policy Fellowship. She received the Faye G. Abdellah Senior Research Award, presented by the GSN in 2022.

Hamlin is also a recipient of the Kitty Ernst Award, now the Excellence in Leadership and Innovation Award, which recognizes certified nurse-midwives who within ten years of certification have displayed innovative, creative endeavors in midwifery and/or clinical practice, education, administration, or research.

Hamlin’s appointment as director of the Military Women’s Health Research Program (MWHRP) is a testament to her “outstanding leadership and research contributions in the field of military women’s health,” says president Woodson.

Woodson adds that Hamlin’s work has proven “instrumental in advancing our understanding of the unique health needs of military women and developing policy directions to address these needs.”

Before she was appointed director, Hamlin served as a co-principal investigator on the MWHRP with now-retired Army Col. Angela Simmons. Simmons is the former commandant of the GSN.

The MWHRP, part of the Office of the Vice President of Research at USU, started in 2017. The program’s mission is to foster research that influences policy and guides best practices for the health care of active duty Servicewomen and Veterans.

Each year, the MWHRP provides funding opportunities totaling $1.67 million. Two to three proposals receive a grant each year.

The calls for proposals “takes a village,” says Hamlin. The MWHRP collaborates with clinical partners, policy partners, and practicing clinicians when selecting each year’s research topics. Hamlin says such input ensures topics are timely and fills a gap in the science of sex-based differences in the military.

The objectives for FY2023 proposals sought the healthcare needs of Servicewomen regarding musculoskeletal injuries and the impact of new walk-in contraceptive clinics. The call for proposals begins each October. Following reviews by the MWHRP and the National Institutes of Health, funding notifications occur the following March.

Following this year’s announcements, the MWHRP will have eight funded ongoing projects. The grants are intramural, requiring the principal investigator to qualify as USU faculty. However, the grant encourages collaboration with outside investigators, military treatment facilities, and DoD organizations.

Hamlin also maintains a database of all military women’s health research conducted at USU since the start of the program. Currently, there is no other central portfolio that gathers military women’s health research occurring within the DoD. Hamlin was tasked by Military Health System (MHS) leadership with bringing the database forward-facing and MHS-wide.

Doing so will allow DoD partners invested in women’s health research to have a collated idea of past and upcoming research. Hamlin says her ultimate goal with the database is to “look at how we extrapolate this research into our practices.”

Hamlin’s goal mirrors that of the newly-formed White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research. President Joe Biden announced the new initiative on November 13, 2023. As director of the MWHRP, Hamlin will serve as a representative of USU to organizations regarding military women’s health, such as the White House’s Initiative, as well as to the Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs and others.