E. Alison Holman, Ph.D., F.N.P.

E. Alison Holman, Ph.D., F.N.P. is Associate Professor in the Program of Nursing Science at the University of California, Irvine and is a nationally certified Family Nurse Practitioner. She earned her BSN at San Francisco State University, BA in psychology at University of California, Santa Cruz, PhD in Health Psychology at University of California, Irvine, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in social psychology at Stanford University. She received the Chaim Danieli Young Investigator’s Award from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies in 2001 for her research on early cognitive predictors of long-term adjustment following trauma. Dr. Holman studies how people cope with highly stressful experiences (e.g., terrorism, incest, war) with special interest in understanding how acute responses (cognitive, emotional, and social) to trauma affect long-term mental and physical health. Her current research examines genetic susceptibility to co-morbid mental (e.g., acute and post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms) and physical (e.g., cardiovascular) health problems. Dr. Holman is systematically exploring genetic predispositions for acute stress responses that may contribute to the development of PTS and cardiovascular ailments over time. Through this research she hopes to identify pathways linking psychological trauma with physical disease that may open new avenues for secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease using individually-tailored early interventions.