Bruce H. Young, L.C.S.W., received his MSW from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1983. He has been working extensively as a practitioner, consultant, and education specialist in the field of disaster mental health since 1989 for the National Center for PTSD. As a practitioner, he has responded to numerous natural disasters, terrorist acts, and airline crashes. Mr. Young has served as consultant to the Center for Mental Health Services which oversees federally-funded crisis counseling programs, the National Association of Statewide Mental Health Directors, FEMA, the Department of Defense, and other federal, state, and non-governmental organizations.

He currently holds the chair of "Expert-at-Large" for the California Disaster Mental Health Coalition. As an education specialist, his publications and training programs have provided a standard for the field and are represented in the development of federal practice guidelines for disaster mental health services and the All-Hazards Planning Guide developed by the federal government for the state-level mental health planning. Mr. Young co-developed a cognitive behavioral group treatment for USS Cole survivors and is primary author of Disaster Mental Health Services: A Guidebook for Clinicians and Administrators (1998).

Josef Ruzek, Ph.D. is Associate Director for Education at the NCPTSD, Education Division, Palo Alto, and Associate Professor at Pacific Graduate School of Psychology. He is involved in a variety of activities designed to change practitioner behavior in ways that reflect current research evidence and theory and to encourage the development of traumatic stress research that addresses the pragmatic needs of clinicians and services administrators. He has consulted with many organizations, including the Center for Mental Health Services and New York’s Project Liberty.

Dr. Ruzek is an editor of the text Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies for Trauma, co-chair of the Early Intervention special interest group of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and a writer for an upcoming manual on Psychological First Aid following exposure to disaster/terrorist attack.Dr. Ruzek co-developed a cognitive behavioral group treatment for USS Cole survivors and co-authored Disaster Mental Health Services: A Guidebook for Clinicians and Administrators (1998).

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