(CPT.) Alison Lighthall, RN, BSN, MSN
Fellow-Massachusetts
Member- Combat Stress Board
Editor- Combat Stress e-Magazine
(CPT) Alison Lighthall, RN, BSN, MSN, is President of HAND2HAND CONTACT, a training and consulting company that helps civilian organizations better understand, work with, and care for our veterans. She joined the US Army Nurse Corps as a psychiatric nurse in 2004 at 46 years old, in response to the rapidly climbing rates of combat trauma and suicide. She worked to expand an understanding of our active duty, reserve, and veteran military citizens to as many people as possible, in order to “build a bridge” that would help veterans reconnect psychologically and emotionally with their families, friends, community and country. In 2007, she received the Army’s Commendation Medal for her work.
After her military discharge, she was hired by Fort Carson (CO) to be their Psychiatric Nurse Consultant and Coordinator of their Urgent Psychiatric Care Response Team, providing emergency psychiatric care to their most emotionally wounded. She was also tasked with creating a mental resilience training program for their 900 hospital staff, which was subsequently adopted by Army hospitals throughout the US.
Her clients include major metropolitan police departments, universities, correctional institutions, and hospitals across the country, assisting them with their veteran reintegration programs. An author of several articles and a frequent conference speaker and workshop leader, Alison uses her extensive clinical background and personal experiences to serve as a kind of translator of the military experience to those in the civilian sector. Her areas of expertise include post-traumatic stress and growth, combat stress, military suicide, veteran-involved crisis and hostage negotiations, and mental resiliency. She received her Bachelors Degree in nursing from Eastern Michigan University in 1983 and her Masters Degree summa cum laude in psychiatric nursing from the University of Illinois-Chicago in 1993. She was inducted into the American Institute of Stress as a Fellow in 2011, is a member of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA) and Mensa. Alison lives in the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts.
CPT. Lighthall participates in the AIS Speakers Bureau and can speak on the topics of Combat Operational Stress, PTSD and other relevant military stress topics.
If you would like to inquire about booking CPT. Lighthall for your event, please complete the Speakers Bureau request form.
