Military Transition Theory

Dr. Carl Castro joined the USC School of Social Work faculty in 2013 after serving 33 years in the Army, where he obtained the rank of colonel. He is also the director for the USC Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans & Military Families. Castro began his military career as an infantryman in 1981. Throughout his military career, Castro has served in a variety of research and leadership positions, including commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Unit-Europe in Heidelberg, Germany; chief of the Department of Military Psychiatry at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, D.C.; and director of the Military Operational Medicine Research Program, Headquarters, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Fort Detrick, Maryland. Castro has completed two tours in Iraq and peacekeeping missions to Bosnia and Kosovo. He is currently chair of a NATO research group on military mental health training and serves as an adviser for several Department of Defense research panels focused on psychological health. He is the current editor of Military Behavioral Health, the flagship academic journal about the biopsychosocial health and well-being of service members, veterans and military families. Castro has authored more than 150 scientific articles and reports in numerous research areas. His current research efforts focus on assessing the effects of combat and operations tempo (OPTEMPO) on soldier, family and unit readiness, and evaluating the process of service members' transitions from military to civilian life
Dr. Sara Kintzle joined the USC School of Social Work as a Research Assistant Professor in 2013 after graduating from the University of Georgia's doctoral social work program. She has also received masters and bachelor's degrees in social work, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, from the University of Iowa. Dr. Kintzle is currently at the USC Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans & Military Families and has focused on military research for the past seven years. She currently serves as the Principal Investigator on the Chicagoland Veterans Study, a community needs assessment of veterans living in Chicago. Her current research efforts also include a Department of Defense funded project testing the efficacy of virtual training for military behavioral health providers and the use of technology in the adoption of evidence based practice. Along with these studies, Dr. Kintzle currently serves as Co-Principal Investigator on both the Wounded Warrior Project looking at rates of suicide in severely wounded veterans and the Army Comprehensive Solider Fitness 2 project. Her most recent research efforts include Exploring the Economic and Employment Challenges Facing U.S. Veterans, exploring issues of chronic unemployment in veterans, The State of the American Veteran: The Los Angeles County Veterans Study and The State of the American Veteran: The Orange County Veterans Study, both community needs assessment of Los Angeles and Orange County veterans.