Margret Bell, Ph.D. earned her doctorate in counseling psychology from Boston College and currently serves as the National Deputy Director for Military Sexual Trauma (MST) and the Director of the national MST Support Team of the Department of Veterans Affairs Mental Health Services (MHS) national program office. The MST Support Team works at a national level within the Veterans Health Administration to promote best practices in the field and assist VA in meeting legal mandates related to services for Veterans who experienced sexual assault or sexual harassment while in the military. The team also works closely with MHS to make recommendations regarding national policy related to MST and to respond to Congressional and VA leadership requests for information. Other key components of the team’s work include providing trainings and consultation on sexual trauma-related issues, developing outreach and training materials and other resources for the field, and monitoring and expanding MST-related programming nationwide.

Dr. Bell also serves as a staff psychologist at the Women’s Health Sciences Division of the National Center for PTSD, VA Boston Healthcare System where her research focuses on victim, community, and systemic responses to interpersonal violence. A particular interest is in improving the experiences that victims of intimate partner violence, sexual assault and other traumas have when interacting with community agencies, institutions, and other systems.

Dr. Bell also treats patients and provides clinical supervision to trainees as a member of VA Boston’s Women’s Stress Disorder Treatment Team.

She is an Associate Professor in the Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry.