Dr. Tom Berger is a Life Member of
Vietnam Veterans of America and currently serves as national chair of
VVA’s PTSD and Substance Abuse Committee. As such, he is a member of
the Veterans’ Healthcare Administration’s (VHA) Consumer Liaison Council
for the Committee on Care of Veterans with Serious Mental Illness. In
addition, Dr. Berger holds the distinction of being the first
representative of a national veterans’ service organization to hold
membership on the Executive Committee of the VHA’s Substance Use
Disorder Quality Enhancement Research Initiative. He is also a member
of VVA’s Health Care, Government Affairs, and Project 112/SHAD
committees. At the local level he serves as Secretary of the Missouri
Vietnam Veterans Foundation and as Membership Chair and Assistant
Secretary for V.V.A.’s Missouri State Council.
Dr. Berger served as a Navy Corpsman with
the 3rd Marine Corps Division in Vietnam, 1967-68. Upon
completion of his military service and then subsequently after earning
his doctoral degree, he held faculty and administrative appointments at
the University of Kansas in Lawrence, the State University System of
Florida in Tallahassee and the University of Missouri-Columbia, as well
as program administrator positions with the Illinois Easter Seal Society
and United Cerebral Palsy of Northwest Missouri. His professional
publications include books and research articles in the biological
sciences, wildlife regulatory law, adolescent risk behaviors, and
post-traumatic stress disorder.
Dr. Berger now devotes his efforts
full-time to veterans’ advocacy at the local, state and national levels
on behalf of Vietnam Veterans of America. He presently resides in
Columbia, Missouri and his hobbies are cycling, music, cooking, and
reading. He has not owned a television set since 1988 and has no
intention of acquiring one in the near future.
