Content warning: This episode contains conversations on self-harm.

In this episode of the Vets First Podcast, Levi Sowers is joined by guest-turned-cohost, Louis Kolling. If you’re interested in learning more about Louis Kolling’s story, listen to Season 4: Episode 2 to hear about his journey from army veteran to molecular biophysicist. Now join the two as they speak with Jennifer Van Tiem and Nicole Johnson who dive into their qualitative research on how to discuss suicide with veterans. Nicole is a senior quantitative research specialist at the VA with the Office of Rural Health with a PhD in health communication from Indiana University. Jen Van Tiem is a PhD in applied anthropology from Columbia University and a principal investigator on a project aimed at providing practitioners with better tools for communicating with veterans.

Together, the pair explain how tools like theirs are designed to bridge the gap in communicating with veterans and specifically in regards to approaching the conversation of suicide. While no one tool can have all of the answers or say the perfect thing, their “conversation tool” guides practitioners towards desirable outcomes during difficult conversations.

There is also a focus on the rise of qualitative research and how it is used in a research setting to add context to the statistics of quantitative research. Despite the differences in their research practices, every one agrees that each form of research can be used to provide background, inform, and further the other.

Finally Louis speaks to his experiences speaking with other veterans about mental health and the difficulty in broaching that subject with health care providers out of fear. Louis focuses on a veteran’s fear of being labeled and forced into an unknown processes that may further strip them of their rights. The focus shifts to how dispelling the myths and stigma around mental health hospitalization could improve outcomes in these conversations.

Content warning: This episode contains conversations on addiction and self-harm.

In this episode of the Vets First Podcast, our host Levi Sowers tackles his first solo interview as Brandon takes time away to focus on his education. Join us as Levi speaks with our guest, Louis Kolling.

Louis Kolling has a PhD in molecular biophysics and is also a US Army veteran, having served from 2006 to 2012 as a sergeant during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Kolling currently conducts research as a postdoctoral scientist at the University of Iowa department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology. Recreationally, he is also powerlifter with four national and eleven state records.

Kolling’s unique perspective is the highlight of this episode. As both a veteran in need of the VA’s services and a researcher working to tackle problems those like him could face, Kolling is uniquely poised to be a perfect guest for the Vets First Podcast.

This interview centers around Louis’s personal history with enlisting in the military at a young age and searching for a purpose within its ranks and within the world of higher education. Kolling explains how his experiences led to struggles with alcohol dependency and depression and how, like many veterans, he was hesitant to seek help from the VA at a time when its services were undergoing major changes. Kolling explains the stigma that veterans face when confronting mental health issues and how his experiences have taught him how to help other veterans face their own hesitations.

In this episode of the Vets First Podcast, Dr. Levi Sowers and Brandon Rea are joined by Neil Andrews for a collaborative interview.

Niel Andrews is the executive editor and science journalist for the Migraine Science Collaborative, which serves as an online platform dedicated to a wide array of migraine-related research in pursuit of their mission statement, “To accelerate research advances in migraine and headache diseases.” Andrews explains how they aim to bridge the gap between complex scientific findings and a wider audience, ensuring that their content is accessible and informative for both experts and non-experts alike.

With a twist on our usual format, Neil Andrews conducts the first half of the interview and questions our hosts on the origins of the Vets First Podcast, which was created with a similar goal in communicating complex scientific issues to veterans and to better understand the issues they face. Levi and Brandon reflect on their interactions with veterans and the strength and resiliency of dealing with unseen diseases like migraines. Our hosts explain how, in contrast to other areas of pain research, migraine research has seen continued innovations. Despite this, they emphasize the need for more scientists dedicated to the field.

In the second half of the interview, Brandon and Levi question Neil Andrews about his life as a science journalist and the challenges faced by the Migraine Science Collaborative. Having shared similar experiences in their pursuits of communicating research, the trio discusses the difficulties in conveying intricate scientific methodologies and techniques to non-specialists but emphasizes the importance of making these studies more accessible and understandable.

Overall, the episode offers a look into the complexities of migraine research, the challenges of communicating basic science, and the collaborative efforts aimed at advancing understanding and treatment for individuals affected by migraines.

In this episode of the Vets First Podcast, hosts Dr. Levi Sowers and Brandon Rea interview Dr. Steven Fliesler, a SUNY Distinguished Professor at the University of Buffalo and a career scientist at the VA in Buffalo, New York. Dr. Fliesler holds positions as an endowed Chair of Ophthalmology and Director of Research in the Department of Ophthalmology.

Dr. Fliesler was born and raised in New York and moved to California at the age of 15. He attended the College of San Mateo, the University of California in San Diego, and the University of California Berkeley during his undergraduate education and later obtained his PhD in Biochemistry at Rice University. During his time at Rice, his professor in neurobiology needed someone, particularly a chemist, to give a lecture about the chemistry of vision. This led Dr. Fliesler to an opportunity at the Baylor College of Medicine, where he did a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Ophthalmology. From there, he has distinguished himself in research and teaching within the vision field and has since been interested in research towards helping Veterans with mild traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Throughout this episode, Dr. Fliesler discusses how he started researching TBI and why it interests him. First, he talks about what inspired him to enter blast injury research and highlights his collaboration with one of his colleagues. He then talks about utilizing animal models to better understand visual abnormalities found in trauma patients at the VA and converses about the methodology he used to quantify the visual effects of TBI, both behaviorally and physiologically.

Later, Dr. Fliesler further describes his exploration into blast research with a professor at the University of Buffalo. He comments on the effects of auditory blasts that cause trauma in mice and how that affects visual function. Then, he discusses the various mechanisms that causes visual deficits and how it is important to understand in the context of TBI in order to rescue visual impairments. Finally, he hypothesizes on how the human body reacts to TBI.

If you are a Veteran or you know a Veteran needing help with visual loss, contact the Visual Impairment Services Team coordinator at your nearest VA medical center or contact the Blind Rehabilitation Service Program by phone which can be found here. There are 13 Blind Rehabilitation Centers around the country, which can help with things like mobility, communication, and living with vision loss.

In this episode Dr. Levi Sowers and Brandon Rea interview Dr. Lina Kubli. Dr. Kubli is the RR&D Scientific Program Manager for Sensory Systems/Communication Disorders. Dr. Kubli was born in India and lived there until age 7 before moving the United States and settling in Maryland. She attended college at the University of Maryland initially majoring in Biochemistry, then switching to Hearing and Speech. In this time, Dr Kubli learned that she wanted to not only participate in clinical work but also interact with people while staying within research. She continued her education with earning her Master's in Audiology from the University of Maryland and worked with Veterans at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) as a Research Scientist and served as a Subject Matter Expert on Central Auditory Processing disorders and Traumatic Brain Injury. Initially reluctant to leave such an engaging research project, the director of the clinic encouraged Dr. Kubli to find a PhD program that could accommodate her schedule. She was able to find this balance at Gallaudet University, where she earned her PhD in Audiology. Dr. Kubli served on the Executive Committee of the Medical Staff as Chair for the Patient and Family Centered Care Steering Committee at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Together with Levi and Brandon, Dr. Kubli explains what it means to be a Scientific Program Manager and how she oversees the program within the Rehabilitation Research and Development Service. She evaluates a broad range of funding applications for research that include vision, hearing, balance, communication, and more. Additionally, she recruits individuals with expertise to best evaluate the funding applications. Many of the panel members are from outside of the VA to ensure that the most knowledgeable reviewers help navigate a project being implemented in the VA. Dr. Kubli shares about all the work that goes into supporting important research for the benefit of Veterans.

In this episode of the Vets First Podcast, hosts Dr. Levi Sowers and Brandon Rea interview Dr. Oliver Gramlich, a research health science specialist at the Iowa City VA Health Care System. He is also a research assistant professor in the Neuroscience and Pharmacology Program at the University of Iowa.

Dr. Gramlich was born in Frankfurt, Germany, and went to graduate school at the University of Mines, where he was interested in biology and ophthalmology. After he obtained his PhD, he was recruited to the University of Iowa to work on glaucoma-related vision loss at the Department of Ophthalmology. This led him to become interested in many other vision-related diseases surrounding the optic nerve, such as multiple sclerosis and traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Throughout the beginning of the episode, Dr. Gramlich narrates his journey to neuro-ophthalmology research at the University of Iowa and his preclinical research at the VA. He discusses the importance of using animal models to translate physiological knowledge from experiments to human subjects. He later talks about the importance of the optic nerve in visual information transmission and elaborates about the physiological mechanisms and effects of various diseases such as glaucoma and multiple sclerosis.

In the second half of the episode, Dr. Gramlich discusses potential treatments for vision-related diseases. He then talks about his work regarding biomarkers of the visual system that relate to humans and describes potential ways to enhance recovery in patients dealing with optic neuritis. Dr. Gramlich shares his work with utilizing a combination of different diets and drugs to manipulate metabolic pathways in order to promote neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory effects to remedy optic nerve inflammation. Lastly, he describes his use of three-dimensional imaging to observe disease progression and resolution based on multiple variables and how this can directly apply to the clinical side of vision.

If you are a Veteran or you know a Veteran needing help with visual loss, contact the Visual Impairment Services Team coordinator at your nearest VA medical center or contact the Blind Rehabilitation Service Program by phone which can be found here. There are 13 Blind Rehabilitation Centers around the country, which can help with things like mobility, communication, and living with vision loss.

In this episode of the Vets First Podcast Dr. Levi Sowers and Brandon Rea interview Elizabeth Holmes. Elizabeth “Liz” Holmes is the Blinded Veterans Association National Secretary and is part of the Georgia regional group. She is an Army Veteran and during her career she attended both basic and advanced ordinance courses and airborne school. Liz was born and raised in the south side of Chicago about 15 minutes from Indiana. She went to DePaul University and didn’t initially have plans to join the military. However, seeing that the ROTC program there did not have any women and knowing she could do anything a man could, Liz decided to join the ROTC program in 1975 and received her training at Fort Riley, Kansas. Following college, she joined the service as a reserve officer and then went on active duty for 11 years where she traveled all over the states, Korea, and Germany. Liz served from 1976 to 1987, where in 1976 she was commissioned to be a Second Lieutenant in the ordinant specialty. Following her military service, Liz worked in the United States Postal Service serving in a variety of different ways until retirement in 2014 due to vision loss because of glaucoma. She had never noticed a change in her vision until she went to an eye exam where her glaucoma was diagnosed. Liz had surgery on her left eye but continued to experience issues. She began seeing a specialist that worked to save her right eye’s vision. Liz was referred to the VA for further care and joined other programs to help navigate life with vision loss. While in blind rehabilitation in Birmingham, Alabama, Liz joined the Blinded Veterans Association and became an active member. She shares about her experiences in the military, vision loss with glaucoma, and her involvement in the Blinded Veterans Association.

If you are a Veteran or you know a Veteran needing help with visual loss, contact the Visual Impairment Services Team coordinator at your nearest VA medical center or contact the Blind Rehabilitation Service Program by phone which can be found here. There are 13 Blind Rehabilitation Centers around the country, which can help with things like mobility, communication, and living with vision loss.

In this episode of the Vets First Podcast, hosts Dr. Levi Sowers and Brandon Rea interview Loretta Phillips, an Army Veteran from Lancaster, South Carolina. Loretta suffers from visual impairment due to complications from diabetes that progressed due to depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. During this conversation, Loretta talks about the patient perspective of dealing with visual loss as a Veteran and shares her journey in getting treatment for her developing issues.

Loretta joined the Army in 1989, where she spent most of her time in Germany amid the Cold War conflict. She obtained the rank of Sergeant in less than three years and served seven in total. After she came back to the United States, she had a daughter. However, four months later, she experienced vision loss during work. Throughout the episode, Loretta describes her diagnosis and the troubles she overcame to get treatment, having to resort to civilian doctors over government health workers at the time. Then, she describes an instance where she almost lost sight completely and how treatment for it damaged her eyes and consequently her eyesight.

Later in the episode, Loretta talks about what life is like with loss of sight and, more specifically, how the Blind Rehabilitation Center with the VA, helped her learn the skills to survive and live with vision loss. Then, she talks about joining the Blind Veterans Association and gives advice to Veterans experiencing visual loss. She encourages Veterans to reach out to the visual programs and discusses how it can be difficult accepting loss of vision. Finally, she talks about both the mental and physical sides of vision impairment and the importance of research for vision loss.

If you are a Veteran or you know a Veteran needing help with visual loss, contact the Visual Impairment Services Team coordinator at your nearest VA medical center or contact the Blind Rehabilitation Service Program by phone which can be found here. There are 13 Blind Rehabilitation Centers around the country, which can help with things like mobility, communication, and living with vision loss.