Jennifer Gala True, PhD

Dr. True is a medical anthropologist and folklorist with the University of Pennsylvania whose research focuses on the role of narrative and ethnography to reduce barriers to care and improve post-deployment health outcomes for combat veterans. 

Gala True, PhD, is a researcher at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center and a medical anthropologist and folklorist with the University of Pennsylvania.  Using PhotoVoice, a program sharing photos and words, Dr. True has been able to provide an intimate look at the military lives of veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.  In the recently completed VA-funded research project, participating veterans were given cameras and asked to photograph their daily lives and contribute photos from their personal collections to tell their stories of deployments, military service, and the complex challenges they face when returning home.  Dr. True’s goals in this innovative participatory research project were to empower individuals to convey their experiences, perspectives, and needs through visual images and first person narratives, and to decrease social anxiety for Veteran participants.

The resulting data and research has been curated into the travelling exhibit From War to Home.  The images and stories give voice to the diversity of perspectives and experiences of those who have served and bear witness to the health impacts of military service and deployment.  From War to Home invites reflection on the personal and collective costs of war and stimulates dialogue between Veterans and those who wish to welcome them home. Her current work involves using the exhibit’s visual images and first-person narratives to increase military cultural competency by sensitizing VA clinicians to deployment and post-deployment experiences and perspectives of returning combat veterans, and to promote patient-centered care at the VA.

The exhibit has been traveling the country since November 2012. For more information, please visit the FWTH website: http://www.va.gov/FromWarToHome/