Students, faculty and veterans met at the Student Green for an early Veterans Day Commemoration on Friday, November 8. The university’s Army and Air Force ROTC groups stood beside local veterans for a flag-raising ceremony and speeches, along with keynote speaker and Alumna Major Alison Brager, Ph.D. ‘11 who spoke of her time in both the military and ϳԹ’s Department of Biological Sciences.
Brager, who earned her Ph.D. in neuroscience at ϳԹ, talked about the soft skills she learned that helped her in the military, especially with the work she did in New York City during the pandemic. She concluded her speech by stressing how important mental health is for members of the military.
An Army neuroscientist who studies sleep, particularly in extreme environments and high-stress situations, Brager is the recipient of two National Institutes of Health National Research Service Awards and a National Academies of Sciences fellowship. Her work spans from clinical trials on novel drug and technology development for military operations to studying physiology and behavior in some of the most austere places in the world, including Antarctica. She has previously served as chief science officer at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School and director of human performance operations and outreach education for the U.S. Army Warrior Fitness Training Center.
She is the recipient of a Joint Commendation Medal and two Meritorious Service Medals for her research and development efforts in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the COVID-19 pandemic (Operation Gotham). In 2020, Brager underwent astronaut assessment and selection at NASA, making it to the second final round in 2021. As a former professional athlete, she has leveraged her experience to help develop the first mental health handbook for the NCAA. She sits on several fatigue-related working groups for NATO, U.S. Special Operations and the federal government. In addition to more than 40 peer-reviewed articles in flagship journals, she is the author of “Meathead: Unraveling the Athletic Brain.” She earned a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Brown University in 2007 and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from ϳԹ in 2011.
Brager’s Speech:
“Good morning. It’s good to be back. It’s a privilege to be here. Campus has changed a lot for the better since I’ve been here. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. And, to my Aunt Joyce who drove up from Youngstown, Ohio today to see me as well.
So, I was fortunate. I grew up a Spartan or my own version of Sparta not too far from here. And the pillars of excellence that I grew up learning: excellence through scholarship; excellence through sports; and excellence through hardship coincidentally are the same values that we assess and select in our special operations and special operators today. To quote one of the famous Greek generals, “I fear a nation that separates its scholars from its warriors. Having its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.” And that is not our nation, as I will tell you about today.
Research at ϳԹ
So, quite honestly, my time here at ϳԹ and the hallways of Cunningham Hall prepared me more for a career in the military than anything else in life –and I truly mean that. In the lab I worked in, to quote NASA, “failure is not an option.” Failure was not an option because I would have never gotten my Ph.D.
I also learned that “reps and sets” really do matter. What I mean by that is I was fortunate enough to work with Dr. David Glass, (he’s now retired) who was the world’s expert in neuroendocrinology. One of the things we did in his lab was characterizing the release of these peptides secreted from this brain area that lies deep, deep in the brain and is no larger than 1 millimeter in circumference. What is crazy about this is we would sit there for hours under a microscope, making these sampling probes to then have this animal that we were working with undergo a brain surgery with no scopes, no probes, nothing but a three-dimensional plane of rulers—trying to make sure that this sampling probe hit the side of an area that was 1 millimeter in circumference.
Obviously, through this experience of doing this time after time again, I learned all those principles we teach in our warfighters: precision, accuracy, and trusting our gut.
Be Resourceful
I would say the thing that helped me most during my time here at ϳԹ was the fact that we had to be resourceful. At the time I was at ϳԹ, we were a little fish in a bigger pond and we were trying to compete with our mega research and development partners up in Cleveland. So, oftentimes as graduate students, we had to be resourceful. We had to use their logistical support, and more importantly we had to build and forge relationships with these individuals in Cleveland in order to get our work done.
It turned out that this soft skill of leveraging logistical support from others and building and forging these relationships mattered most when my call to service as a scientist for our country came during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two days after our country shut down on March 16, 2020, I received a call on March 18 from the medical unit I was attached to at Fort Hood, Texas. I was told that within 48 hours, I had to somehow get to New York City from Fort Knox, Kentucky, but I didn’t have enough time to get on the aircraft with the rest of the team at Fort Hood, Texas. So, I got in my car. I stopped over in Youngstown on the way to New York City to drop off my dog and say hello and goodbye to my parents, and then I made my way to New York.
We were there for what we were told was an indeterminate amount of time to help build and support the field support hospital in the Jacob Javits Convention Center. During my time in New York, our single goal was to run the clinical lab and save lives, or at least ensure that those who passed did so peacefully.
It was those soft skills of leveraging logistical support from others and building and forging relationships that I truly believe saved those lives because every day, despite what you may hear in the media, we were going uptown to the USS Comfort or we were going downtown to barter relationships with the health department to have enough supplies to keep the Jacob Javits Center open and running day after day.
Research on sleep
The research I do now, and the research that I did at ϳԹ, looking at the impact of sleep and functioning and thriving in an austere environment, is more important than ever. Unfortunately, last October, my brothers and sisters from the Holy Land of Israel experienced one of the worst travesties in modern-day history. And it is that work that is done right here at ϳԹ that is really important for our allies to understand the impact that operating in subterranean and underground tunnels and what impact that has on the human body and brain—so that we can continue to fight and win our nation’s wars, and to support our allies in the process.
Mental Health
I also want to take a moment for a public service announcement, something that’s very near and dear to my heart. As you know, I sit on the Mental Health Advisory Board for the NCAA, and I am very passionate about the mental health of our active-duty soldiers and veterans. Unfortunately, I have lost more soldiers in the present day to the invisible wounds of war than to actual war itself.
In my personal experience, I’m going to talk about Sergeant Ramon Reyes, Airborne. He was my very first NCO in the Army. I’ll never forget the day that he came up to me and was super excited to say that he was selected for a special missions unit. So, Sergeant Reyes went, he came back, but Sergeant Reyes was not feeling airborne. One of my biggest griefs and regrets and guilts I have in my life is not being there for Sergeant Reyes during that time. And, I hope none of you ever have to experience what it’s like giving one last salute to your soldier ever.
But, Sergeant Reyes is not alone. One of the things I’ve learned over the years, and this is true for everyone, if you have a battle who you’ve served with, it doesn’t matter the distance or the time you’ve served together you answer that call in the middle of the night, answer that text. You never know if you’re the last person they’re trying to reach.
For those of you who are thinking about reconnecting with your battles and thinking of them, reach out to them. Please do.
With that, I do genuinely want to wish each and every one of you a Happy Veteran’s Day. Thank you all to the many here standing here for your service. I’d like to give a special shout-out to my grandfathers who served during World War II. Thank you.
And then, of course, to honor and pay tribute to those who are no longer with us. For me that is Sergeant Ramon Reyes and Specialist Adam Hamilton, who is local to the area, and who’s mom is sitting right here in the audience. Really thank them for paying the ultimate sacrifice. So, with that, thank you very much for your time and your community today. De Oppresso Liber, (the motto of the United States Army Special Forces, which translates to “To Free the Oppressed” in Latin.”
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