Captain John J. Tuskan, Jr.

U.S. Public Health Service Officer, SAMHSA

Captain John Tuskan, a U.S. Public Health Service Officer, is assigned to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS). Under a SAMHSA intra-agency agreement with the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), he serves as Senior Public Health Advisor and Director of the Refugee Mental Health Program, which provides technical assistance, consultation and training on the mental health, welfare and social integration of refugees, torture survivors and other vulnerable populations.

He has concurrently served as SAMHSA’s Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Coordinator and CMHS’s International Initiatives Officer.  CAPT Tuskan is also Director of the Medical Services Branch, Public Health Service-1, Rapid Deployment Force and an Instructor in Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

His past professional experience includes clinical assignments with the U.S. Army, research assignments with the National Institutes of Health, and mental health consultant assignments with the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the U.S. Marshals Service. He has completed field assignments in response to domestic disasters, mass immigration emergencies, and refugee crises in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

Captain Tuskan completed his undergraduate education at the Pennsylvania State University and graduate education at Yale University.  With Dr. Abdul Basit, he co-authored a chapter entitled: The Spiritual Dimensions of Trauma Healing, in Evans, M.T. & Walker, E.D. (Eds) (2009) Religion and Psychology, Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers, Inc.