Sofia Elisa Matta

Dr. Sofia Matta serves as the Medical Director of the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma (HPRT), where she leads global efforts to advance culturally responsive, systems-based care for individuals and communities in areas affected by conflict, mass violence, natural disasters, displacement, and humanitarian crisis. She is an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Matta is board certified in Psychiatry, Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, Brain Injury Medicine, and Addiction Medicine. Her clinical and academic work focuses on post-traumatic stress (PTS), traumatic brain injury (TBI), pain, substance use disorders, and the broader effects of stress and toxic exposures. Her expertise spans the full continuum of care—from point of injury and in critical care settings to complex outpatient recovery and systems-level innovation.

In addition, Dr. Matta serves as the Senior Director of Medical Services at Home Base, a Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital Program. Home Base provides world-class, evidence-based care to active-duty service members, including Special Operations Forces, veterans, and their families. The program is also a designated site for the Wounded Warrior Project’s Warrior Care Network, offering intensive clinical programs that integrate trauma-focused therapies with holistic care. In this role, she has helped shape the strategic vision to expand beyond traditional diagnostic frameworks toward a HealthSpan approach—emphasizing prevention, early detection, and lifelong wellness through collaborative care across pulmonary, cardiovascular, neurologic, and mental health systems.

Prior to joining HPRT and Home Base, Dr. Matta served in leadership roles within both the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense. As Chief of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, she developed and implemented the VA MEND (Mental Health Mobilization, Engagement, Navigation, and Delivery) proactive consultation model. She has served as medical director in addiction, rehabilitation, and emergency psychiatric services across military and civilian health systems and received the Commander’s Award for Civilian Service from the U.S. Army.

Dr. Matta brings a systems-level perspective to HPRT and Home Base, focused on translating evidence into integrated care models for varied and under-resourced settings. Her work bridges disciplines and institutions, grounded in scientific rigor and shaped by the real-world demands of complex care delivery. She has published extensively on critical care psychiatry, acute stress, PTS, and the intersection of psychiatric and medical illness. A frequent speaker at national and international forums, Dr. Matta is deeply committed to education, mentoring physicians, psychologists, nurse practitioners, social workers, and interdisciplinary care teams. Through her work at HPRT, she continues to build collaborative, cross-cultural, and global frameworks that support dignity, resilience, and healing in communities facing the psychological and physical consequences of disaster, violence, conflict, and forced displacement.