Pentagon investigating director of psychological centers of excellence

The director of the recently established centers to research and treat the signature wounds of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars - post-traumatic stress disorder and brain injuries -- is under investigation after a personnel complaint was filed, a Pentagon spokeswoman confirmed to Nextgov on Wednesday.

Army Col. Robert Saum, a psychologist with a doctorate in cognitive studies from the University of San Francisco and Canterbury University in the United Kingdom, remains in command of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury. But he serves as acting director while the Pentagon conducts a search for a new permanent director, said spokeswoman Cynthia Smith. She declined to elaborate on the nature of the complaint.

Saum took over as head of the centers in June after Army Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton, who served as director since the organization began operations in November 2007, abruptly departed with no public announcement. She now works in an unspecified capacity for Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the Army's surgeon general.

Informed sources who declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the complaint said the investigation is another example of how management at the centers is in disarray. The organization was created to treat what has become known as "the invisible wounds of war," PTSD and traumatic brain injuries primarily caused by roadside bombs and other improvised explosives. The organization has a significant annual budget, totaling about $1.2 billion.

The centers' broad mission also includes funneling work through components: the Center for Deployment Psychology; the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress; the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center; the Deployment Health Clinical Center; the National Center for Telehealth and Technology, and the newly established National Intrepid Center of Excellence at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

But its short history has been troubled. Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., said at a hearing of the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee in April that despite a lavish budget, the centers, "while having achieved some notable small-scale successes, has not inspired great confidence or enthusiasm thus far."

The management problems also reflect the fact that no one is in charge of the Military Health System, a circumstance Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., cited when he placed a hold on the nomination of Dr. Jonathan Woodson to be assistant secretary of Defense for health affairs, congressional sources said.

Still, Saum was a respected psychologist and manager. A congressional staffer said he viewed him as an accomplished technocrat who had started to steer the centers onto the right path, but the staffer now questioned Saum's long-term future because of the investigation. The source added the Pentagon appears undecided about whether Saum is the centers' director or acting director and pointed out that he is listed as the director on the centers' website.