Joseph R. Etherage PsyD, ABPP

Board-certified clinical psychologist who has spent three decades building and overseeing behavioral-health systems, from military screening and suicide surveillance to national healthcare inspection, and who now builds and evaluates AI tools for evidence-based review.

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I'm Joe Etherage. My work has three threads. As a clinician, I led behavioral-health departments and programs for the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Army and NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. As a builder, I designed and ran measurement systems: post-deployment screening that assessed 41,000 soldiers, and a suicide-event report that the Department of Defense adopted department-wide. As an overseer, I have directed healthcare inspection work that tests whether systems do what they claim, most recently on generative AI in clinical care.

In 2026 I founded JE Vectors LLC and built Inqura, an evidence-analysis platform for investigations and compliance review, along with ConKurrence, a harness for measuring whether AI judgments hold up. I am interested in AI oversight, healthcare and mental-health AI governance, and evaluation, as an employee or as a consultant.

Experience

Founder

2026 – present
JE Vectors LLC, Florida
  • Designed and shipped Inqura, an evidence-analysis platform for investigations and compliance review, and ConKurrence, a multi-model evaluation harness. Both are described under Systems built.

Director, Strategy and Innovation

Apr 2024 – Oct 2026
Office of Healthcare Inspections, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General. Retired from federal service October 2026.
  • Director of the team that produced the Office of Inspector General's two national reviews of generative AI in the Veterans Health Administration (January and June 2026), listed under Publications.

Director, National Reporting

Jun 2021 – Apr 2024
Office of Healthcare Inspections, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General
  • Directed national healthcare inspection reporting, including six reports on patient harm, medication management, care coordination, metrics, ticketing and training after a new electronic health record went live (2021–2022).
  • Briefed review findings to senior leaders in the Office of Inspector General and the Veterans Health Administration, and to members of Congress and their staff.

Director, Hotline 10 (healthcare inspections)

Apr 2019 – Jun 2021
Office of Healthcare Inspections, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General
  • Directed a portfolio of healthcare inspections that addressed hotline allegations, deciding which complaints warranted inspection and how the evidence would be tested, and publishing findings and recommendations for facilities and the Veterans Health Administration.

Chief, Yukon Embedded Behavioral Health Clinic

Apr 2018 – Apr 2019
Department of Behavioral Health, Madigan Army Medical Center, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA

Clinical Research Psychologist

Aug 2016 – Apr 2018
Department of Behavioral Health, Madigan Army Medical Center, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA

Chief, Department of Behavioral Health, and Installation Director of Psychological Health

Aug 2013 – Aug 2016
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), Belgium
  • Led behavioral health, family advocacy and developmental intervention services for NATO and Partnership for Peace staff and their families from 50 countries, including the response after the March 2016 Brussels bombings.
  • Advised SHAPE leaders on psychological health policy, and served as contracting officer's representative for psychiatric services.

Chief, Programs and Research Service

Sep 2010 – Aug 2013
Department of Behavioral Health, Madigan Army Medical Center, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA
  • Led a team of research and clinical psychologists that designed and ran the behavioral-health programs at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and oversaw program evaluation and research for the department.
  • Co-authored D-RAT, a screening instrument the Army adopted for all redeploying soldiers (ALARACT 237-2010).
  • Served as the command's behavioral-health subject-matter expert, briefing general officers, senior Army Medical Command officials and members of Congress.

Deputy Chief, Department of Psychology

Aug 2005 – Aug 2010
Madigan Army Medical Center, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA
  • Deputy chief of the largest Department of Psychology in the Department of Defense (behavioral medicine, behavioral health and soldier readiness services at four locations); rater for more than 90 staff, including over 50 clinicians, and acting chief in the chief's absence.
  • Created a population-health, stepped-care model that gave service members and families at Joint Base Lewis-McChord same-day access to evidence-based behavioral healthcare.
  • Program lead for SELF post-deployment screening; contributed to the Army Suicide Event Report and the Automated Behavioral Health Clinic (see Systems built). Led a telehealth screening of a combat brigade returning to Alaska.
  • Helped stand up the National Center for Telehealth and Technology: initial organizational structure, funding and first personnel actions.

Director, Clinical Psychology Residency Program

Mar 2005 – Jul 2005
Malcolm Grow Medical Center, Andrews Air Force Base, MD

Chief, Behavioral Medicine Service

Jun 2004 – Jul 2005
Malcolm Grow Medical Center, Andrews Air Force Base, MD
  • Led pediatric and adult health psychology services, including primary-care behavioral health consultation to five clinics.
  • Selected as the Air Force psychology consultant for AHLTA, the Department of Defense electronic health record. Upgraded and distributed ANSOR, an Access database used by Air Force mental health clinics for clinical documentation and caseload management.
  • Team leader for behavioral-health consultation to the Presidential Airlift Group and the 1st and 99th Airlift Squadrons, including a suicide-prevention briefing to the Presidential Airlift Group in the Air Force One hangar.

Pediatric Psychologist, Behavioral Medicine Services

Aug 2000 – May 2004
Malcolm Grow Medical Center, Andrews Air Force Base, MD
  • Primary consultant to the Security Forces Squadron's hostage negotiation team (2000–2005), after FBI crisis negotiation training.

Chief, Psychological Services

Aug 1997 – Aug 1999
30th Medical Group Mental Health Clinic, Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA

Systems built

Inqura

2026 · JE Vectors LLC

An evidence-analysis platform for investigations and compliance review, designed and built solo with Claude Code as the engineering agent. Every claim in a finding cites its evidence, every finding carries a confidence level, and the server blocks sign-off until the reviewer has opened the cited evidence.

I wrote the original ten-criteria evidence-evaluation framework, then validated it down to the one-page guide that runs in production: two judgments per piece of evidence (is it relevant; does it have a material limitation), with an explicit materiality threshold. In controlled multi-model tests, rater agreement rose from chance level to substantial. I validate its accuracy claims through repeated independent tests and revise them as the results come in.

ConKurrence

2026 · JE Vectors LLC

A multi-model evaluation harness (command line, MCP server and web interface; 194+ automated tests) that measures whether AI judgments agree with each other and with expert anchors, so accuracy claims can be tested rather than asserted.

SELF: Soldier Evaluation for Life Fitness

2008 – 2009 · Madigan Army Medical Center

Program lead for post-deployment behavioral-health screening at Madigan and Fort Lewis: 41,000 assessments and 16,000 referrals, extended to Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, in 2009.

ASER → DoDSER

2005 – 2008 · U.S. Army

Helped develop the Army Suicide Event Report, the Army's suicide surveillance record. The Department of Defense built its department-wide DoD Suicide Event Report from it, launched January 2008.

Automated Behavioral Health Clinic

2005 – 2008 · U.S. Army

Clinical champion and product owner of the Army web application the SELF program ran on. Presented as a model for the military electronic health record's behavioral-health module (2008).

D-RAT: Down-Range Assessment Tool

2010 · U.S. Army

Co-author of a leader-completed screening instrument, with manual, that the Army adopted for all redeploying soldiers (ALARACT 237-2010).

Publications

Peer-reviewed articles and book chapters

  1. 2012Jones, M. D., Etherage, J. R., Harmon, S. C., & Okiishi, J. C. Acceptability and cost-effectiveness of military telehealth mental health screening. Psychological Services, 9(2), 132–143. doi:10.1037/a0026709
  2. 2012Harmon, S. C., Hoyt, T. V., Jones, M. D., Etherage, J. R., & Okiishi, J. C. Postdeployment mental health screening: An application of the Soldier Adaptation Model. Military Medicine, 177(4), 366–373. doi:10.7205/MILMED-D-11-00343
  3. 2010Shearer, D. S., & Etherage, J. R. The practice of medical psychology in a military primary care medicine setting. Journal of the Academy of Medical Psychology, 1(1), 14–18.
  4. 2008Reger, M. A., Etherage, J. R., Reger, G. M., & Gahm, G. A. Civilian psychologists in an Army culture: The ethical challenge of cultural competence. Military Psychology, 20(1), 21–35. doi:10.1080/08995600701753144
  5. 2005Etherage, J. Pediatric behavioral health consultation: A new model for primary care. In L. James & R. Folen (Eds.), The Primary Care Consultant: The Next Frontier for Psychologists in Hospitals and Clinics. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. doi:10.1037/10962-009
  6. 2003Dobmeyer, A. C., Rowan, A. B., Etherage, J. R., & Wilson, R. J. Training psychology interns in primary behavioral health care. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 34(6), 586–594. doi:10.1037/0735-7028.34.6.586
  7. 2000Scharff, L., & Etherage, J. The role of minimal and no-contact behavioral treatments in migraine: A review of efficacy and cost effectiveness. Disease Management and Health Outcomes, 8(6), 313–325. doi:10.2165/00115677-200008060-00002

Oversight reports

Reports of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, Office of Healthcare Inspections. These are institutional publications; I contributed to each as a director in that office.

  1. June 11, 2026Review of Generative Artificial Intelligence Chat Tools for Clinical Use (Report 26-00182-140)
  2. January 15, 2026Review of VHA's Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Report 26-00182-42)
  3. October 31, 2023Improvements Needed in Lung Cancer Screening Through Use of Community Care
  4. August 16, 2023Concern with Veterans Health Administration's Lung Cancer Screening Program Requirements
  5. July 14, 2022The New Electronic Health Record's Unknown Queue Caused Multiple Events of Patient Harm
  6. July 7, 2022OIG Determination of Veterans Health Administration's Occupational Staffing Shortages, Fiscal Year 2022
  7. June 1, 2022Deficits with Metrics Following Implementation of the New Electronic Health Record at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington
  8. May 3, 2022Facility Leaders' Response to Inappropriate Mental Health Provider-Patient Relationships at the VA Illiana Health Care System in Danville, Illinois
  9. March 17, 2022Medication Management Deficiencies after the New Electronic Health Record Go-Live at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington
  10. March 17, 2022Ticket Process Concerns and Underlying Factors Contributing to Deficiencies after the New Electronic Health Record Go-Live at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington
  11. March 17, 2022Care Coordination Deficiencies after the New Electronic Health Record Go-Live at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington
  12. August 24, 2021Deficiencies in Coordination of Care for Patients with Treatment-Resistant Depression at the VA San Diego Healthcare System in California
  13. July 8, 2021Training Deficiencies with VA's New Electronic Health Record System at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington
  14. August 27, 2020Alleged Deficiencies in the Management of Staff Exposure to a Patient with COVID-19 at the VA Portland Health Care System in Oregon
  15. April 27, 2020Inadequate Care by a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist and a Primary Care Provider at the Tennessee Valley Healthcare System in Nashville

Instruments

  1. 2010Etherage, J., Harmon, S. C., Jones, M. D., & Slade, K. D-RAT: The Down-Range Assessment Tool (assessment instrument and manual). Adopted Army-wide by All Army Activities message ALARACT 237-2010.

Professional articles

  1. 2002Etherage, J. Pediatric primary care psychology. The Air Force Psychologist, 20(3), 6–7.
  2. 2000Etherage, J. Camelot revisited: The pediatric psychology fellowship. The Air Force Psychologist, 18(4), 7–8.

Presentations and posters

  1. 2011Okiishi, J. C., Etherage, J. R., Harmon, S. C., & Jones, M. D. Soldiers at risk: Early identification of soldiers at need through multimodal assessment. Poster, Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, DC.
  2. 2010Harmon, S. C., Slade, K., Jones, M. D., & Etherage, J. Soldier Evaluation for Life Fitness (SELF): A response to the mental health needs of post-deployment soldiers. Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, Monterey, CA.
  3. 2008Brown, M., & Etherage, J. Building a new AHLTA behavioral health module: Utilizing the Automated Behavioral Health Clinic as a model. 11th Annual Force Health Protection Conference, Albuquerque, NM.
  4. 1996Etherage, J., Deatherage, R., Cornelius, K., & Moiso, K. The development of a nonlingual format for measuring emotional expression. Poster, Annual Meeting of the Hawaii Psychological Association, Honolulu, HI.
  5. 1991Pitts, M., Barnett, O., & Etherage, J. The inadequacy of social support for battered women. Poster, Annual Meeting of the Western Psychological Association, CA.

Education and credentials

Certification and licensure

Recent professional development

Selected training

Service and awards

U.S. Air Force Officer, psychologist

Jul 1996 – Aug 2005
Commissioned as a Captain; honorably discharged from active duty as a Major.

Meritorious Service Medal (one oak leaf cluster) · Commendation Medal · Achievement Medal · Global War on Terrorism Service Medal · Outstanding Unit Award (three oak leaf clusters)

Awards and recognition