Maryam Basmenji LCSW

While at Hines she led the implementation of local and regional programming for Military Sexual Trauma (MST) survivors across the Midwest.  She has participated in national workgroups as a subject matter expert on providing gender-sensitive, trauma-informed services in healthcare and has been nationally recognized for best practices that have improved access to VA care for Women Veterans. While at Hines VA, she treated Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress and Substance Use Disorders in outpatient specialty care. She also served as a guest lecturer at the University of Illinois - Chicago Jane Addams College of Social Work and as faculty for the first VISN 12 Women’s Mental Health residency, and presented on psychotherapy outcomes at the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. She also served as the Hines VA Former Prisoners of War (FPOW) Advocate serving as the primary liaison between VA, FPOWs, and their families. During her tenure at Hines, she was nationally recognized for leading a workgroup that developed a trauma-sensitive screening protocol used before invasive diagnostic and therapeutic procedures to alleviate exam-related distress. This screening protocol has since been incorporated into a national VA Directive. In 2018, Ms. Basmenji transferred to Jesse Brown VA Medical Center (Chicago, IL) where she served in various leadership capacities managing teams of over 50 social workers across mental health, homeless programs and social work settings. She joined VHA's Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention (Washington, DC) in 2020 as a Community Engagement and Partnerships Program Manager and was among the first cohort to nationally implement the public health model of Community-Based Interventions for Suicide Prevention. Throughout this national roll-out, Ms. Basmenji was the only Program Manager to support all three waves of implementation, providing technical assistance and strategic guidance to VISNs 12, 21, and 17. In 2023, she relocated to Jesse Brown VA to serve on the executive leadership team as the Acting Assistant Director where she has direct operational responsibility over Chaplain Service, Patient Administration Service, Prosthetics Service, Environmental Management Service, Veteran Experience, and Nutrition and Food Service. She serves as the liaison for VISN 12 Product Lines including the Consolidated Patient Account Center and the Veterans Canteen Service. Ms. Basmenji is from Salt Lake City, Utah, an alum of the University of Utah where she earned her Master of Social Work, and a graduate of the VISN 12 Leadership Development Program (2019). She speaks Farsi, is a Certified Sommelier, and lives in downtown Chicago, IL.