M. Regina Asaro

I am the spouse of a retired Coast Guard officer.

I began volunteer crisis response following the sexual assault of a woman in the military in 1980, a time that was very early in the crime victims’ rights movement.

Because it was so satisfying, I continued to work with crime victim assistance programs everywhere we were stationed, from Alaska to Panama, to Guam and Washington, DC. I also consulted with the Army, Navy and Coast Guard when they were developing policies and procedures to help military crime victims.

In addition to my volunteer work, I worked as a psychiatric nurse and completed my Master’s Degree in Psychiatric Nursing.

As the wife of a two-time Commanding Officer, I always wondered what to do in the event of casualty within the unit, an event for which no one is ever prepared. As a military spouse I felt compelled to take care of our own.

I met Joanne in 2001 during a mass casualty disaster response and was not surprised to learn that no book was available which dealt with military loss. With Joanne’s experience as a Navy widow and mine as a psychiatric nurse and military spouse,  it made us the ideal team to write that book. I was eager to work with her.

We wrote Military Widow: A Survival Guide, and we feel privileged to have created it.

Professional Biography:  M. Regina Asaro, MS, RN, CT, FCN

M. Regina Asaro, MS, RN, CT, FCN is an advanced practice psychiatric nurse, who is Certified in Thanatology: Death, Dying and Bereavement. As the spouse of a retired Coast Guard Officer, Ms. Asaro has had 10 career moves, including four outside the continental United States. She has had a solid career of both professional experience and community service.

Ms. Asaro began her work with victims of violent crime in the early 1980s and was director of programs for survivors of sexual assault and families of murder victims.   In 1986, she was named the Volunteer of the Year for the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA). Working on crisis response teams, she responded after the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City; in Bosnia following the resettlement of family members who survived the massacre in Srebrenica; and on Guam following the crash of Korean Airlines Flight 801.

Among her leadership positions, Ms. Asaro has been a volunteer consultant for non-profit agencies and for the military. She has also served as a board member for numerous non-profit organizations and provided volunteer support services for their clients. For six years, she held elected positions with the Virginia Chapter of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, including serving as president.

Ms. Asaro has conducted over 100 workshops on the topics of life skills development, criminal victimization and grief and traumatic loss as these subjects relate to interpersonal violence and military death. She has undergone advanced training in Community Crisis Response, War Trauma and Critical Incident Stress Management.

She has published more than a dozen articles in professional mental health journals and newsletters. Currently, Ms. Asaro volunteers as a Parish Nurse and with Bon Secours Home Hospice in Hampton Roads, VA.

Download Regina’s Biography