After completing medical school at Case Western Reserve University, and psychiatry residency training at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), Dr. Boehnlein trained as a VA/Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a masters degree in medical anthropology. He then returned to OHSU, where he has been Associate Director for Education for the VA Northwest Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC) since its inception. He also has served as Director of Medical Student Education for OHSU’s Department of Psychiatry, and OHSU’s Assistant Dean for Curriculum. For over 30 years he has been a clinician at the Portland VAMC Mental Health Clinic and at OHSU’s Intercultural Psychiatric Program, where he has treated Southeast Asian, Central American, and Bosnian refugees. He is on the faculty of OHSU's forensic psychiatry fellowship training program. His research has focused on cross-cultural psychiatry (particularly cultural and anthropological perspectives on posttraumatic stress disorder among Veterans and refugees, and long-term adjustment of traumatized refugees), the interface of culture and medical ethics, spiritual issues in psychiatry and psychological trauma, and on medical education. In addition to consultation in a variety of community settings in the Pacific Northwest, he has been a consultant to the Documentation Center of Cambodia for trauma mental health services in Cambodia, and for staff education in preparation for the Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal. He is board certified in both general and forensic psychiatry, and is past president of the Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture, an international association of psychiatric and social science researchers and educators.