Col Sonnek is the Air Force Director of Psychological Health (DPH) at the Air Force Medical Readiness Agency (AFMRA )in Falls Church, Virginia.  The Mental Health Branch at AFMRA is responsible for subject matter expert inputs and engaging senior leaders at the Headquarters-Air Force (HAF), Department of Defense, and Congressional levels, as well as the expansion and management of Integrated Operational Support.  Col Sonnek represents Air Force Mental Health(MH) interests at the Defense Health Agency’s Behavioral Health Clinical Community function, deemed the most advanced of all DHA Clinical Communities.  The DPH office also administers the MH aspects of “True North”, a multi-faceted HAF initiative to embed various support elements within units at four Air Force installations, expected to expand to 16 total bases in Fiscal Year 2021.

Col Sonnek completed his Clinical Psychology Residency at Wilford Hall Medical Center, Lackland AFB, TX in 1998 and received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Wyoming in 1999.

Col Sonnek has commanded at flight, detachment, and squadron levels.  He has served as a Mental Health Flight Commander at four installations and twice as a Major Command Behavioral Health Consultant.  As a faculty member at two psychology internship sites, Lt Col Sonnek has helped train and launch a total of 56 Air Force Clinical Psychologists.  He deployed to Iraq in 2009, led the joint mobile Combat Stress Control team with responsibility for the southern half of the country, and completed 18 missions to austere locations.  In 2013, Lt Col Sonnek deployed to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan as the 455th Combat Stress Control Detachment Commander where his team was the theater hub for all psychiatric aeromedical evacuations and recovered/repatriated personnel during a rapid, vast drawdown of forces.