Youth Violence Project Staff

Director
	Dewey G. Cornell, Ph. D., is a forensic clinical psychologist and Professor of Education in the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. Dr. Cornell is Director of the UVA Youth Violence Project and a faculty associate of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy. He holds the Bunker Chair in Education. Dr. Cornell has worked with juvenile and adult violent offenders, testified in criminal proceedings and legislative hearings, and consulted on violence prevention efforts. Dr. Cornell has authored more than 100 publications in psychology and education, including studies of juvenile homicide, school safety, bullying, and psychological assessment of psychopathy and violence. Two recent books are School Violence: Fears Versus Facts, and Guidelines for Responding to Student Threats of Violence. His current projects include studies of bullying, school climate, and school safety. Email: dcornell@virginia.edu. Download vita.
Associate Director
	Peter L. Sheras, Ph.D., Associate Director for Instruction of the Virginia Youth Violence Project, is a Professor in the Curry Programs in Clinical and School Psychology at the University of Virginia Curry School of Education. His work with adolescents, couples and families includes service as a co-coordinator of the Charlottesville/Albemarle School Crisis Network and as a member of the Phi Delta Kappa National Task Force on Adolescent Suicide. He served on the national expert panel that produced Early Warning: A Timely Response for the U.S. Department of Education and was a consultant to the American Psychological Association's joint effort with MTV to produce the Warning Signs Television program which aired in April, 1999. Dr. Sheras is a licensed Clinical Psychologist and counsels and lectures in the area of parenting adolescent children. Dr. Sheras is the Past-President of the Virginia Psychological Association and Past-President of the Virginia Psychological Foundation. He is an Advocacy Consultant to the American Psychological Association. He has been a member of the Virginia State Department of Education Task Force on Crime and Violence in School Settings, and is the Central Virginia Regional Coordinator of the joint program for disaster relief of the American Psychological Association and the American Red Cross. He is the author of books and articles on adolescent behavior, youth violence, and clinical psychology, and co-author of the Stress Index for Parents of Adolescents. Dr. Sheras is responsible for the project's educational programs for schools, agencies, and communities to aid in addressing youth violence. He works with many schools systems on crisis response and prevention. E-mail: pls@virginia.edu Download vita.

Current Staff
	Sharmila Bandyopadhyay, M.Ed., received her B.A. in Psychology, with a minor in Legal Studies, from Brandeis University in 2004. During her undergraduate career she worked as a counselor for two years at an after school program for young children with aggressive behavior problems and completed a yearlong clinical practicum at the Arlington High School at McLean Hospital. Before coming to Virginia in 2006 she worked as a research assistant in the Pediatric Psychopharmacology Department at Massachusetts General Hospital for two years. Sharmila is currently a doctoral student in the Clinical and Social Psychology program in the Curry School of Education. Her primary research interests include forensic evaluations of juvenile defendants, competency to stand trial, and victims of violence. Email: sb9mc@virginia.edu
	Justin Collmann, M.Ed. , graduated from Pomona College in 2002 with a B.A. in Religious Studies. After graduation, he joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and worked with refugees and at-risk youth in New Orleans. After completing his year of service, he taught elementary and middle school Science for three years at the Sacred Heart School in Northwest Washington, D.C. His research interests include adolescent suicide prevention and the effects of teacher-student relationships and school-wide disciplinary policies on the internalization of discipline. Email: jc3ec@virginia.edu
	Megan Eliot, M.Ed., graduated from Columbia University in 2000 with a B.A. in English Literature. She worked for three years in the New York City foster care system as a Case Manager and Intake Social Worker. Megan has also served as a Research Assistant on parenting intervention projects at the Yale Child Study Center, and attachment studies at the Developmental Psychopathology Lab at Hunter College. She is currently a doctoral student in the Clinical and School Psychology program at the Curry School of Education. Her predissertation project examines the relationship between attachment style and bullying role among middle school students. Email: mee6w@virginia.edu
	Jennifer Klein, M.Ed. , graduated from Princeton University in 2001 with a B.A. in Art History. Prior to her graduate studies, she wrote and edited for Allure Magazine in New York City and spent five years teaching and advising upper and middle school students at independent schools in St. Thomas, V.I. and Baltimore, MD. Jennie also served as a Research Assistant on the Oxford House project at the DePaul University Center for Community Research. She is currently a doctoral student in the Clinical and School Psychology program at the Curry School of Education. Her research interests include at-risk adolescents and their families. Email: jek4a@virginia.edu
	Talisha Lee, M.Ed., graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2004 with a B.A. in psychology and sociology. During her undergraduate career her research mainly concentrated on the effects of parental behavioral control on adolescent adjustment. She also worked for Maxim Healthcare and Family and Youth Inc. as a Community-Based Services Para-Professional for two years. Post graduation, she worked at Duke University Medical Center, where she collected data for a Therapeutic Foster Care Study. Her primary research interests include cultural differences in parenting effects and peer rejection outcomes. She is currently a doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program at the Curry School of Education. Email: thl5j@virginia.edu
	Erica Shirley, M.A., graduated from the University of Virginia in 2000 with a B.A. in Psychology and Teachers College, Columbia University in 2004 with a M.A. in Clinical Psychology. Prior to her graduate studies, she worked at the Village for Families and Children in Hartford, CT, where she was a Child Development Specialist for children in the foster care system labeled as emotionally challenged. After graduate school, Erica served as a Research Assistant for two years on the Yale Mother-Child Study at the APT Foundation in New Haven, CT. She is currently a first-year doctoral student in the Clinical and School Psychology Ph.D. program in the Curry School of Education. Her research interests include issues concerning at-risk youth and their families. Email: els3e@virginia.edu
Former Staff
	Julie Amato, Ph.D., received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Virginia's Curry Programs in Clinical and School Psychology in 2005. She received her Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Brown University in 1999, and her Master's degree from the University of Virginia in 2001. After graduating from Brown, Julie spent one year as a caseworker for children and adolescents from disturbed families in the Philadelphia area. While at UVA, Julie spent one year working in the mental health department at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women, conducting individual therapy, group therapy, and intake evaluations. She completed a psychology practicum at the Forensic Psychiatry Clinic of the UVA Institute for Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy and then went on internship at University of North Carolina and the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner. Julie's pre-dissertation research on youth gangs was published in the Journal of Gang Research, and her dissertation examined the factor structure of the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version in juvenile correctional and psychiatric samples. After graduation she accepted a postdoctoral position in forensic psychology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Email: jma5m@virginia.edu.
	Christopher Branson, M.Ed., graduated from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 2001. His research experience includes work on the Wake County (NC) 3-C Program, a school based intervention designed to identify and treat children who are socially rejected. As an undergraduate, Chris worked for the Montgomery County (MD) Department of Juvenile Justice, where he supervised and counseled incarcerated adolescent males. Upon graduation, Chris served as the Assistant Teen Director for the Raleigh Boys' Club, where he led educational and intervention programs with inner-city youth. In addition, he worked for Family & Youth Inc, where he served as a behavioral intervention worker for children and adolescents suffering from psychological, familial and legal problems. Chris' research interests include juvenile delinquency and intervention programs for at-risk youth. He published his predissertation project on the correspondence of the MACI and PIY in juvenile offenders and completed his doctoral dissertation on the validity of peer and self-reports of bullying in middle school. In 2006-07 he completed his internship at the Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn, and in 2007 he began a postdoctoral position at St Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York.ceb8k@virginia.edu
	Karen Brockenbrough, Ph. D., received her B.A. from the University of Virginia in 1991. While in Charlottesville, she served as a program director for the Big Sibling Program. After graduation, she worked as a chemist and also spent three years volunteering at a temporary shelter for teenage girls in Denver, facilitating a discussion group on youth violence, sexuality, and drugs. She has conducted research on high risk behaviors of high school students. As a graduate student in the Curry Programs in Clinical and School Psychology Ph.D. Program at the University of Virginia, she had a special interest in violence occurring in schools and victims of school violence. Her dissertation examined the relationship between peer victimization and school adjustment among middle school students. Karen completed her internship at the Virginia Treatment Center for Children at the Medical College of Virginia, and graduated in 2001. She accepted a postdoctoral position at the Virginia Treatment Center for Children.
	Joanna Cole, MS, NCC, CASAC Trainee, finished her undergraduate studies at Tufts University and went on to receive her MS in School Counseling from the University of Rochester. As an undergraduate, she interned at the Judge Baker Children's Center in Boston, where she offered her classroom team behavioral management and crisis support services. She worked as a Teacher's Assistant and a 1:1 aide serving Spanish speaking students and their families, at Crestwood Children's Center, a residential treatment facility for children with behavioral and emotional disturbances. Prior to returning to school, Joanna worked as an At-Risk High School Counselor, assisting individuals and families with academic and emotional crises. Joanna also served as an Adolescent Chemical Dependency Specialist for Westfall Associates where she managed the Adolescent Intensive Outpatient Program. In 2006-07 she completed her internship at The Children's Hospital associated with Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts. In 2007 Joanna will continue at Children's Hospital with a postdoctoral fellowship in the Dept. of Adolescent Medicine. Email: jcc8f@virginia.edu
	Julea Posey Douglass, Ph.D., finished her undergraduate studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1994. She finished a masters program specializing in human development and psychology at Harvard University and a M.Ed. from the University of Virginia in 2000. Prior to returning to school, Julea worked at the U.S. Department of Education as the assistant to the Senior Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Education and then as a research associate at the Character Education Partnership (CEP) in Washington, D.C. Most of Julea's research has focused on the effectiveness of school-based positive youth development programs such as social and emotional learning, violence prevention initiatives, and character education. Additionally, she has been a volunteer assistant teacher and a mentor program coordinator. During her doctoral studies, Julia co-authored a positive youth development curriculum for high school students and field-tested it in four D.C. public schools. She completed her dissertation on an accompanying outcome measure, the Social Emotional and Academic Learning Survey (SEALS) and graduated with a Ph.D. in Education in 2006. Since graduation, Julea has continued work to establish her School-Connect curriculum as a model positive youth development program for high school students. School-Connect has been implemented in high schools in Los Angeles Unified School District, Washington DC, and other districts across the country. Email: jrp4m@curry.edschool.virginia.edu
	Andrea Levy Elkon, Ph.D., received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Virginia's Curry Programs in Clinical and School Psychology in 2005. Andrea graduated from Haverford College in 1997. As an undergraduate, she conducted research on the gender identity formation and peer group relations of early adolescent girls. She also volunteered for a needle-exchange program in North Philadelphia, where she concurrently conducted research on pathways to drug abuse among teenagers in high-risk situations. Andrea spent two summers as an administrator for the Fresh Air Fund, a summer camp for inner city youth. Upon graduation, Andrea served as the project coordinator for the Penn Resiliency Project at the University of Pennsylvania. This research examined the effectiveness of school-based depression prevention programs for adolescents. Her dissertation examined developmental pathways to violence among incarcerated women. She completed her internship at the William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute in Columbia, South Carolina. Email: agl7w@curry.edschool.virginia.edu
	Stanley Hannah, Ph.D., is a graduate of the clinical psychology doctoral program in the Curry School of Education, University of Virginia. He received his undergraduate degree in Psychology from Michigan State University in 1998. As an undergraduate he also worked as a research assistant for the David Walker Research Institute in the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University. There he was involved in conducting focus groups throughout several urban areas in Michigan with parents, teachers, and clinicians to develop a culturally sensitive instrument that measures behaviors in African American youth. Stan also received a research training grant to travel to Kingston, Jamaica and worked on a research team that examined behavior and emotional problems in Jamaican youth. His current research interest is self-esteem and delinquency in ethnic minority youth and his clinical interests include the assessment of violent youth and counseling minority youth and their families. Stan completed his internship at the University of Miami Counseling Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Email: sh6f@curry.edschool.virginia.edu
	Mark Hiatt, Ph. D., received his B. A. degree from St. Michael's College in Vermont in 1991. He spent several years working at McLean Hospital's Arlington School, an alternative school for adolescents with emotional and behavioral problems in Belmont, MA. Mark began his doctoral studies in the Programs in Clinical and School Psychology in 1995. While in graduate school, Mark published research on the assessment of adolescent depression. He completed training in family therapy at the Family Stress Clinic and training in forensic clinical psychology at the the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy. Mark?s dissertation was a study of personality and attitudinal factors affecting the mentoring relationships between college student mentors and high-risk youth. In 2000, Mark received the Curry School Scholarship for his many contributions to the Curry School of Education and the community. After completing his internship at Dartmouth University Medical Center, Mark graduated in 2001. Dr. Hiatt continued as a postdoctoral fellow and then staff psychologist at Dartmouth.
	Carli Hague, Carli Hague graduated from Washington and Lee University in 2005 with a B.A. in Psychology and Sociology/Anthropology. Her senior research project was a study of college suicide prevention in which she developed a suicide educational program for use by the university. Her clinical experiences include interning at the Eagle's Nest Clubhouse in Buena Vista, VA, assisting individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, as well as working with preschoolers diagnosed with autism in the Cherry Creek School District. She also served as a Research Assistant on trauma assessment projects in the Traumatic Stress Studies Lab at the University of Denver. Carli is a doctoral student in the Clinical and School Psychology program at the Curry School of Education. Email: cjh8u@virginia.edu
	Sebastian Kaplan, M.S., Ph.D., received his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Virginia's Curry Programs in Clinical and School Psychology in 2005. Sebastian received his B.S. in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1994 and an M.S.Ed. in Special Education from Simmons College in Boston in 1998. Prior to coming to Virginia, Sebastian worked as a special education teacher in both private and public school settings in the greater Boston area. At UVA, he completed practicum training at the Family Stress Clinic at the UVA Medical Center and at the Buckingham outpatient clinic. Sebastian's pre-dissertation research on psychopathy and ADHD in adolescents was published in Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice: An Interdisciplinary Journal. He completed his dissertation on threats of violence by students in special education. An article from his dissertation will be published in Behavioral Disorders. Sebastian completed his internship at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire, followed by a postdoc in 2005-06. In 2006 he joined the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at Wake Forest University.
	Tricia Marsh, Ph.D., graduated from Tufts University with a B.A. in clinical psychology. She has worked in a residential treatment center with adolescent girls and in a social service center with incarcerated mothers and their children. While working with imprisoned mothers she began a program for inner city youth that focused on strengthening their vocational and academic skills. She has also consulted with community based organizations on cultural awareness and developed a statewide survey to assess attitudes of early intervention personnel in order to better serve their clientele. Additionally, she has presented research on the cultural understanding of students' school behavior and worked on a research project to assess how incarcerated women cope with incarceration. Her interests include school- and community-based prevention/intervention strategies with juvenile delinquents and their families. Dr. Marsh completed her internship at Packard Children's Hospital of Stanford University and completed her doctoral dissertation, Prediction of Institutional Misbehavior of Juvenile Offenders with the Personality Inventory for Youth. Dr. Marsh graduated in 2002 and then took a staff psychology position with the Connecticut Dept. of Children and Families.
	David McConville, Ph.D. is a graduate of the University of Virginia's Curry Programs in School and Clinical Psychology. David received a BA in history from Providence College in 1991 and an MA in Counseling Psychology from Northwestern University in 1996. Prior to attending UVA, David worked in the community mental health setting as a child and family therapist serving elementary school-aged children, as well as on a crisis response team and an adolescent unit at an inpatient psychiatric hospital. Prior research experience included work on a longitudinal project exploring the prevention of antisocial and maladaptive behavior among youth identified as at-risk. David contributed to research on the student threat assessment and other projects while with the Youth Violence Project and completed his dissertation entitled "The Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory in the Assessment of Juvenile Offenders." He completed his internship at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and then continued at Dartmouth as a post-doctoral fellow. Email: dwm9k@curry.edschool.virginia.edu
	Lela Renee McKnight, Ph.D., received her B.S. degree from George C. Peabody College,Vanderbilt University in child development and musical arts. While at Vanderbilt she received two summer research grants to examine family and child readjustment in older-child adoptions. As an undergraduate, she volunteered at the Charles Davis Foundation, a community-based program that benefits underserved children with academic assistance and mentoring. Lela worked with the Youth Violence Project for four years during which she contributed to research on student threat assessment, bullying, and other areas. She completed her internship at Miami Children's Hospital and then completed a pediatric psychology post-doctoral fellowship at the Emory University School of Medicine, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta - Egleston Campus. Email: mocha_08@hotmail.com
	Daniel Murrie, Ph.D., graduated from Harding University in 1996 with degrees in psychology and social work. Dan entered the Curry Programs in Clinical and School Psychology in 1997. During his clinical training, he has co-led a therapy group for male batterers, served as the lead therapist for a family therapy team, and worked as an assessment supervisor in the Center for Clinical Psychology Services. He conducted forensic evaluations of criminal defendants at the Forensic Psychiatry Clinic . In 2001-2002 he completed an internship at the Florida Mental Health Institute of the University of South Florida. Dan has published several articles in forensic psychology and completed his dissertation on psychopathy in incarcerated adolescents. Dr. Murrie graduated in 2002 and completed a year of postdoctoral training at the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy. Dr. Murrie is now an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Sam Houston State University. Email: murrie@shsu.edu
	Peter Thunfors, M.Ed., graduated from Wake Forest University in 2001 with a B.A. in psychology and a minor in Spanish. His undergraduate honors research project explored the relationship between the personality trait of extraversion and positive affect. In 2000, Peter worked for the Home for Little Wanderers at the Knight Children's Center in Boston where he provided a variety of services to young people in a residential school and treatment center. After completing his undergraduate degree, Peter took a position in the Newton, MA public school system as an inclusion facilitator for a group of middle school students who had a variety of mental health needs. Peter completed his dissertation on the peer popularity of middle school bullies. In 2006-07 he completed his internship at Temple University Health Sciences Center in Philadelphia and in 2007 he began a postdoctoral position in the Child Psychiatry Dept. at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, MA. Email: pat3q@virginia.edu
	Jared D. Von Arx, Ph.D., received his B. A. in psychology from Trinity College in 1995 and his M.Ed. from the University of Virginia in 1998. Previously, Jared worked on an acute in-patient psychiatric unit for children and adolescents in the Boston area. While there, he also worked in a group home for emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children. In both settings, he provided a wide range of clinical care to young people, including crisis management, therapeutic groups to reduce high-risk behavior, and family reunification. Jared recently completed his internship at the Devereux Foundation in Philadelphia, PA and then continued in a staff position. Email: jdv9u@curry.edschool.virginia.edu
	Farah Williams, Ph.D., graduated from the University of Virginia in 2001. As an undergraduate, she interned at the Region Ten Blue Ridge House, a psychosocial rehabilitation center for individuals with severe disabling mental illness and also served as a Program Director for a crisis-intervention hotline in Charlottesville, VA. After graduation, Farah worked as the project coordinator for the Virginia Adolescent Research Group for two years. Farah began her graduate studies in 2003. As a staff member of the Virginia Youth Violence Project, she published a paper on student help-seeking to prevent violence, co-authored a book chapter on student threat assessment, completed her dissertation on parent attitudes toward bullying in middle school, and made substantial contributions to two statewide studies: one on suicide prevention training and another on high school safety conditions. Her four years of clinical practicum training included placements at Crozet Elementary school, the Center for Clinical Psychology Services, the Forensic Psychiatry Clinic of the UVA Institute for Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy, and the forensic ward of Western State Hospital. In her fifth year, she went on internship at the Virginia Treatment Center for Children in the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. After completing her doctoral training in 2008, Dr. Williams continued as a postdoctoral fellow at the Virginia Treatment Center for Children. Email: farah@virginia.edu
	Wai Wong, Ph. D., received his B.A. in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1989. He worked for two years with the Chicago Association for Retarded Citizens (CARC). He also worked for a community-based rehabilitation program for mentally retarded, chronically mentally ill, and HIV positive individuals in New York City. Dr. Wong enrolled in the Curry Programs in Clinical and School Psychology in 1994, where he worked on the staff of Youth Violence Project and assisted local communities in planning and implementing violence prevention projects. He also helped organize and implement a statewide assessment of gang involvement of juveniles incarcerated in Virginia detention centers. His dissertation examined the influence of ethnic identity on self-esteem and involvement in delinquent activities. He completed his internship and graduated from the University of Virginia with a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in 1999. Dr. Wong joined the psychology staff of the Counseling Center at Cornell University.