Our Team
IVPP Research Director
Nicholas D. Thomson, PhD
Dr. Thomson is a forensic psychologist and Director of Research for the Injury and Violence Prevention Program at VCU Health Trauma Center. Dr. Thomson’s research expertise includes biopsychosocial risk factors for violence, violence intervention and prevention, developmental psychopathology, and forensic psychology.
Research Lab Manager
Salpi Kevorkian, MS
Salpi is responsible for lead project management of all current and future grant-awarded research studies within Dr. Thomson’s laboratory. Her research interests include the interplay of psychopathy, ethical behaviors, and criminal implications in both clinical and organizational settings.
Clinical Research Coordinators
Dulany Devening, MEd
Dulany is a graduate from the University of Louisville with a Master's in Counseling with a concentration in art therapy. She has worked in a variety of settings, including schools, hospitals and child advocacy centers, providing counseling and art therapy for adults, children and their families. Her research interests include the effects of childhood trauma on development and family systems.
Courtlyn Fields, MA
Courtlyn Fields graduated from the University of Denver with a Master's in Counseling Psychology. She has worked in a variety of mental health facilities, including prison systems and an early childhood development center. She also has experience providing individual and group therapy to underserved populations. Her interests include the biopsychosocial model, trauma, and caregiver-child relationships.
Laura Hazlett, MA
Laura Hazlett attended Wake Forest's Master in Experimental Psychology program. She has worked in diverse roles within various clinical research projects and dedicates her spare time to volunteer with a nonprofit children's bereavement organization. Her research interests include the behavioral and physiological effects of exercise on generalized anxiety and performance anxiety.
Ade' Mason, MS
Ade’ is a graduate of Virginia State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice while also holding a Master of Science degree in Administration of Justice and Security from University of Phoenix. Ade also holds a Qualified Mental Health Professional credential with a focus on children (QMHP-C) as well being a certified gang specialist through the Virginia Gang Investigators Association (VGIA). Ade’ has held numerous positions within the Social Work, Criminal Justice and Mental Health fields. His research interests include gang criminology/culture, and criminal law.
Rashema Meekins, BSW
Rashema is a graduate of JMU’s Bachelor of Social Work Program. She is currently in the Online Master of Social Work Program at Howard University and is set to obtain her MSW in Dec. 2023. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated ®, and she is a military spouse with two sons. Rashema has worked in various roles within the Social Work field, including healthcare, mental health, working with adolescents, and most recently, forensic social work, as a Re-Entry Specialist for a local jail. Her research interests include black maternal health, criminology, and ancestry research.
Ariel Wood, BSW
Ariel is graduate from VCU’s Bachelor of Social Work Program, while currently obtaining her Masters of Social Work. She has experience in providing intensive case management services for multi-disciplinary, hospital-based violence intervention program, dedicated to reducing re-injury and mortality rates among youth and adults by providing intentionally injured patients and their families with support during their hospital stay and within the community and most recently as a case manager with the Bridging the Gap program under the Injury and Violence Prevention Program. Her research interests include understanding the biopsychosocial risk factors for violence and violence intervention and prevention.
Senior Violence Prevention Specialist
Corey Campbell, BS
Corey received his Bachelor of Science from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2001. Since then, Corey has consistently focused on empowering and developing local youth and adolescents. Corey has a wide range of experiences and has over five years of experience in working with the City of Richmond, Department of Social Services as a Family Service Worker with Child Protective Services. In his tenure with the City, Corey's experience was centered in trauma-informed prevention, family-based strengths development, and coordination of services with local law enforcement, medical staff and legal counsel. Corey is excited to lead the Emerging Leaders program in the Injury and Violence Prevention Program to reduce community levels of youth violence.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Kelly O'Connor, PhD
Dr. O'Connor received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University and completed her pre-doctoral clinical internship on the child track at the Medical University of South Carolina. Her clinical and research interests focus on prevention and intervention efforts aimed at reducing violence and trauma symptoms among minoritized youth in urban communities. The goal of her work in this area is to inform the development and refinement of programs, policies, and practices that are strengths-based, culturally responsive, and promote positive youth development.
Graduate Research Assistants
Carine Leslie, MS
Carine is a graduate of Lehigh University, earning her Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology, and is a current 4th year graduate student in Virginia Commonwealth University’s Clinical Psychology Doctoral program. Her clinical and research interests include understanding factors that impact post-trauma outcomes among adolescents and young adults exposed to violence. The goal of her work in this area is to inform the development of effective intervention and prevention programs using a trauma-informed lens to promote overall well-being and positive youth development.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Kiana Bragg
Kiana is a fourth-year undergraduate student at VCU majoring in Psychology with a concentration in Pre-Graduate studies. After graduation, she plans to continue assisting with research as she prepares to enter graduate school for Clinical Psychology. Her primary research interests include studying early risk factors for chronic mental illness and deviant behaviors in children and adolescents.
Bianca Cortes
Bianca Cortes is a fourth-year undergraduate student at VCU, majoring in Psychology with a concentration in Applied Psychology. Her interests surround research topics including ADHD, personality disorders, and how specific mental disorders present themselves in criminal behavior.
Abigale Darnell
Abigale Darnell is an undergraduate student at VCU, pursuing a Bachelor's in Psychology and a minor in Creative Writing. Her research interests include violence prevention and treatment strategies in youth as well as the holistic effects of trauma. Following graduation, she plans to work towards a PhD in Counseling Psychology.
Guangqin Huang
Guangqin is a third-year graduate student in Virginia Commonwealth University's (VCU) Doctor of Nursing Practitioner program. Her clinical research interests include studying patients' mental health and safety management.
Keisha Lopez
Keisha earned a BSN from Virginia Commonwealth University. To enhance her expertise and impact, she is currently pursuing her Doctorate of Nurse Practitioner in Psychiatric Mental Health. She has worked in community behavioral health, quality improvement, nursing education, and hospital system specialist roles. She has worked to improve mental health and well-being throughout her career. Her research interests revolve around domestic violence prevention programs, restorative justice programs, and mental health services. She believes in creating effective interventions and support systems for individuals affected by domestic violence to break the cycle and empower them.
Varsha Vasudevan
Varsha is a second-year undergraduate at VCU, majoring in Psychology and Criminal Justice with a concentration in Justice and minoring in Political Science. After graduating, she hopes to pursue Forensic Psychology. Her academic interests include psychological assessments and the impact of mental illness and crime on children in the Criminal Justice system.
Medical Student Chapter
Michael Kusnet
Michael is a second year medical student at VCU who graduated from DePaul University with a degree in Psychology. He hopes to pursue a career in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and is interested in related research topics in developmental psychopathology and violence prevention.
Chapter Alumni
Saba Ali
Alvin Chang
Chandler Johnson
Miranda Sullivan
Research Collaborators
Albert Farrell, PhD
Dr. Farrell is Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of the VCU Clark-Hill Institute for Positive Youth Development. His research focuses on the development of problem behaviors during adolescence, particularly aggression and bullying; the impact of exposure to community violence and peer victimization on adolescents’ development; and the identification of protective factors that promote the positive development of youth in high risk environments (e.g., those living in communities with high rates of poverty and violence). In 2005, Dr. Farrell founded the Clark-Hill Institute for Positive Youth Development – one of six National Centers of Excellence for Youth Violence Prevention funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
James M. Bjork, PhD
Dr. James Bjork is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry in VCU’s School of Medicine. His research interests include functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), impulsivity and decision-making, adolescent neurodevelopment, health behaviors in physical medicine and rehabilitation populations, addiction and substance use disorders, and disruptive behavior disorders.
Caitlin E. Martin, MD, MPH
Dr. Martin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. As the VCU Director of OBGYN Addiction Services, Dr. Martin leads efforts to integrate reproductive/sexual health and addiction care. She is a Translational Scholar with the VCU NIH CTSA-funded Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research (Wright Center). The aim of her research is to elucidate the roles biological factors, such as pregnancy and the postpartum state, and psychosocial contexts together with gender play in the recovery of people with opioid use disorder.
Terri Sullivan, PhD
Dr. Sullivan is Professor and Director of Developmental Psychology at VCU. Her research focuses on understanding the impact of aggression and exposure to violence on children's healthy psychosocial and emotional development. This research includes examination of the relations between aggression and exposure to violence (including witnessing violence and victimization) and psychosocial maladjustment, and identifying risk and protective factors that may magnify or buffer these relations. Another aspect of Dr. Sullivan’s research focuses on the evaluation of school-based violence prevention efforts, especially for students with high incidence disabilities.
Jasmin L. Vassileva, PhD
Dr. Vassileva is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at VCU. Her program of research coalesces around personality and neurocognitive risk factors for drug addiction and externalizing psychopathology and neurocognitive sequelae of chronic drug use. Her more recent studies have addressed potential sex differences in neurocognitive function among different types of substance users. Dr. Vassileva has established a productive research laboratory at Virginia Commonwealth University and a satellite neurocognitive research laboratory at the Bulgarian Addictions Institute in Sofia, Bulgaria.
David Chester, PhD
Dr. Chester is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Director of Social Psychology at VCU. His research seeks to understand the psychological and biological processes that motivate and constrain aggressive behavior. Dr. Chester’s specific interests lie in how the brain’s reward circuitry promotes and reinforces aggressive responses to threat, provocation and rejection.
Ananda Amstadter, PhD
Dr. Amstadter is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Human & Molecular Genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Her program of research focuses on understanding biologic and psychosocial factors that affect the trajectory of symptoms among individuals exposed to trauma (e.g., combat, disasters, interpersonal violence) with a focus on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol-related phenotypes.
Robert A. Perera, PhD
Dr. Perera is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics with an affiliation in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). His research areas of expertise include: structural equation modeling, psychological and behavioral measurement, mediation analysis, mixture and growth mixture modeling, longitudinal data analysis, and analysis and design of clinical trials.
Jack Kennedy, PhD
Dr. Jack Kennedy is a Consultant in Clinical & Forensic Psychology and the Kolvin Service Clinical Lead. He is a Visiting Researcher at Newcastle University and an expert advisor to the National Crime Agency and other governmental bodies. He has varied research interests to include the use of digital technologies in forensic mental health populations.
Annette McKeown, PhD
Dr. Annette McKeown is an Acting Consultant Forensic Psychologist in the Kolvin Service in the North East of England. She is also an Honorary Lecturer at Newcastle University. Dr. McKeown has a special interest in working with forensic adolescents. She has particular research interest and published in the areas of trauma, female violence, forensic adolescents, violence risk assessments, personality difficulties, psychopathy and domestic violence.