Affiliates

 

Anna Davidson Abella, PhD, is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Child & Family Studies in the College of Behavioral Community Sciences at USF. Dr. Abella has been involved in child and family services for over 10 years, both as a practitioner and researcher. She currently serves as Project Director of an evaluation of the Florida child welfare pre-service training for child protective investigators and case managers and does qualitative analysis on the State of Utah's IV-E Waiver Evaluation.

Dr. Abella recently completed her dissertation research through the Department of Anthropology at USF, focusing on perceptions of "good" parenting among child development specialists and parents at a family service organization. She also received a joint Master's degree in Anthropology and Women's & Gender Studies from Brandeis University, completing her thesis on an analysis of youth gender violence prevention programs. Her training in cultural anthropology continually informs her work as a researcher on topics related to children and families.

Office: MHC 2413
Phone:813-978-3739
Email: aldavids@usf.edu

Alexandra Albizu-Jacob, MPH received her undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Florida. She went on to receive her master's degree in public health at the University of South Florida, and was among the first cohort of scholars in the Institute for Translational Research in Adolescent Behavioral Health, a federally funded state-of-the-art research education program that teaches the practical skills of translational and implementation science in the field of adolescent behavioral health. Institute scholars have the opportunity to work with community partners, academic mentors, and national mentors to advance the field of translational science and promote evidence-based practice.

Currently as a Social & Behavioral Researcher within the Department of Child & Family Studies, Alexandra is working on the Now is the Time (NITT) initiative as a Technical Assistance Coordinator.

Office: MHC 2431C
Phone:813-974-8895
Email: albizurivera@usf.edu

Rene Anderson is a Human Services Program Specialist for the Division of State and Local Support in the Department of Child and Family Studies. Her role is to provide the perspective and experience she has gained as a parent who has navigated the education, mental health, child welfare and juvenile justice systems on behalf of her child who is diagnosed with serious mental health problems. 

Office: MHC 2403
Phone: 813-974-2199
Email: randerso@usf.edu

Mary Armstrong, PhD specializes in state and local government evaluation and policy analysis. Dr. Armstrong is the Executive Director of the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, and Associate Professor, Department of Child and Family Studies. Dr. Armstrong's specific areas of interests include the impact of financing arrangements on at risk children and families including Medicaid managed care health care reform, IV-E Waivers and child welfare privatization, and cross-system financing of effective systems of care. Related topics include the integration of physical health and behavioral health, informal supports and mental health literacy for caregivers of at risk children, and the effectiveness of out of home settings for children with behavioral health needs. Dr. Armstrong serves as a board member and is immediate past President of the American Orthopsychiatric Association.

Office: MHC 2414
Phone: 813-974-4601
Email: miarmstr@usf.edu

Catherine Batsche, PhD came to USF in 1992 and served as the first Associate Dean for the Florida Mental Health Institute. She is currently serving as the Associate Dean for the College of Behavioral & Community Sciences. Her background as a school psychologist guided her early research and teaching in the area of children's mental health. She subsequently worked with several FMHI faculty to pursue research related to children in foster care, particularly those who were transitioning from foster care to independent living and postsecondary education. Dr. Batsche became certified as a Mental Health First Aid instructor in 2014 and has integrated MHFA training into the curriculum of the Behavioral Healthcare undergraduate degree at USF. Dr. Batsche was instrumental in developing the Summer Research Institute @ FMHI (2006 – 2017) and the PhD in Behavioral and Community Sciences that admitted its first class in Fall, 2017.

Office: MHC 1115
Phone: 813-974-1992
Email: cbatsche@usf.edu

 

Karen Berkman, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies and the Executive Director of CARD-USF (Center for Autism and Related Disabilities) and the Director of the Learning Academy at the USF and St. Petersburg College (SPC) locations. She coordinates all project activities and provides administrative supervision at the CARD-USF Tampa site, the Highlands regional site and FGCU site. Governor Charlie Crist selected her to be a member of the Governor's Florida Autism Task Force for a four-year period to develop a statewide plan to serve those individuals diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Dr. Berkman is recognized for her seminal work on challenging behavior and lifestyle planning as well as creative program development for individuals with developmental disabilities.

Office: MHC 1525
Phone: 813-974-4033
Email: kberkman@fmhi.usf.edu

 

Timothy Boaz, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy. A Licensed Psychologist in the State of Florida, his primary research interests involve evaluation of public mental health programs and the use of administrative data sets in mental health policy research. Dr. Boaz is currently Co-PI of the "Medicaid Drug Therapy Management Program." This project develops psychotherapeutic medication treatment guidelines, conducts psychotherapeutic medication prescribing quality assurance activities, and conducts relevant research. Dr. Boaz was recently Co-PI on a research project regarding clients with high behavioral health service use in three Florida counties. This project was conducted under contract to the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) in response to an Executive Order from the Florida Governor.

Office: MHC 2736
Phone: 813-974-1933
Email: boaz@usf.edu

Roger Boothroyd, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Mental Health Law & Policy and holds a faculty appointment in the College of Public Health. He has been conducting mental health services research for 30 years. He received his PhD in Educational Psychology, specializing in measurement, evaluation, and research design. He teaches courses in research methodology, program evaluation, and statistics. Dr. Boothroyd was formerly a Research Scientist with the New York State Office of Mental Health where he directed various federally funded research and demonstration projects.

Office: MHC 2601
Phone: 813-974-1915
Email: boothroy@usf.edu

Donna Burton, PhD is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Child & Family Studies within the College of Behavioral & Community Sciences at the University of South Florida. Dr. Burton's research focuses on school based mental health services integration and child and adolescent behavioral health, generally. She is the Project Director for the Institute for Translational Research in Adolescent Behavioral Health, a graduate level research education program.

Dr. Burton holds a Master's Degree in counseling psychology from Harvard University, Graduate School of Education. She obtained her doctoral degree from the USF College of Public Health.

Before earning her PhD, and a faculty position at USF, Dr. Burton spent 15 years as a practitioner and administrator in community-based behavioral health programs working with adults, children and families to address the complex issues surrounding comorbidity of substance-related and mental disorders.

Office: MHC 2324
Phone: 813 974-3241
Email: dburton@usf.edu

Ercilia R. Calcano, MPH, CRA-USF is a Program Planner/Analyst in CFSs. She serves as Program Director for the Institute for Translational Research Education in Adolescent Drug Abuse (ITRE). She has also served as Public Health Adjunct Instructor and as Project Manager for Latino STYLE, a prevention study that focused on parent-teen communication to improve health outcomes in Latino families. She has represented USF in numerous committees, including Latino Coalition of Tampa Bay, Healthy Teens Network, School Health Advisory Council, and the Status of Latinos (SOL) USF President advisory committee. She was also instrumental in obtaining almost $7 million in federal funding to help establish healthier food choices, playgrounds, walking trails, nutrition education, and diabetes & asthma prevention programs in Hillsborough schools and community-based organizations.

 

Office: MHC 2441
Phone: 813-974-8578
Email: errodri3@usf.edu

Linda Callejas, PhD is a Research Assistant Professor. She conducts research and evaluation in the areas of collaborative community development initiatives, behavioral health disparities among minority populations, and racial and ethnic identity formation, especially among U.S. Latino populations. Dr. Callejas' research and evaluation activities have often employed mixed methods design, with an emphasis on utilizing qualitative research as a means for understanding complex social processes and capturing essential aspects of social phenomena from the perspective of study participants, especially with regard to the motivations that underlie social behaviors such as those associated with health and wellness.

Office: MHC 2439
Phone: 813-974-4640
Email: callejas@usf.edu

David Chiriboga, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Child & Family Studies. His ongoing work includes an evaluation of 11 dementia-specific adult day centers, and a five state study of how the limited English proficiency of older Korean immigrants affects health care utilization. He has a long history of producing outstanding researchers in the field of aging, serving as a mentor for numerous postdoctoral fellows and students.

Office: MHC 2402
Phone: 813-974-1939
Email: dchiriboga@usf.edu

Annette Christy, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy. Dr. Christy's work is at the nexus of mental health services and criminal justice research. She directs the Baker Act Reporting Center, which involves the receipt and analysis of statewide civil commitment data. This has led to work investigating emergency commitment as it relates to various issue and populations. Her work has also included studies of specialty courts (Broward County Mental Health Court evaluation), coercion into outpatient care (MacArthur Network on Mandated Community Treatment study), competence to proceed, as well as the timing of movement of adults through various stages in the process.

Office: MHC 2637
Phone: 813-974-1923
Email: achristy@usf.edu

Shelley Clarke, MA, BCBA is an Associate in Research, within The Florida Center for Inclusive Communities in the Department of Child & Family Studies. Ms. Clarke has co-authored over twenty-five peer-reviewed articles and four book chapters reflecting applied research in home, school and community settings. Her current interests include collaboration with families and schools in an effort to develop interventions for children with challenging behavior that reflect the use of evidence based practices. Ms. Clarke has also participated and created a number of measures that address the documentation of fidelity and implementation supports, practice based coaching and a variety of empirical assessments to capture child behavior change, areas of positive parenting, and quality of life issues.

Office: MHC 2114
Phone: 813-974-3323
Email: clarke@fmhi.usf.edu

Kyaien Conner, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy. Her research investigates the factors that influence disparities in mental health service utilization and treatment outcomes for African American elders with depression. For several years, Dr. Conner has worked as a licensed community-based mental health practitioner in predominantly low-income African American communities, where she witnessed disparities in mental health diagnosis and treatment, mistrust in the mental health service delivery system and negative attitudes toward seeking mental health treatment.

Office: MHC 2636
Phone: 813-974-7028
Email: koconner@usf.edu

Areana Cruz, MS Ed is a Social and Behavioral Researcher in the Department of Child & Family Studies. Her background is in Psychology and Mental Health Counseling. She has research experience in adolescent substance abuse, stigmatization of parental help-seeking behaviors, and the early detection of early cognitive impairment in neurodegenerative and other brain disorders. She is currently involved in evaluation research for the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) and the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA).

Office: MHC 2413-C
Phone: 813-974-0985
Email: areanac@usf.edu

Glenn Currier, MD, MPH is a Professor and the Chair in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences. Dr. Currier brings to USF a strong background in medical student and residency education and comprehensive expertise in health services research, treatment practices in emergency settings and the organization of psychiatric clinical services. He has conducted research and clinical care across academic and community settings as well as within the VA health system. Dr. Currier received his bachelor's degree in economics and political science at Colby College in his home state of Maine, and was a research associate at the Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates prior to entering medical school. He holds an MD degree from the University of Pittsburgh and a master's degree in public health from Yale University, where he specialized in health services research. Following residency training in psychiatry and internal medicine at Yale, he completed a fellowship in emergency psychiatry at NYU-Bellevue Hospital in New York City. Before to moving to Rochester several years ago, Dr. Currier was the director of Consultation Liaison and Emergency Psychiatry at Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center.

Phone: 813 974-4657
Email: gwcurrier@usf.edu

Tina Dillahunt-Aspillaga, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Child & Family Studies. Her research focuses on the reintegration of veterans with TBI into their communities, improving patient and caregiver quality of life. Dr. Dillahunt-Aspillaga carries a number of specialty certifications to work effectively with individuals with TBI and their families/ caregivers. Certified as a Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC), a Vocational Evaluator (CVE), a Life Care Planner (CLCP), and as a Brain Injury Specialist Trainer (CBIST), she is knowledgeable about the immediate, as well as short and long-term, needs of persons with TBI and their families/ caregivers.

Office: MHC 1638
Phone: 813-974-1282
Email: cdillahuntas@usf.edu

Charles Dion, M.A. is the Director of the Policy and Services Research Data Center (PSRDC) in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute (FMHI), University of South Florida.  He received both his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of South Florida in Mathematics. His Master's degree has a concentration in Statistics. Following the completion of his Master's degree he went to work for Florida Medical Quality Assurance, Inc. (FMQAI), the Florida Medicare Quality Improvement Organization as a Data Analyst where he worked for fourteen years developing expertise in data mining and the statistical analysis of large administrative data bases, primarily Medicare claims data, and steadily increasing his level of responsibility. The positions he held were Data Analyst, Statistician, Lead Statistician, Director of Analytic Services, and Chief Analytic Officer.

Office: MHC 2622
Phone: 813-974-3656
Email: cdion@usf.edu

Claudia Dold, MA is the Assistant University Librarian at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute (FMHI) Research Library. Her driving interest is the process of learning: How do people learn? What are the most effective and efficient ways to present information to today's college and graduate students? How do students want their information delivered? What information is most useful to them? What information do they need that they don't realize they need, and how to present that information so they will realize they need to pay attention? These questions have driven her interests in creating the Research Handbook for the Behavioral Health Sciences, videos, and other teaching modules for the CBCS learning community.

Office: MHC 1744
Phone: 813-974-7040
Email: cdold@usf.edu

Norín Dollard, PhD is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies. She has over twenty years of services research and evaluation experience in the area of behavioral health needs of children and families and has been responsible for or directed all aspects of the research process including design, implementation, analysis, interpretation and dissemination. Currently she is also Director of Florida KIDS COUNT.

Office: MHC 2510
Phone: 813-974-3761
Email: dollard@fmhi.usf.edu

Mark Engelhardt, MS, MSW, ACSW is a Faculty Research Associate in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy. He is the Director for the Criminal Justice, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse (CJMHSA) Technical Assistance Center in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy. He provides training and consultation to various state agencies, county governments, advocacy groups, and mental health and substance abuse providers throughout the State of Florida. Mr. Engelhardt concentrates on systems development with an emphasis on policy-making and program development.

Office: MHC 2737
Phone: 813-974-0769
Email: MEngelhardt@usf.edu

Nichole Fintel, MSPH received her undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Florida. She went on to receive her master of science in public health degree from the University of South Florida, and was among the first cohort of scholars in the Institute for Translational Research in Adolescent Behavioral Health, a federally funded state-of-the-art research education program that teaches the practical skills of translational and implementation science in the field of adolescent behavioral health. Institute scholars have the opportunity to work with community partners, academic mentors and national mentors to advance the field of translational science and promote evidence-based practice. Currently as a Social & Behavioral Researcher within the Department of Child & Family Studies, Nichole is collaborating on a national team to provide training and technical assistance to recipients of the Now is the Time - Project AWARE and - Healthy Transitions grants awarded through SAMHSA. Her research interests include adolescent and young adult substance use prevention and mental health promotion, community-based substance abuse coalitions, and mental health service integration in schools, with a special focus on translational research and implementation science.

Office: MHC 2328
Phone: 813-974-8753
Email: nsnyder@usf.edu

Sondra J. Fogel, PhD is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work. She is the founding Director of Special Programs for the USF Honors College. Dr. Fogel is a 1994 graduate of the social work PhD program at the University of IllinoisUrbana-Champaign. She received her Master of Science in Social Work (MSSW) from Columbia University in 1983. Dr. Fogel completed her double major psychology and sociology undergraduate degree in 1980 at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Dr. Fogel has a LCSW and is a Florida qualified social work supervisor.

Office: ALN 241
Phone: 813-974-3087
Email: sfogel@usf.edu

Tracy-Ann GilbertSmith, MS is a Social and Behavioral Researcher in the Division of Training, Research, Evaluation and Demonstrations (TREaD). Tracy-Ann is the Project Director for the Online Learning in Children's Mental Health, and a teaching assistant for the Graduate Certificate in Children's Mental Health. In addition, she is the logistics and off-site coordinator for the System of Care Practice Review (SOCPR-R) site visits. She is also responsible for research management, the collection and analysis of data, scanning public agency and private foundation websites for grant opportunities, and gathering and developing literature base.

Office: MHC 2321
Phone: 813-974-3341
Email: tgsmith@fmhi.usf.edu

Howard Goldstein, PhD is the Associate Dean for Research and the College liaison for all research processes, including sponsored research. His primary research focus has been on early intervention and prevention, especially in the following areas: observational learning and generalization processes in language learning, peer-mediated interventions to promote social communication in children with autism and other developmental disabilities in inclusive preschools, effects of vocabulary and phonics intervention on preventing reading disabilities in at-risk children in low-income schools, and embedding interventions focusing on language, vocabulary, and phonological awareness skills into shared book reading. Currently, he is investigating school- and home-based interventions to improve language and literacy outcomes in children with developmental delays in high poverty communities.

Office: MHC 1121
Phone: 813-974-9613
Email: hgoldstein@usf.edu

Michael Greeson is a Research Support Specialist with the Florida Center for Inclusive Communities in the Department of Child & Family Studies.

Office: MHC 2125D
Phone: 813-974-7975
Email: greeson@usf.edu

Amber Gum, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mental Health Law & Policy with a joint appointment in the Department of Community and Family Health, College of Public Health. Dr. Gum conducts research on mental health services for older adults and medical patients; teaches classes in behavioral health services and public health, and engages in community and professional service. In her research, Dr. Gum aims to improve well-being for older adults, especially those with depressive symptoms, through research to: facilitate mental health service use for older adults with mental health needs; and integrate mental health services and behavioral interventions into service sectors that older adults and other medical patients frequent.

Office: MHC 2632A
Phone: 813-974-1980
Email: ambergum@usf.edu

Thad Haddad is the Unit Research Administrator for MHLP. He is responsible for assisting department personnel with all pre-award activities, which includes the submission of all grant and contract proposals. He is also the department pre-award liaison to the Office of Sponsored Research, other University units and community partners.  Prior to joining USF, he was a Grants and Contracts Specialist for the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center serving in the same capacity. Earlier he served as a Sponsored Program Officer with The Ohio State University Office of Research, where his primary constituencies were the Comprehensive Cancer Center, the College of Social Work and the Department of International Agriculture.

Office: MHC 2714
Phone: 813-974-0495
Email: thadhaddad@usf.edu

William Haley, PhD is a Professor in the School of Aging Studies. His research focuses on stress, coping, and adaptation in older adults and their family members. This work has examined psychological, social and health impacts experienced by family members caring for relatives with Alzheimer's disease, stroke, cancer and terminal illness. His research also focuses on the development and evaluation of psychoeducational interventions to improve the adaptation of older adults facing stressful circumstances, including family caregiving, chronic illness, and bereavement. Current funded projects focus on family caregiving in stroke, and helping cancer patients cope with the stresses of chemotherapy.

Office: MHC 1343
Phone: 813-974-9739
Email: whaley@usf.edu

Ardis Hanson, PhD is the Assistant Director of Research and Education at the Shimberg Health Sciences Library at USF. Previously she was a Research Coordinator at the College of Behavioral and Community Sciences and, for 20 years she was the director of the Research Library at FMHI. Her early research with Dr. Bruce Levin on the potential impact of mental health parity laws at the state level established a critical synthesis of parity policy, legislation, and implementation practices across the United States (1997-2001). She has published extensively on the de facto behavioral health system of care, the influence of technology in behavioral health, disability policy and practice, and how discourses in public behavioral health policy are constructed to create expert and evidentiary knowledge. Ardis received her doctorate in Communication, with a focus on organizational and health communication, and her Master of Arts in Library and Information Science from USF.

Office: MHC 1110
Phone: 813-974-9607
Email: hanson@usf.edu

 

Kathleen Heide, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Criminology. Her publication record includes four books and more than 100 publications in the areas of adolescent homicide, parricide, family violence, personality assessment, and trauma. Her latest book, Understanding Parricide: When Sons and Daughters Kill Parents, is the culmination of her 25 years of research and clinical evaluation involving parricide victims and offenders. Professor Heide is a licensed mental health professional and a court-appointed expert. She has evaluated defendants charged with murder in 14 states and Canada.

Office: SOC 311
Phone: 813-974-9543
Email: kheide@cas.usf.edu

Holly Hills, PhD is an Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy. In addition to her teaching and research duties at USF, she does training and consulting with service providers and systems focused on improving care for persons with serious mental illness and addictive disorders.

Office: MHC 2717
Phone: 813-974-1923
Email: hills@usf.edu

Sharon Hodges, PhD, MBA is a Research Associate Professor and Division Director in the Department of Child and Family Studies. As an applied organizational anthropologist, Dr. Hodges has more than 20 years of experience working with community coalitions in children's mental health. Her research, training, and technical assistance efforts have focused on service system development and change, and her expertise includes qualitative and applied ethnographic field methods.

Office: MHC 2437
Phone: 813-974-6460
Email: hodges@fmhi.usf.edu

 

Lisa Holcomb is a Technology & Systems Manager for the Policy & Services Research Data Center (PSRDC) which serves as a national model for innovative research using administrative datasets. Her areas of expertise are data management, relational database administration & design, and database & internet application development.

Office: MHC 2618
Phone: 813-974-7293
Email: holcomb@usf.edu

Cary Hopkins Eyles, MA, CAP is the Assistant Director of the UTC Coordinating Center for North American Universities in the Department of Mental Health Law & Policy. She has many years of experience working in non-profit organizations in the field of substance abuse and mental health including running large Residential, Outpatient, and Criminal Justice programs. Her research, presentations, and training sessions have focused on a range of criminological and behavioral health areas including: typologies of offenders in school shootings, the juvenile death penalty, gender specific addiction treatment, trauma-informed care in behavioral health, domestic violence, and co-occurring capable care, among others. She has served on and chaired, many committees to enact change locally.

Office: MHC 2731C
Phone: 813-974-2922
Email: chopkin3@usf.edu

Kathryn Hyer, PhD, MPP is a Professor in the School of Aging Studies. Her research is on the organization, staffing, training, policies, and financing of long-term care in varied settings along the continuum of long-term care. She is interested in the impact of state and federal regulations on assisted living and nursing home residents' quality of care and quality of life, especially at the end of life. Her research includes program evaluation with a special emphasis on evaluation of geriatric educational interventions for health professionals and students.

Office: MHC 1341
Phone: 813-974-3232
Email: khyer@usf.edu

Kimberly A. Johnson, PhD is the Executive Director of the International Consortium of Universities for Drug Demand Reduction and Research Associate Professor in MHLP. Prior to her move to Florida, she served for two years as the Director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, a U.S. federal government agency. Dr. Johnson worked as an associate scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison where her projects included studies on mobile apps for behavior change, quality improvement in care development and acting as the co-director of the national coordinating office of the Addiction Technology Transfer Centers and as co-deputy director of NIATx. She has also served as the state of Maine single state authority for substance abuse, and as the executive director of a substance abuse treatment agency. In her early career, Dr. Johnson was a child and family therapist and managed treatment and prevention programs. She has authored a variety of publications on topics important to addiction and recovery including co-authoring a chapter on quality in the ASAM Principles of Addiction Medicine text and a book called The NIATx Model: Process Improvement in Behavioral Health.

Phone: 813-974-4430
Email: kjohnson33@usf.edu

Melissa Johnson, MA, MPH is an applied anthropologist and senior social and behavioral researcher in the Department of Child and Family Studies. She performs research on child welfare and children's mental health services, both within the state of Florida and nationally.

Office: MHC 2428
Phone: 813-974-5356
Email: mhjohns4@usf.edu

Nev Jones is an assistant professor in the Department of Mental Health Law & Policy at USF and currently a NIDILRR Switzer Research Fellow. Her research expertise spans early intervention in psychosis, youth/young adult mental health services, initial pathways to care and systems transformation. Nev is a mixed methodologist, with a strong commitment to community engaged, participatory research and the elevation of key stakeholder voices across policy and research.

Office: MHC 2732
Phone: 773-639-8360
Email: genevra@usf.edu

Ruby Joseph, MPA is an AssistantIn-Research in the Department of Child and Family Studies. Her primary interests are in research, evaluation, and service implementation of programs that benefit minority populations and communities. She is particularly interested in issues that affect the mental, educational, and social development of youth. Ms. Joseph was the PI/Program Director for the GEAR-UP program, which is a multi-year, federally and locally funded program that served low-income, minority youth by preparing them for graduation and placing them into post-secondary careers in vocational/ technical schools, community, and four-year universities.

Office: MHC 2230
Phone: 813-974-6133
Email: raj@usf.edu

Kristin Kosyluk, PhD is an Assistant Professor in MHLP. Dr. Kosyluk received her PhD in Psychology from Illinois Institute of Technology’s Rehabilitation Counseling Education program in 2014. Dr. Kosyluk’s research agenda is defined by a focus on mental illness and psychiatric disability, with a special interest in social justice issues and stigma. Much of her work to date has investigated how stigma interferes with outcomes for this population. As a rehabilitation counselor, she recognizes the crucial role that vocation plays in the lives of individuals with disabilities, and has undertaken work in the area of employment and postsecondary education. In addition to program development, Dr. Kosyluk also has expertise in program evaluation. She is currently PI on a Recovery Oriented Research Grant from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health supporting a randomized controlled trial of the National Alliance on Mental Illness’ Peer-to-Peer program.

Monica Landers, MA, MSW is a Social and Behavioral Researcher in the Department of Child & Family Studies. Monica endeavors to utilize her educational background and work experiences in order to positively affect the lives of adolescents involved in, or who are at risk of involvement in, the juvenile justice system. While completing her graduate education, Monica has held several positions in direct care with at-risk adolescents at a juvenile detention facility, juvenile residential facility, and an alternative school, as well as youth involved in the child welfare system.

Office: MHC 2413C
Phone: 813-974-6135
Email: mdlander@usf.edu

Beom S. Lee, PhD is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Mental Health Law & Policy with a joint appointment with the Department of Economics, where he is teaching. Dr. Lee provides expertise in economic modeling and advanced statistical procedures (including Monte Carlo simulation, computational statistics, and cluster analysis). Dr. Lee's main research topic is extracting hidden information from randomized controlled trials. For example, he is developing statistical methods to reveal the profiles of the people who would receive most benefits from the intervention in clinical trials.

Office: MHC 2626
Phone: 813-974-9361
Email: beomlee@usf.edu

Celia Lescano, PhD received her B.S., MS, and PhD (Clinical and Health Psychology – concentration in Clinical Child/Pediatric area) from the University of Florida, and completed an APA-approved internship in clinical psychology at the University of Miami. Dr. Lescano has published widely, has been actively involved in professional psychology activities at the national level, and has successfully developed a program of funded research with support totaling more than $14 million. She recently completed a 5-year $2.4 million R01 grant from NIMH (Latino STYLE) to study the efficacy of a family-based HIV prevention program with Latino populations and currently has a $1.7 million NICHD-funded R24 grant (SHARE Haiti; MPI: Rahill) to improve the infrastructure and provide HIV research training to faculty at the State University of Haiti.

Office: MHC 1723
Phone: 813-974-1855 
Email: lescano@usf.edu

 

Jennifer Lister, PhD, CCC-A, FAAA is a Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders. She holds the Certificate of Clinical Competence in Audiology (CCC-A) from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, is a Fellow of the American Academy of Audiology, and is a Licensed Audiologist by the State of Florida Department of Health. Her areas of research interest are aging, auditory processing, auditory training, and cortical auditory evoked potentials. She is currently studying methods of assessing and remediating age-related auditory processing disorders, with the ultimate goal of creating tools that may be of use to clinical audiologists in treating older adult patients.

Office: PCD 4021F
Phone: 813-974-9712
Email: jlister@usf.edu

Kerry Littlewood, PhD is an Instructor in the School of Social Work. She received her PhD in Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She currently teaches Research and Statistics, and Evaluation of Clinical Practice in Diverse Settings. Her research experience includes intervention design, multilevel modeling, multivariate methods, mixed methods, psychometrics, and secondary data analyses. Dr. Littlewood has been PI or Co-PI on many grants and contracts related to kinship care, evidence-based parent education programs, and intervention success on women with diabetes.

Office: MHC 1418
Phone: 813-974-1809
Email: littlewood@usf.edu

Carol MacKinnonLewis, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies. Her areas of research and professional interest include adolescents' family and peer interactions, social information processing, and youth aggression in the family and school. She has conducted longitudinal research focusing on the transition to middle school in which she examined family, peer, and school factors that contribute to aggression and academic outcomes. More recently her research has included the use of technology as a vehicle for the dissemination and implementation of preventive interventions, training, and practices in the field.

Office: MHC 2438
Phone: 813-974-2075
Email: cmackinnon@fmhi.usf.edu

Karen Mann, MS is the Program Director for the Criminal Justice, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse (CJMHSA) Technical Assistance Center in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy. She provides technical assistance to CJMHSA grantees (providers, managing entities, and counties) to increase opportunities to divert individuals with substance use, mental health, or co-occurring disorders from the criminal and juvenile justice systems.

Office: MHC 2615
Phone: 813-974-2330
Email: kem2@usf.edu@usf.edu

Roxann McNeish, PhD, MSW is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies. Her overall research interests focus on behavioral health policy, services and their impacts on individuals and families, particularly vulnerable and minority populations. Her other research interests lie in the area of child welfare and she has been the PI or team member for a variety of research studies in this area. Her current work includes evaluating the Making Connections Initiative, a national community-based initiative to promote the mental health well-being of minority boys and men; and evaluating the SAMHSA funded expansion and sustainability of the system of care for children's mental health in Florida.

Office: MHC 2417
Phone: 813-974-9897
Email: mcneish@usf.edu

Victor Molinari is a professor in the School of Aging Studies at the University of South Florida. He received his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Memphis, and did post-doctoral training in geropsychology at the University of Texas Mental Science institute. Before coming to USF, he was the director of geropsychology at the VA in Houston for over 17 years.
Victor is co-author of the recent book "Ethical Practice in Geropsychology" published by the American Psychological Association Press. He is the current president of the American Board of Geropsychology, a group that credentials specialists in geropsychology. He is the former president of the Society of Clinical Geropsychology, Psychologists in Long Term Care, and the Council of Professional Geropsychology Training Programs. He is also a former member of the American Psychological Association's Committee on Aging, and NIA's National Advisory Council on Aging He has published 150 articles in peer reviewed journals. His research interests include caregiving training for those with dementia, mental health in older adults, reminiscence interventions, and personality disorder in older adults.

Office: MHC 1320
Phone: 813-974-1960
Email: vmolinari@usf.edu

Kathleen Moore, PhD is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy. For the past 17 years, she has collaborated with mental health and substance abuse agencies as well as different problem-solving courts on numerous federal grant projects. Her focus is on program evaluation, bridging the gap between research and practice. She also teaches several core courses within our Behavioral Healthcare major and is a trainer for Mental Health First Aid. Additionally, she oversees the research concentration program within the Behavioral Healthcare major and serves as a mentor for numerous USF undergraduate and graduate students. She also serves on several committees, both within USF and in the community such as the Hillsborough County Anti-Drug Alliance and the Tampa Alcohol Coalition.

Office: MHC 2712
Phone: 813-974-2295
Email: kamoore@usf.edu

Roger Peters, PhD is a Professor in MHLP where he has served as a faculty member since 1986, and as Department Chair from 2004-2011.  Dr. Peters holds a joint appointment in USF’s College of Public Health. Dr. Peters has served as PI and Director for numerous grant projects, including a NIDA P30 Research Core Center on Co-Occurring Disorders, Justice, and Multidisciplinary Research. Dr. Peters served as Chair and Co-Editor of the SAMHSA/CSAT Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) #44 on “Substance Abuse Treatment for Adults in the Criminal Justice System”. Dr. Peters is also the lead author of the monograph “Screening and Assessment of Co-Occurring Disorders in the Justice System” (3rd edition) which was published by SAMHSA in 2016.

Dr. Peters is a faculty member of the National Judicial College and serves on the Florida Supreme Court’s Task Force for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Issues in the Courts.  He received a Fulbright Specialist Grant and served in Ghana in June 2015 as a Fulbright Scholar with the University of Cape Coast, College of Health and Allied Sciences, Department of Mental Health.  Dr. Peters currently serves as Director of the Universal Treatment Curriculum (UTC) Coordinating Center for North American Universities at USF, which is supported by the Colombo Plan with funding by the U.S. Department of State/INL.

Office: MHC 2733
Phone: 813-974-9299
Email: rhp@usf.edu

Khary Rigg, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mental Health Law & Policy. He received his PhD in medical sociology from University of Miami and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in health services research at the University of Pennsylvania. The overall goal of his research is to generate findings that improve the way drug prevention, treatment, and harm reduction interventions are developed and delivered. Dr. Rigg's research focuses on a variety of vulnerable populations including adolescents, military veterans, treatment populations, rural communities, and racial/ethnic minorities. His substantive foci fall into 4 main areas: 1) causes/consequences of Rx drug misuse, 2) club drugs and harm reduction, 3) drug-related HIV transmission, and 4) community-based interventions.

Office: MHC 2716
Phone: 813-974-5476
Email: rigg@usf.edu

Daniel Ringhoff, PhD, LCSW is the Assistant Program Director of the Baker Act Reporting Center. Prior to joining the Baker Act Reporting Center, Dr. Ringhoff worked for the Department of Veteran Affairs on the Mental Health Intensive Case Management (MHICM) teams at the Palo Alto and Tampa VAs, and as the Veterans Justice Outreach Coordinator at the Bay Pines VA. He has extensive experience working with adults and children with mental illness in the Tampa Bay community and previously served as the Court Mental Health Liaison in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Court (Hillsborough County). Dr. Ringhoff holds a MSW and PhD from the USF School of School Work and currently teaches as adjunct faculty in the School of Social Work.

Office: MHC 2513B
Phone: 813-974-2134
Email: dringhof@usf.edu

John Robst, PhD is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy, and Department of Economics, and a Research Associate with the Institute for Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, Germany. Dr. Robst's research interests include issues related to health economics and the economics of education, and has recently focused on youth in out-of-home care. He served as PI for a study on the Effect of Medicaid Reform on Baker Acts and Criminal Justice Encounters, and has been an investigator on projects funded by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration and Ortho-McNeil Janssen Scientific Affairs. He has published numerous refereed articles in journals including the Journal of Child and Family Studies, Children and Youth Services Review, Community Mental Health, Residential Treatment for Children and Youth. He has served as an Associate Editor for the Economics of Education Review and Research in Labor Economics.

Office: MHC 2739
Phone: 813-974-1505
Email: jrobst@usf.edu

Stephen Roggenbaum, MA has been at USF since 1983. His primary research interests include behavioral health and suicide prevention. He co-authored the Youth Suicide Prevention School-Based Guide that was accepted for the Suicide Prevention Resource Center's Best Practices Registry (BPR) for Suicide Prevention. Additionally, he developed and teaches the USF class, Suicide Issues In Behavioral Healthcare.  Mr. Roggenbaum was an invited member of an American Association of Suicidology task force to help develop the School Suicide Prevention Accreditation Program. Mr. Roggenbaum currently serves as an invited member of the Florida Department of Children and Families' Advancing Suicide Prevention Best Practices in Service Members, Veterans, and their Families (SMVF) Peer Support initiative in collaboration with SAMHSA. He currently is one of four gubernatorial appointments on the Florida Suicide Prevention Coordinating Council (second appointment). Mr. Roggenbaum also serves as Vice Chair of the Florida Suicide Prevention Coalition. 

Office: MHC 2415
Phone: 813-974-6149
Email: roggenba@.usf.edu

Lodi Rohrer, MSPH is a Senior Social and Behavioral Researcher in the Department of Child and Family Studies. Her primary responsibilities include directing and managing evaluations of behavioral health programs. Currently, Ms. Rohrer is the project director for an evaluation of Florida's managed care program that serves individuals with serious mental illness. She also manages national evaluation efforts for a federally funded system of care grantee community. Ms. Rohrer has extensive experience with creating protocols for data collection and conducting data analysis of primary and secondary data sets, including large administrative databases.

Office: MHC 2402
Phone: 813-974-0517
Email: llrohrer@usf.edu

Lawrence (Larry) Schonfeld, PhD is Professor Emeritus in MHLP. Previously he served as FMHI Interim Executive Director (2011-2014), and in the Department of Aging & Mental Health Disparities as Chair (1989-1992 and 2006-2011), Assistant Chair (1987-1989), and director of treatment programs for older adults with substance abuse problems or mental illness (1984-1989). His research focuses on development, implementation, and evaluation of evidence-based practices for older adults, veterans, and college students. He served as Principal Investigator on several grants and contracts including the Strategic Prevention Framework State Prevention Enhancement Grant (SPE) funded by a SAMHSA grant to the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF); the Florida Collegiate Success Initiative, a four-county project for prevention of underage college drinking under a U.S. Dept. of Education grant also to DCF; Behavioral Health Screening of Student Veterans funded by a USF grant; the Florida BRITE Project (BRief Intervention and Treatment for Elders) under contract with the DCF Substance Abuse Program Office funded through a $14 million grant from SAMHSA's Center for Substance Abuse Treatment.

Office: MHC 2738
Phone: 813-974-4510
Email: schonfel@usf.edu

Brent Small, PhD is a Professor and Director of the School of Aging Studies, a Senior Member in the Health Behaviors and Outcomes program, and the Biostatistics Resource Core at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, and holds courtesy joint appointments in the Department of Psychology and College of Nursing at USF. Dr. Small's research has focused broadly on changes in cognitive performance, but specifically among persons undergoing treatment for cancer, cancer survivors, as well as older adults and those at risk of late-life dementing disorders. His research has also focused on the role of cognitive reserve and lifestyle activities on the maintenance of cognitive functioning in late life. Dr. Small's applied statistics research has focused on the use of advanced statistical analytic techniques within these populations, especially the application of advanced multivariate and multivariable statistical techniques to longitudinal data.

Office: MHC1346
Phone: 813-974-9746
Email: bsmall@usf.edu

Tammy Jorgensen Smith, PhD, CRC is an Associate Professor in the Department of Child and Families, Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling Program. Her research focuses on the development and implementation of innovative, customized employment (CE) models to promote full inclusion and self-determination for people with disabilities. She is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor 1999 and a formal affiliate of the Florida Center for Inclusive Communities - a University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities. 

Office: MHC 1618
Phone: 813-974-0973
Email: smithtj@usf.edu

Cathy Sowell, MSW, LCSW is a licensed clinical social worker and senior social and behavioral researcher in the Department of Child & Family Studies. She has clinical, administrative, consultation, and evaluation experience related to child, family and adult mental health and wellness, early childhood development, integration of physical and mental health services, and child welfare practice. Her work at USF has included local, state, and federally funded initiatives focused on early childhood emotional and behavioral challenges, promotion of child and family well-being, child welfare services, and child, adolescent, and young adult mental health care, with an interest in quality of care, innovative and best practices, and system change implementation.

Office: MHC 2413
Phone: 813-974-3628
Email: csowell@usf.edu

Paul Stiles, PhD is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Mental Health Law & Policy. In addition to a substantive focus on geriatric mental health services and policy, his research has involved the compilation, integration, analysis and dissemination of relatively large administrative data sets (e.g. Medicaid/Medicare eligibility and claims files, national hospital surveys, state mental health service regulatory databases) and the application of findings to public mental health systems and the mental health of older persons.

Office: MHC 2638
Phone: 813-974-9349
Email: stiles@usf.edu

Carla Stover, PhD is an Assistant Professor and clinical psychologist in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy. She has extensive clinical experience with families impacted by trauma and domestic violence including policemental health collaboration with the Child Development-Community Policing Program, early intervention, and longertermevidence based treatments including Trauma Focused-CBT and Child Parent Psychotherapy.

Office: MHC 2735
Phone: 813-974-6019
Email: carlastover@usf.edu

Gregory Teague, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mental Health Law & Policy. He received his PhD in Clinical Psychology and Public Practice from Harvard University. Specific research interests have included fidelity to program models, effectiveness of consumer-operated services, involvement of persons with mental illnesses in the criminal justice system, performance measurement, self-directed care, cost-effectiveness of services for people with co-occurring serious mental illness and substance use disorders, and consumer-provider relationships.

Office: MHC 2734
Phone: 813-974-7185
Email: teague@usf.edu

Michiel Adriaan (Riaan) van Zyl, PhD is Director of the USF School of Social Work. He received his MSW (‘78) from the Rand Afrikaans University and his Ph.D. (‘86) from the University of Natal in South Africa. Dr. Van Zyl’s academic background and education provided him with an international perspective of social work education and knowledge building, in particular in sub-Sahara Africa, the United States, and the United Kingdom. He played a leading role in the enhancement of educational experiences of students at different institutions. Dr. Van Zyl conducted several studies on new strategies to improve the identification of persons unaware of their HIV-1 infection and successfully link them to HIV testing, treatment, and prevention interventions. He collaborated on studies of STDs, teenage pregnancy prevention, prevention of child abuse and neglect, and other health-risk behaviors. His interest in prevention research also includes chronic disease and health disparities. His research interest in child welfare focusses on the prevention of child abuse and neglect, child welfare practice models and quality improvement in social service delivery. He led initiatives to curtail the crises of over-crowding in prisons and collaborated across sectors in advancing implementation science.  His work on measurement impacted various fields of practice including corrections, education, prevention of behavioral problems in young children, risk reduction, and organizational change.

Office: MHC 1417
Phone: 813-974-1116
Email: riaan@usf.edu

Amy Vargo, PhD is an anthropologist and faculty member in the Department of Child & Family Studies with over eighteen years' experience in behavioral health and child welfare services evaluation and provision. She currently serves as a Co-PI to Florida's Title IV-E Waiver Evaluation, as well as Co-PI for the implementation analysis of the State of Utah and State of Idaho IV-E Waiver evaluations. Dr. Vargo's previous research experience includes serving as PI of the Child Welfare Prepaid Mental Healthcare Evaluation, a study focused on examining the mental health needs of children in foster care receiving Medicaid-funded mental health services. Of particular interest methodologically are holistic and participatory approaches to program evaluation, and in-depth, exploratory studies of external and contextual variables influencing child welfare system change.

Office: MHC 2420
Phone: 813-974-5356
Email: avargo@usf.edu

Rick Weinberg, PhD is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling (RMHC) program. He earned a PhD in Clinical-Community Psychology from USF, and was a Clinical Fellow at Harvard Medical School/ Mass General Hospital. For 25 years, he directed the APA-accredited predoctoral psychology internship at FMHI and in 2003 was awarded APPIC's Internship Excellence award. In 2009, Dr. Weinberg moved to RMHC where he teaches Couple's Therapy, Family Therapy, and Medical Family Therapy in the Master's program; and Behavioral Health & the Family for the Behavioral Healthcare program. Since 2013, Dr. Weinberg has taught a course, Intimate Relationships for the USF in Florence Summer Abroad program. In 2014, Dr. Weinberg was awarded USF's Outstanding Teaching Award.

Office: MHC 1632
Phone: 813-974-1916
Email: weinberg@usf.edu

Jim Winarski, MSW joined the faculty in the Department of Mental Health Law & Policy in February 2004. He provides technical assistance and training in the areas of assessment, development, and implementation of behavioral health programs, with a special focus on recovery-oriented services for persons with serious mental illnesses and services for persons who are homeless. Mr. Winarski has been working in coordination with state and local authorities to transform Florida's mental health system to a recovery/resiliency orientation.

Office: MHC 2713
Phone: 813-974-6490
Email: JWinarski@usf.edu

Svetlana Yampolskaya, PhD is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Child & Family Studies. Dr. Yampolskaya's research focuses on prevention of violence against children and improving outcomes for youth in the child protection system. She has been PI and Co-PI on numerous studies examining issues related to child maltreatment, fatal child abuse, mental health, and involvement with juvenile justice among youth in the child protection system.

Office: MHC 2435
Phone: 813-974-8218
Email: yampol@fmhi.usf.edu

M. Scott Young, PhD is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy. Combining his interests in both MIS and psychology, Dr. Young has received and worked on grants and contracts using behavioral healthcare administrative data sets to examine mental health and substance use policy issues, and he has collaborated on corrections, community-based mental health, and substance abuse treatment evaluations at the system, agency, and program-levels.

Office: MHC 2713
Phone: 813-974-8734
Email: SYoung1@usf.edu