Faculty
Maureen Allwood, Assistant Professor
Ph.D., 2005, University of Missouri-Columbia
Maureen A. Allwood is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and is on the doctoral faculty of CUNY’s Graduate Center. Before joining the faculty at John Jay as an Assistant Professor in 2007 she completed a predoctoral clinical internship at the Boston Consortium and a NIMH funded postdoctoral research fellowship at Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University. Dr. Allwood’s research focuses on the developmental effects trauma and violence exposure. She is interested in both the psychological and biological aspects of youth posttraumatic stress response, with particular interest in how psychological (e.g., cognitive appraisals) and biological (e.g., physiological hyperarousal) markers of trauma interact to predict negative outcomes, such as school failure, delinquency, substance use, and suicide among trauma-exposed youth. Dr. Allwood is also interested in examining the mechanisms by which trauma and violence exposure in youth may lead to poor health and mental health outcomes in adulthood. Dr. Allwood is also interested in minority, immigrant, and refugee mental health, as well as global mental health initiatives.
Dr. Allwood teaches doctoral courses in Therapeutic Interventions, Diversity, and Child and Adolescent Clinical Interventions, with particular focus on empirically supported treatments and evidence based practice. Dr. Allwood also teaches Child and Adolescent Developmental Psychology courses at the undergraduate level.
Preeti Chauhan, Assistant Professor
Ph.D., 2009, University of Virginia
Preeti Chauhan is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at John Jay College. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Virginia and her BA and BS from University of Florida. Before joining the faculty at John Jay, she completed a predoctoral clinical internship at the New York Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Chauhan’s research interests focuses broadly on the intersection of neighborhood and individual level risk factors for antisocial behavior, psychopathology, and victimization, with an emphasis on understanding their contribution to racial disparities.
Miriam Ehrensaft, Associate Professor
Ph.D., 1996, Stony Brook, State University
Dr. Miriam Ehrensaft is an associate professor of psychology at John Jay College. Prior to joining the department at John Jay, Miriam was assistant professor of clinical psychology in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Columbia University, where she completed an NIMH Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Award (K-Award). Miriam is a clinical psychologist with expertise in the assessment and treatment of disruptive behavior disorders and antisocial behavior in boys and girls. She enjoys supervising and training doctoral and Masters students in cognitive behavioral therapy, parent management training, and related interventions for disruptive behavior. She completed her undergraduate training at Queen’s University at Kingston, Canada, her doctoral training in clinical psychology at the University at Stony Brook, and her post-doctoral training in child psychiatric research at Columbia. Miriam’s research interests focus on the association of developmental psychopathology with the risk for interpersonal violence. She has expertise in longitudinal studies of the intergenerational transmission of antisocial behavior and intimate partner violence. She is particularly interested in the influence of family violence, parent-child relationships, and poverty on the transmission of problem behavior across generations. She is currently directing a 4-year study of intimate partner violence prevention, funded by the Centers for Disease Control’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. This study follows up a sample of younger siblings of adjudicated juvenile delinquents, to test whether their prior participation (at NYU’s Child Study Center) in a randomized clinical trial to prevent the early development of conduct problems will also prevent those youth from involvement in abusive opposite sex relationships as they enter adolescence and early adulthood. Dr. Ehrensaft is
Michele Galietta, Associate Professor
Ph.D., 2001, Fordham University, Clinical Psychology
Dr. Michele Galietta is Director of Clinical Training for the Clinical Psychology Training Program. Her research interests include the adaptation, dissemination and implementation of empirically supported treatments for a variety of settings (civil, forensic and correctional.) Current projects include a RCT investigating the efficacy of Dialectical Behavior Therapy vs. Anger Management for the treatment of stalking and interpersonal violence, and developing an intervention for psychopathy. Her area of expertise include suicide, self-harm & severe aggression in adolescents and adults. She consults nationally and internationally on risk assessment and treatment in juvenile justice settings and a variety of adult settings.
William H. Gottdiener, Professor
Ph.D., 2000, The New School for Social Research.
I received my doctorate in clinical psychology from The New School for Social Research. Subsequent to that, I completed a two-year National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) funded postdoctoral research fellowship at the National Development and Research Institutes (NDRI). I have been at John Jay College since 2003.
The research in my lab focuses on understanding the relationship between psychological pain and impulsive behavior in people who have been diagnosed with an addiction. In addition, members of my lab are developing a psychodynamic treatment for these problems.
Last, I am director of the department's Addiction Studies Program where students can get the classroom training to become a Credentialed Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counselor (CASAC) in New York State.
Elizabeth Jeglic, Associate Professor
Ph.D., 2003, SUNY at Binghamton, New York
Dr. Elizabeth L. Jeglic is an Associate Professor of Psychology. She received her doctorate in clinical psychology from Binghamton University. She completed an APA accredited predoctoral internship at the Hudson River Regional Internship Program where she gained expertise in the assessment and treatment of persistent mental illness. During graduate school Dr. Jeglic served as a Junior Program Officer at the Correctional Services of Canada where she developed and evaluated treatment programs for sex offenders. After graduation, Dr. Jeglic completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania under the mentorship of Dr. Aaron T. Beck where she specialized in the assessment and treatment of suicidal behavior and gained expertise in Cognitive Therapy. She is currently a licensed clinical psychologist in New York State. Dr. Jeglic's research interests fall broadly in two domains: (1) the assessment and treatment of suicidal behavior and (2) sex offender assessment, treatment and public policy. She has recently completed (along with Dr. C.C. Mercado) a National Institute of Justice funded grant examining sex offender treatment, civil commitment, and risk for recidivism in New Jersey. She also investigates the assessment and treatment of suicidal behavior, primarily among Hispanic populations and has previously received funding for this work from the American Association for Suicide Prevention. Her current research interests include the use of an emotional stroop test for suicide assessment and the development of empirically based intervention programs for suicidal Hispanic college students. She is also interested in translating sex offender research findings into public policy. Dr. Jeglic is a member of the Clinical Forensic Doctoral Faculty and has previously served as the Chair of the Doctoral Program Executive Committee. At the doctoral level she teaches Psychopathology and Psychotherapeutic Interventions. She also teaches the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Offenders at the Master's level and Abnormal Psychology at the Undergraduate level. Dr. Jeglic is a Mentor in the Ronald E. McNair Program and is the Faculty Advisor for Psi Chi, the National Psychology Honors Association. Dr. Jeglic actively mentors students at all levels and is eager to involve them in her research. In 2009 she won a mentoring award from Division 12 of the American Psychological Association.
Kevin L. Nadal, Associate Professor
Ph.D., 2008, Counseling Psychology, Teachers College- Columbia University
Kevin L. Nadal received his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Teachers College- Columbia University. He was hired as a full-time Assistant Professor at John Jay College in 2008, but has been an Adjunct Lecturer at the college since 2006. Before joining the faculty at John Jay, Dr. Nadal has worked in several clinical settings in New York City, including Pace University Counseling Center, the LGBT Center, Manhattan Psychiatric Center, Fordham University Counseling Center, and the Center of Educational and Psychological Services. He has also worked at various colleges and universities in student services and multicultural affairs, including La Guardia Community College (CUNY), Columbia University, and Michigan State University. Dr. Nadal's research has focused primarily on multicultural issues in psychology, particularly on understanding impacts of microaggressions (subtle forms of discrimination) on the mental health of people of color, women, and lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) individuals. He is also considered one of the leading experts on Filipino American mental health and was awarded the Early Career Contributions to Excellence by the Asian American Psychological Association.
Chitra Raghavan, Assistant Professor
Ph.D., 1998, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
I received my Ph.D. in Community and Clinical Psychology and the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Yale School of Medicine. Prior to joining the John Jay faculty in 2002, I worked as a research scientist at CASA, Columbia University.
Broadly speaking, my research focuses on intimate partner violence, intimate partner rape, femicide, and gender rights. Trained as a clinical and community psychologist, the broader cultural context of gender and power always informs my research. As such, my research and teaching engage not only with the more traditional psychological factors believed to trigger domestic abuse, (e.g., jealousy) but also consider the larger political, economic, and socio-cultural factors that maintain or exacerbate the violence (e.g., social permission to be jealous). Much of my work is interdisciplinary and international/cross-cultural and I partner with organizations that include lawyers, psychologists, sociologists, social workers, and health care professionals.
Currently, I am working on two projects. In one, I investigate how abusers use different tactics including coercive control and sexual violence to achieve control over their intimate partners. In the second, I examine how coercive control (and partner violence) is enacted in gay couples and how these dynamics may vary across gender and sexual orientation. Students are an integral part of my research agenda and I enjoy mentoring, writing, and conducting research with my students who care about the same issues.
Philip T. Yanos, Associate Professor
Ph.D., 1999, Clinical Psychology, St. John's University
Philip T. Yanos, PhD. received a doctorate in clinical psychology from St. John’s University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Mental Health Services Research at Rutgers University’s Institute for Health. Prior to joining the faculty at John Jay, he was a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry of UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School. He is committed to studying issues related to the recovery and successful community integration of persons with severe and persistent mental illness and has received funding from NIMH to study these issues. Areas of particular interest included community integration, the impact of coping, interventions to address internalized stigma, and interventions for persons with criminal justice involvement.
Cathy Spatz Widom, Distinguished Professor
Ph.D., 1973, Brandeis University
Cathy Spatz Widom is Distinguished Professor in the Psychology Department at John Jay College and a member of the Graduate Center faculty, City University of New York. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association (Division 41 - Law and Psychology), the American Psychopathological Association, and the American Society of Criminology. A former faculty member at Harvard, Indiana, University at Albany (SUNY), and New Jersey Medical School, Widom is co-editor of Journal of Quantitative Criminology and has served on the editorial boards of psychology and criminology journals. She is a frequent consultant on national review panels and has been invited to testify before congressional and state committees. She has published extensively on the long-term consequences of child abuse and neglect, including numerous papers on the cycle of violence. Widom served on the Committee on Law and Justice at the Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences at the National Research Council (NRC) and was co-chair of the NRC Panel on Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice. Professor Widom has received numerous awards for her research, including the 1989 American Association for the Advancement of Science Behavioral Science Research Prize for her paper on the "cycle of violence”. Since 1986, Widom has been engaged in a large study to determine the long term consequences of early childhood abuse (physical and sexual) and neglect and is currently completing research on the intergenerational transmission of violence.
Peggilee Wupperman, Assistant Professor
Ph.D., 2006, Psychology, University of North Texas
Dr. Wupperman received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of North Texas. Before joining the John Jay/CUNY faculty, she completed a predoctoral internship and NIDA-funded post-doctoral fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine, as well as a DBT postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington. Dr. Wupperman is invested in improving the understanding and – ultimately – treatment of severe emotional and behavioral dysregulation. Her research focuses on 1) evaluation and dissemination of a transdiagnostic psychotherapy (Mindfulness and Modification Therapy) she developed to target behavioral dysregulation; 2) exploration of constructs underlying emotion dysregulation, behavioral dysregulation, and substance-use disorders; and 3) investigation of the effects of mindfulness and emotion-regulation skills on mental health and well being. She is currently conducting her second grant-funded clinical trial of Mindfulness and Modification Therapy customized to target substance abuse and aggression.
Philip T. Yanos, Associate Professor
Ph.D., 1999, Clinical Psychology, St. John's University
Philip T. Yanos, PhD. received a doctorate in clinical psychology from St. John’s University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Mental Health Services Research at Rutgers University’s Institute for Health. Prior to joining the faculty at John Jay, he was a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry of UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School. He is committed to studying issues related to the recovery and successful community integration of persons with severe and persistent mental illness and has received funding from NIMH to study these issues. Areas of particular interest included community integration, the impact of coping, interventions to address internalized stigma, and interventions for persons with criminal justice involvement.
Patricia Zapf, Associate Professor
Ph.D., 1999, Simon Fraser University
Patricia A. Zapf, Ph.D., is the Editor of the American Psychology-Law Society Book Series and an Associate Editor for Law and Human Behavior. Dr. Zapf was appointed Fellow of the American Psychological Association and Distinguished Member of the American Psychology-Law Society in 2006 for outstanding contributions to the field of law and psychology for her work in competency evaluation. Her research and publications in the field of forensic psychology involve the assessment and conceptualization of various types of competencies and the utility of various methods of competency assessment as well as various aspects of forensic assessment (risk assessment, malingering, insanity) and the development and validation of forensic assessment instruments. In addition to her research, she serves as a consultant to various criminal justice and policy organizations and has a private practice in forensic assessment. She has conducted over 2500 forensic evaluations in both the United States and Canada and has served as an expert witness in a number of cases, including United States v. Jose Padilla. Dr. Zapf is the author of Best Practices in Forensic Mental Health Assessment: Evaluation of Competence to Stand Trial and travels throughout the United States to train legal professionals and psychologists on best practices in forensic evaluation and serving as an expert witness.
Associated Faculty
Angela Crossman, Assistant Professor
Ph.D., 2001, Developmental Psychology, Cornell University
Angela M. Crossman earned a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Cornell University in 2001 (M.A., Cornell University, 1998; B.A., Dartmouth College, 1994). She came to John Jay College in 2003 from a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Institute for the Study of Child Development ( UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School , New Brunswick , NJ). Her research interests include memory development, suggestibility, deception, eyewitness identification accuracy, and the accuracy and credibility of children's testimony. Recent publications include a review of research on child testimony in custody cases and papers on child suggestibility, and on deception and credibility. Current grant-funded research focuses on the effects of exposure to domestic violence on children's adjustment, on children's developing emotion regulation, and on the development of deception in children. She serves as Secretary of the Section on Child Maltreatment (Division 37 of the American Psychological Association) and is Deputy Chair for Advising in the Department of Psychology.
Diana M. Falkenbach, Associate Professor
Ph.D., 2004, University of South Florida
Dr. Diana Falkenbach is a tenured Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Director of the M.A. program in Forensic Psychology. She completed her doctoral studies in Clinical Psychology at the University of South Florida. She holds an M.S. in Counseling from Georgia State University and a B.A. in Psychology from Emory University. Prior to joining the John Jay Faculty, she completed her internship at Bellevue Hospital Center and Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center, where she conducted testing, forensic evaluations, and therapy with violent mentally ill offenders. Dr. Falkenbach is a clinical researcher focusing on psychopathy and related behaviors. She is interested in understanding the etiology of psychopathy and violence, as well as the development and evaluation of assessment instruments. While these areas of research are commonly studied in adult males, Dr. Falkenbach pursues research on psychopathic traits and predictors of violence in women, juveniles, various multicultural groups and noncriminal populations. Her recent focus is on “successful”adaptations of psychopathic traits and considering if heroes and criminal psychopaths may be “twigs off of the same genetic branch” (Lykken, 1995). She is working on several research projects considering psychopathic traits in police, FBI and corporate samples.
Mark Fondacaro, Professor Ph.D., 1985, Clinical Psychology, Indiana University-Bloomington
JD, 1991, Columbia University School of Law
Before joining the faculty at John Jay College of Criminal Justice as a Professor of Psychology, I was an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Florida and an Associate Director of the Levin College of Law’s Center on Children and Families. I have a wide range of research interests including procedural and distributive justice, multicultural competence and decision making, ecological jurisprudence, family conflict resolution, and juvenile justice. I have taught courses in abnormal psychology, law and psychology, scientific evidence, children’s law, criminal law, and mental health law. Before joining the University of Florida faculty in 1997, I was a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska’s Center on Children, Families and the Law. I received my B.A. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and my Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Indiana University-Bloomington. I received my post-doctoral training at Stanford University. I am also a graduate of Columbia Law School.
Demis Glasford, Assistant Professor
Ph.D., 2007, University of Connecticut
The focus of much of my work is on three interrelated streams of research questions that are concerned with understanding: how people make decisions about what to do when faced with injustice; what compels people to join and stay involved in political protest that can benefit their own group, as well as groups they do not belong to; and when, why, and what helps individuals from groups of differing power improve relations with one another.
Jill Grose-Fifer, Assistant Professor
Ph.D., 1989, Vision science, University of Aston in Birmingham, U.K
Jill Grose-Fifer is a neurophysiologist with research interests that center on the use of the EEG to explore sensory and cognitive function across the lifespan. She came to John Jay in 2007, after holding research appointments at Columbia University, City College, CUNY and Brooklyn College, CUNY, and adjunct teaching appointments at Barnard College and NYU. Her current research focuses primarily on adolescent brain development with a view to better understanding increased risk-taking in this population. Other collaborative research projects include using the EEG for deception detection, investigations of emotional face processing in adolescents, and exploring the neural correlates of psychopathy. She is also interested in developing and assessing pedagogical innovation, and she is currently a member of the John Jay Learning Community Faculty. She was the recipient of the John Jay Distinguished Teaching Prize in 2009 and the Outstanding Scholarly Mentor Award in 2012.
Matthew Barry Johnson, Associate Professor
Ph.D., 1984, Clinical Psychology, Adelphi University
Matthew B. Johnson’s general interest involves how psychology informs due process. His scholarship, practice, and research have focused on the areas of interrogation and confession, mental status defenses, wrongful conviction, and parental rights termination in family court. He has a current empirical research project evaluating - “Expectations of police compliance with Miranda protections”, which illustrates a widely held belief that police will not honor the right to remain silent. During the Spring 2010 semester, Professor Johnson was a visiting professor at Rutgers University, School of Criminal Justice, where he conducted a graduate seminar on 'Interrogation and Confession'. Professor Johnson has several publications related to parental rights termination in family court and he recently completed a chapter titled, “African-Americans facing parental rights termination proceedings” in Critical race realism: Intersections of psychology, race, and law.
Professor Johnson frequently provides expert witness testimony in criminal and family court matters. His publications and testimony have been cited favorably in New Jersey Supreme Court decisions. He has published widely in professional journals and law reviews. Professor Johnson serves on the Executive Committee of New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (NJADP.org). He also was a member of the American Bar Association, Section on Individual Rights and Responsibilities – Task Force on Mental Disability and the Death Penalty. Professor Johnson was the lead author of the National Association of Black Psychologists (2012) Death Penalty Abolition Resolution. In 2003 Dr. Johnson delivered the Frantz Fanon MD Memorial Lecture, and received the associated award, from the Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus of the Post Graduate Center for Mental Health. He was named the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Outstanding Teacher of the Year in 2007.
Saul Kassin, Distinguished Professor
Ph.D., 1978, Personality and Social Psychology, University of Connecticut
Dr. Kassin is an author of several college textbooks, including Social Psychology (2011, 8th edition), published by Cengage Learning. He has also co-authored or edited various scholarly books, including: Confessions in the Courtroom, The Psychology of Evidence and Trial Procedure, The American Jury on Trial: Psychological Perspectives, and Developmental Social Psychology. Kassin pioneered the scientific study of false confessions by developing a taxonomy that is widely accepted and research paradigms that are now used to assess why innocent people are targeted for interrogation, why they confess, and the impact of this evidence on judges, juries, and others. He was awarded an APA presidential citation for his research on false confessions. Dr. Kassin has also studied various aspects of jury decision making and eyewitness identifications, focusing on questions pertaining to “general acceptance” within the scientific community.
Kassin is Past President of the American Psychology-Law Society (AP-LS) and is a Fellow of both the American Psychological Association (APA) and Association for Psychological Science (APS). He has testified as an expert witness in state, federal, and military courts and is senior author of the 2010 AP-LS White Paper entitled “Police-Induced Confessions: Risk Factors and Recommendations.” He lectures frequently to psychologists, judges, lawyers, and law enforcement groups; and has appeared as a media consultant for all major networks.
Margaret Bull Kovera, Professor
Ph.D., 1994, University of Minnesota
Margaret Bull Kovera received her PhD in social psychology from the University of Minnesota. For over fifteen years, she has had continuous funding (over $1.7 million) from the National Science Foundation for her research on eyewitness identification, jury decision-making, and scientific evidence. Her research on these topics has been published in Law and Human Behavior, Journal of Applied Psychology, Applied Cognitive Psychology, and Psychology, Public Policy, and Law. She is a Past-President of APLS and the current Editor-in-Chief of Law and Human Behavior, the premier outlet for scholarship in psychology and law. She received the Saleem Shah Award for Early Career Achievement in Psychology and Law and the APLS Outstanding Teacher and Mentor in Psychology and Law Award from APLS. She is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, the American Psychological Association, the American Psychology-Law Society (APLS), the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI). She regularly serves as a consultant and expert witness in cases involving eyewitness identification.
L. Thomas Kucharski, Associate Professor
Ph.D., 1981, University of Rhode Island
Dr. Thomas Kucharski is an Associate Professor of Psychology and as of January 2009 will be the interim Chair of the Department of Psychology. He is also the Chair of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at John Jay and former Director of the NYPD/ John Jay program, Managing Situations with Mentally Ill Persons. Prior to coming to John Jay Professor Kucharski was a forensic psychologist and chief psychologist with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Director of Forensic Mental Health, Westchester Department of Corrections, Director of the Taunton Secure Care Program and a forensic psychologist at the Bridgewater State Hospital in Massachusetts. He completed forensic psychology supervision in 1989 with the Massachusetts Department of Forensic Mental Health. He serves as a mental health consultant and monitor to the Federal Courts in the case US vs Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Department of Juvenile Justice, Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act. He also currently serves as a consultant to the Sacramento County Probation Department and the Philadelphia Department of Corrections. His main research interests are in forensic psychological evaluation, specifically the detection of malingering and denial. Recent interests include clemency in death penalty cases, characteristics of those wrongfully convicted in capital cases, and the mental health of victim’s family members and the exonerated.
Keith A. Markus, Professor
Ph.D., 1996, CUNY Graduate School, Psychology Program/Baruch College
I primarily teach research methods courses. Syllabi are available on my web page. My research interests focus on causal models and causal inference, test validity, statistical inference, and applications of latent variable modeling. I also have interests in discursive psychology, organizational culture, partner abuse, deception detection, language, logic, ethics, policing and jurisprudence. My research on causation emphasizes causal pluralism by exploring alternative causal interpretations linking statistical models to substantive explanations. My research on test validity articulates and clarifies unanswered questions in validity theory such as the roles of facts and values and the meaning of tests scores. I am coauthor with Denny Borsboom of a forthcoming book entitled "Frontiers in Test Validity Theory: Measurement, Causation, and Meaning." My research on statistical inference seeks to inform research practice through better understanding of inductive inference. My collaborative research includes research on partner abuse with Chtira Raghavan and Katie Gentile, the development of deception with Angela Crossman and Victoria Talwar, severe mental illness with Phil Yanos, and deception detection with Martha Davis. I am currently serving as associate editor of Psychological Methods and I have previously served as associate editor of Psychological Structural Equation Modeling. A copy of my CV can be found on my web page.
Cynthia Calkins Mercado, Associate Professor
Ph.D., 2003, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Dr. Cynthia Calkins Mercado is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, NY. She received a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and a Masters of Legal Studies (MLS) from the University of Nebraska's Law-Psychology program. She completed an APA accredited predoctoral internship at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute in Tampa, FL and did postdoctoral work at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Her work focuses broadly on establishing empirical evidence for use in sex offender policy and sexual violence prevention. She is PI (along with Dr. Elizabeth Jeglic) on a National Institute of Justice (NIJ) grant examining sex offender treatment, civil commitment, and risk for recidivism in New Jersey. She is also involved with a team of researchers at John Jay who are investigating the causes and contexts of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
Maureen O’Connor, Associate Professor
Ph.D., 1998, Psychology, Law, and Policy, University of Arizona
Dr. Maureen O’Connor is the Executive Officer of the Doctoral Program in Psychology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and Professor and former Chair of the Psychology Department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Her research interests are in the intersection of psychology, gender, and law. Another scholarly interest is in the use of scientific information and expert testimony in the legal system, particularly focused on gendered components of that process. She is a member of the bar in Arizona and Washington, D.C. She has held numerous governance positions in the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI). She is also an elected member of the American Psychological Association’s Policy and Planning Board, an APA and SPSSI Fellow, and long-time member of the American Psychology-Law Society.
Steven D. Penrod, Distinguished Professor
Ph.D., 1979, Social Psychology, Harvard University
Steven D. Penrod joined the John Jay faculty as Distinguished Professor of Psychology in 2001. He earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1974 and his Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University in 1979. He was previously on the faculties of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Minnesota Law School and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has over 130 publications; is a co-author of books on juries, on eyewitnesses, introductory psychology and social psychology; and a co-editor of volumes on research methods in forensic psychology and comparative psychology and law. Professor Penrod's research and writing have focused on decision-making in legal contexts. He has written about the effects of jury size and decision rules on jury decision-making, death penalty decision-making, juror's use of probabilistic and hearsay evidence, comprehension of legal instructions, and the impact of extra-legal influences such as pretrial publicity, joinder of charges, the effects of cameras in the courtroom, the and the effects of juror questioning of witnesses on jury performance. His research and writing about eyewitness evidence has encompassed factors that reduce eyewitness reliability, interview and lineup procedures that may enhance eyewitness performance, child witnesses, jury assessments of eyewitness evidence, the relationship between eyewitness confidence and eyewitness accuracy and the effects of eyewitness expert testimony on jury decision-making.
Louis Schlesinger, Professor
Ph.D., 1975, New School of Social Research, New York
Louis B. Schlesinger, PhD is Professor of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, a Diplomate in Forensic Psychology of the American Board of Professional Psychology, and a Distinguished Practitioner in the National Academies of Practice. Dr. Schlesinger served as President of the New Jersey Psychological Association in 1989; he was the 1990 recipient of the New Jersey Psychological Association's "Psychologist of the Year" Award, as well as the American Psychological Association's Karl F. Heiser Presidential Award (1993). He was appointed by the Governor of New Jersey and the Commissioner of Corrections to be a member (and later chair) of the Special Classification Review Board at the State's forensic facility for sex offenders; he was also appointed (2001) by the President of the New Jersey Senate and Acting Governor to serve as a member of a Senate Task Force that re-wrote Megan's Law. Dr. Schlesinger is co-principal investigator in a joint research project with the FBI Behavioral Science Unit studying sexual and serial murder, rape, bias homicide, suicide-by-cop, and other extraordinary crimes. He has had extensive clinical experience, testifying in numerous trials, and has published many articles, chapters, and ten books on the topics of homicide, sexual homicide, and criminal psychopathology.
Deryn Strange, Associate Professor
Ph.D., 2005, Psychology Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Dr. Deryn Strange received her PhD in psychology from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, in 2005. Her advisor was Maryanne Garry, PhD. Her thesis was entitled "Factors that Influence Children's False Memories". She arrived at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in September of 2008 and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology. Her research interests are focused on memory for traumatic events, the techniques that elicit false personal (autobiographical) or false collective memories, and how people acting alone or in larger organizations—such as the media—produce these false memories.
Dr Strange teaches cognitive psychology at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Affiliated Faculty
Ali Khadivi, Adjunct Professor Ph.D., Dr.
Thanos Patelis, Adjunct Associate Professor
Ph.D., 1994, Fordham University
Dr. Patelis teaches introductory and mutlivariate statistics and other methods courses as needed (e.g., psychometric theory). Thanos is the vice president for Research and Analysis in the Research and Development at the College Board. He also has an academic appointment as a research scholar at Fordham University Graduate School of Education. He is responsible for program evaluations, applied research, statistical analysis, and research collaborations with state departments of education involving all College Board assessments and educational initiatives. He is past president of the Northeastern Educational Research Association (NERA), past Executive Committee Member of APA’s Division 5, Evaluation, Statistics and Measurement, and head of the psychology division of the Athens Institute for Education and Research. He is former editor of the NCME Newsletter. His areas of research are applied psychometrics, test validity, structural equation modeling, program evaluation, non-cognitive measurements, history of testing, growth modeling, and multivariate statistical analysis. He has been a reviewer for Applied Measurement in Education, Educational and Psychological Measurement, Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, Mental Measurements Yearbook, and Psychological Methods. He has published and presented over 50 papers in peer-reviewed journals, national and international professional conferences. He has also served on an APA Task Force for the Recruitment of Quantitative Psychology Professionals. Finally, he founded the College Board Internship Program to facilitate the training and experience of undergraduate and graduate students in quantitative psychology and educational research. He is a fellow of APA Division 5.
Andrew A. Shiva, Adjunct Assistant Professor
Ph.D., 2001, Teachers College, Columbia University (Clinical Psychology)
Dr. Shiva completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at NYU/Bellevue Hospital Center in Forensic and Clinical Psychology. Specializing in psychological assessment and the supervisory process, between 2001 and 2009, he has been a Staff, Senior, and Chief Psychologist in the NYU/Bellevue Division of Forensic Psychiatry. Dr. Shiva was also the Director of Inpatient and Forensic Assessment and coordinated Forensic Psychology training for psychology externs, interns, and postdoctoral fellows. Dr. Shiva’s central research interests include the validation of psychological assessment instruments (both clinical and forensic), and Quality Assurance research (e.g., inpatient satisfaction with services, patient impulsivity, clinical formulations).