Meet the Psychology-Law Research Lab
Current and past students at the AP-LS 2017 Conference in Seattle, Washington
Doctoral Students
Perry Callahan, MA
Perry joined the lab as a Clinical Psychology Ph.D. student in the fall of 2022. She earned her B.A. in psychology from Boston University in 2017, where her research concerned the development of prosocial and callous-unemotional behaviors across the preschool period. After graduation, Perry went on to serve as the lab manager of the Boston University Twin Project, a behavioral genetics research lab. She also worked as a team leader at City Year and as an analyst at a legal research firm before earning her M.A. in forensic psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. At John Jay, Perry researched risk and protective factors for violent extremism and wrote her thesis on the influence of intellectual disability on sexual offender risk assessment. Perry’s research interests center on belief and cognition as they relate to violence. She is currently conducting a study that uses forensic mental health evaluation reports to explore risk factors for ideological violence. Her clinical roles involve providing DBT to people on supervised release and conducting psychological evaluations with a court diversion and reentry program.
Linden Loutzenhiser, B.A.
Linden joined the lab in the fall of 2019 when she started the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program at Fordham. Prior to beginning her doctoral studies, she obtained her bachelor’s degree in Psychology at Creighton University. Linden's master's thesis was a meta-analysis on the relationship between pornography and sex offending. More broadly, she is interested in the assessment and treatment of all violent offenders. She has also been involved in group therapy with state and federal sex offenders, group therapy and assessment in an inpatient psychiatric hospital and a long-term substance abuse treatment program, and conducted psychotherapy with a university student population. Currently, Linden is working on her dissertation examining predictors of length of stay for patients hospitalized at a state psychiatric facility.
Ellen Quick, M.A.
Ellen started the clinical psychology doctoral program at Fordham in Fall 2016. Before attending Fordham, she obtained an MA in Psychology from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Her research interests include treatment outcomes, predictors of institutional misconduct and recidivism, as well as forensic assessment. Currently she is working on her dissertation evaluating how therapeutic alliance and perceived respect impact treatment completion and recidivism among clients participating in an alternative to incarceration (ATI) program. Through her research and clinical experiences she has worked with juvenile offenders, incarcerated male and female adult offenders at the federal and state level, individuals on federal probation, and individuals involved in ATI programs.
Fiya Rivers, B.S.
Fiya is a new addition the lab, joining Fordham’s Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program in 2023. Before attending Fordham, she obtained her BS in Psychology from Georgia State University in 2022. Between graduation and coming to Fordham, she worked as a Research Technician for the Behavioral Science Lab at Georgia State University, working on projects surrounding IPV, Bystander intervention, and the interaction between alcohol and violence. Fiya’s research interests more broadly is is the etiology behind why people encounter the law, but more specifically in interpersonal violence, substance abuse, and risk/ predictors of violence. Finally, Fiya hopes to continue her research interests at Fordham as well as explore some other topics!
Master’s Students
Maggie Ardesia, B.S.
Maggie joined the lab in the fall of 2023 in the Clinical Research Methods Program. She received her B.S. from The University of Alabama in Psychology & Criminal Justice where her research focused mainly on intimate partner violence and emotion regulation. Her main research interests broadly pertain to risk assessment, IPV, and psychopathy.
Erin Conley, B.A.
Erin joined the lab in the fall of 2021 in the Clinical Research Methods program. She obtained her B.A. from Saint Anselm College in Psychology & Neuroscience where her research largely focused on the biological basis of eating disorders and addiction. After graduation she worked as a research assistant in the Behavioral Biology lab at McLean Hospital (Belmont, MA). She is currently working on her thesis evaluating differences between DBT and CBT treatment outcomes for interpersonal violence offenders. Broadly, she is interested in sexual and IPV offenders and evaluations of risk assessment and treatment outcomes for these populations. She also is involved with Brooklyn CRAN performing recidivism tracking, and clinically, she provides DBT therapy for high recidivism risk parolees through the RISE program. Outside of the lab Erin is a research assistant at RF CUNY’s ILSG program aiding in the development and implementation of a behavioral coding protocol for the NYPD Monitor Project and serves as the Psychology Admissions Ambassador for Fordham GSAS.
Jay Gonzales, JD
Jay joined the lab in fall 2022 when they started the Clinical Research Methods Master's program at Fordham. They received their B.A. with a double major in Psychology and Law & Society from Oberlin College. They did their undergraduate honor's thesis on juror decision making in insanity defense cases. Jay then attended Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law where they received their Juris Doctorate in spring 2022. In law school they completed a concentration in criminal law with particular focus on sentencing policy, alternatives to incarceration, rehabilitative-focused interventions, and reentry support. Their major research interests are in risk assessments, treatment interventions tailored to the rehabilitative needs of justice involved populations, and the implications for policy in the criminal justice system and sentencing.
Lab Alumni (Ph.D. Students)
Maria Aparcero-Suero, Ph.D. (2023)
Dissertation: Development and Validation of a Standardized Instrument to Assess Competency in Immigration Court.
Current Position: Forensic Psychology Postdoctoral Fellow at Department of State Hospitals - Patton, CA
Jacomina Gerbrandij, Ph.D. (2022)
Dissertation: The Impact of Psychopathy and Therapeutic Alliance on Treatment Outcome in a Dutch Forensic Treatment Sample
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow at Center for Anxiety, New York, NY. Position starting Fall 2022.
Alicia Nijdam-Jones, Ph.D. (2020)
Dissertation: Cross-Cultural Violence Risk Assessment: Adapting Risk Assessment for Institutional Violence Among Criminal Offenders in Mexico
Current position: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
About: Dr. Nijdam-Jones specializes in the area of violence risk assessment, feigning assessment, stalking, and the use of forensic assessment measures with linguistically, ethnically, and culturally diverse samples. She also is experienced in conducting evidence-based treatment for a broad range of psychopathology, including anxiety, depression, psychosis, and insomnia.
Emilie Picard, Ph.D. (2020)
Dissertation: Neuropsychological Impairment among Sexual Offenders with Pedophilic Disorder
Current position: Forensic evaluator for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Forensic neuropsychologist in private practice (VA and NC).
About: Dr. Picard specializes in forensic psychology and neuropsychology. Her research and clinical interests include true and feigned memory impairment, malingered cognitive impairment, pedophilic disorder, and sexualized behavior in the context of neurodegenerative disorders.
Charity Wijetunga, J.D., Ph.D. (2020)
Dissertation: Evaluating Intellectual Disability Screening in a Correctional Setting
Current Positions: Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine
About: Dr. Wijetunga has research and clinical interests in violence risk assessment, intellectual disability in the criminal justice system, and risk assessment/management of individuals with a history of sexual offenses.
Jacqueline Howe (2018)
Dissertation: Agreement among Clinicians in Evaluations of Vocational Disability
Current position: Adjunct Professor, Fordham University, Bronx, NY
Ashley Pierson (2018)
Dissertation: Validation of the Correctional Offender Management and Profiling Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS)
Current position: Assistant Director of DBT Services at Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital, New Haven, CT
Melodie Foellmi (2016)
Dissertation: Factors Affecting the Validity of a Violence Risk Screening Tool with Psychiatric Inpatients
Current position: Clinical Director, Brooklyn LINK/Treatment Alternatives for Safer Communities, Brooklyn, NY
Lia Rohler (2014)
Dissertation: The Moderating Effects of Resilience in the Relationship Between Childhood Physical Abuse, Criminal Behavior, and Antisocial Traits
Current position: Forensic Psychologist, Boston Municipal Court, Boston, MA
Rebecca Weiss (2013)
Dissertation: Differentiating Real Versus Feigned Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in a Sample of Asylum Seekers
Current position: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice/City University of New York, New York, NY
Ekaterina Pivovarova (2012)
Dissertation: Develop and initial validation of the Malingering Assessment of Psychopathology (MAP)
Current position: Assistant Professor at University of Massachusetts Medical School, Law and Psychiatry Program, Worcester, MA
Ricardo Martinez (2011)
Dissertation: Validity of the Juvenile Sex Offender Assessment Protocol (J-SOAP-II) with a Multi-ethnic Sample of Juvenile Sex Offenders Released from Juvenile Justice Commission Placements
Current position: Psychologist, Department of Veterans Affairs, Bloomfield, NJ, and Project Impact Juvenile Sex Offender Treatment Program, Hoboken University Medical Center, Hoboken, NJ
Alexandra Garcia-Mansilla (2010)
Dissertation: Can We Assess Risk for Violence in Women? Predictive Accuracy of the HCR-20
Current position: Director of Psychological Assessment, Rikers Island Correctional Facility, New York, NY
Debbie Green (2010)
Dissertation: Utility of Cognitive Malingering Measures in a Forensic Psychiatric Sample
Current position: Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Hackensack, NJ
Melanie Farkas (2008)
Dissertation: Ability of Malingering Measures to Differentiate Simulated Versus Genuine Mental Retardation
Current position: Associate Unit Chief, Forensic Inpatient Psychiatry Service, Bellevue Hospital Center, New York, NY
W. Amory Carr (2007)
Dissertation: Prediction of Working Alliance in Post Release Mentally Ill Offenders
Current position: Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of New Haven, New Haven, CT