Meet the Psychology-Law Research Lab
Current and past students at the AP-LS 2017 Conference in Seattle, Washington
Doctoral Students
Adil Ali, M.A.
Adil joined the lab as a Clinical Psychology Ph.D. student in the Fall of 2024. He earned B.S. in Psychology from Virtual University of Pakistan in 2012, where he did clinical internship hours. He completed his Master's in Clinical Psychology from Foundation University, Islamabad where his research thesis focused on studying the impacts of compulsive internet use and cyberbullying on the mental wellbeing of internet users. He worked as a Psychologist at a Correctional Facility in Pakistan. His main research interests broadly pertain to psychopathy, institutional misconduct among inmates, violence and extremism.
Perry Callahan, M.A.
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 behavioral genetics and the development of prosocial and callous-unemotional behaviors across the preschool period. While earning her M.A. at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 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 have involved providing DBT to people on supervised release and conducting psychological evaluations with a court diversion and reentry program.
Linden Loutzenhiser, M.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 and is on internship at Colorado Mental Health Institute at Fort Logan.
Fiya Rivers, B.S.
Fiya is a second-year student in Fordham University’s Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Georgia State University in 2022. Following graduation, she worked as a Research Technician at Georgia State’s Behavioral Science Lab, where she contributed to projects on intimate partner violence (IPV), bystander intervention, and the relationship between alcohol and violence. Fiya’s research interests center on the etiology of criminal behavior, with a focus on interpersonal violence, psychopathology, and risk factors or predictors of violence. At Fordham, she is actively exploring these topics while expanding her research into additional areas of interest.
Master’s Students
Maggie Ardesia, B.S.
Maggie joined the lab in the fall of 2023 in the Clinical Research Methods Program. She earned her B.S. from the University of Alabama in psychology & criminal justice where her research primarily focused on emotion regulation. She is currently working on her thesis examining how clinicians weigh violent risk factors differently for males and females in formulating violence risk judgments. Broadly, she is interested in nuances in violence risk assessment and their influences on clinical and legal decision making, in addition to psychopathy. Clinically, she provides DBT to individuals on supervised-release as part of the RISE Court.
Izzie Reeder, B.S.
Izzie joined the lab in the fall of 2024 in the Clinical Research Methodology program. She received her B.S. in Forensic Psychology from Arizona State University where her research focused on a variety of topics, including jury bias, eyewitness identification, and forensic mental healthcare. Izzie conducted her thesis on behaviors that lead to 911 callers becoming suspects of the crime that they are reporting. Her current research interests broadly encompass forensic assessment and the impact of the justice system on persons with extreme mental illnesses.
Undergraduates
Maya Dawson
Maya is currently an undergraduate senior working toward her major in psychology with a focus on forensics. She is currently working on her honors thesis which investigates the impact of a psychotic disorder diagnosis on the accuracy of the Level of Service Inventory-Revised in predicting recidivism. Maya is also involved in recidivism tracking with the EAC Network, which aligns with her broader interests in psychosis, reoffence, and therapeutic interventions. After graduation, she plans to pursue a PhD in forensic psychology.
Lab Alumni (Ph.D. Students)
Ellen Quick-Parikh, Ph.D. (2024)
Dissertation: The Impact of Therapeutic Alliance and Perceived Respect on Recidivism in an Alternative to Incarceration Program
Current Position: Serious Mental Illness Postdoctoral Psychology Fellow at Federal Medical Center (FMC) Devens in Ayer, MA
Maria Aparcero-Suero, Ph.D. (2023)
Dissertation: Development and Validation of a Standardized Instrument to Assess Competency in Immigration Court.
Current Position: Senior Psychologist Specialist, Forensic Evaluation Department, Department of State Hospitals-Patton, Patton, CA
About: Dr. Aparcero Suero specializes in the area of immigration evaluations, feigning assessment, forensic assessment with culturally and linguistically diverse populations, and development/adaptation of assessment instruments.
Jacomina Gerbrandij, Ph.D. (2022)
Dissertation: The Impact of Psychopathy and Therapeutic Alliance on Treatment Outcome in a Dutch Forensic Treatment Sample
Current Position: Clinical Psychologist at BronxCare Health System and private practice therapist.
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