Victim Researcher Profile

BIO

I am the Director of the Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and the UW Health Professor in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. I am a pediatric psychiatrist and neuroscientist whose work explores the neural substrates of childhood traumatic stress and PTSD. I direct the BRAVE Research Center (Building Resilience to Adversity and Violent Experiences), which seeks to map neurodevelopmental trajectories following childhood trauma. Specifically, the BRAVE Lab uses neuroimaging combined with behavioral, physiological, and genetic approaches to develop biomarkers of vulnerability, recovery, and resilience to childhood trauma. I serve as the principal or co-investigator on several NIH funded research studies examining neural mechanisms of trauma and PTSD in both youth and adult populations. In addition to our research, I remain very active in clinical care and teaching, with specialization in the treatment of youth with trauma-related mental illness. In research and clinical care, our parternships for helping victimized youth are many and include area mental health clinics (Journey public mental health center, The Rainbow Project), outreach to juvenile justice systems and the Office for Crime Victims Services, as well as researchers across the globe dedicated to helping prevent violence against youth and help those who are victimized recover.

VICTIMIZATION FOCUS

Bullying, Child Abuse and Sexual Abuse, Domestic and Family Violence, Hate and Bias Crimes, Physical Assault (other than domestic violence or elder abuse), Sexual Abuse or Violence (other than campus sexual assault), Vicarious Trauma

SPECIAL POPULATIONS

Child victims, LGBTQ victims, Male victims generally, Military personnel victims, Urban high crime neighborhood victims

RESEARCH EXPERTISE

Action research, Community-based participatory research, Data collection, Quantitative studies, Randomized controlled trial

VICTIM RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Community-based participatory research, Data collection, Needs assessment, Program evaluation, Training and/or technical assistance