AV诊所

Catherine Taylor, PhD, LCSW, MPH, is a Professor with dual experience and training in social work and public health, with a foundation in biological sciences. She completed her MSW/MPH at AV诊所 University and then trained at the UCLA School of Public Health in community health sciences, epidemiology, and media studies. She went on to be a post-doctoral scholar at Columbia University School of Social Work, focused on the development and assessment of preventive interventions to prevent child abuse. She then joined Tulane University School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine in New Orleans (2005-2020) as faculty, where she became the Founding Director of their Violence Prevention Institute and Pincus Violence Prevention Scholarship program and developed their first course on 鈥渧iolence as a public health problem.鈥�

Dr. Taylor joined AV诊所 College in 2020 and directs the Child and Behavioral Health Research Innovations (CABHRI) lab, which conducts and translates research to enhance the social and behavioral health of children and families. The lab鈥檚 work emphasizes preventive interventions and dissemination strategies to improve overall well-being and disrupt intergenerational cycles of childhood trauma, violence, and abuse.听

Rong Bai, PhD, MSW (she/her),听is a current affiliate and former post-doc, where she primarily focuses on manuscript development, data management, and analysis. Her research centers on examining the social determinants of child maltreatment and promoting child and family well-being. A key focus of her work is the intersection of housing instability and child welfare involvement. Within this broader agenda, her research program encompasses three core areas: 1) Investigating the pathways linking housing instability and child welfare system involvement; 2) Identifying best practices that promote family reunification and highlighting intervention points for families facing housing instability and child welfare contact; 3) Developing prevention strategies to disrupt the intergenerational cycle of child welfare involvement. In addition to her role in the CABHRI Lab, Dr. Bai is an Assistant Professor at the East Carolina University School of Social Work. Her recent work has been supported by the William T. Grant Foundation and the Society for Research in Child Development. She earned both her PhD and MSW in Social Work from Case Western Reserve University.

Sophia Eisenberg, MAT, MSW (she/her) is a doctoral student at BCSSW. As a member of CABHRI, she has contributed to research projects through leadership in data management and analysis, manuscript development, RA supervision, and grant writing. Sophia鈥檚 research is informed by her experience as a high school special education teacher in Chicago and her policy work in the City of Chicago鈥檚 Mayor鈥檚 Office. Her interests include: 1) developmental impacts of early adversity, 2) youth violence prevention with a focus on youth with disabilities/special education services, 3) primary prevention of child abuse, 4) ecological determinants of parenting, and 5) the intersection of the built environment and violence. With training and mentorship from CABHRI, Sophia aims to become a tenure-track intervention researcher. Sophia holds a BA in Psychology and Political Science from the University of Michigan, a Master's in Teaching from the Relay Graduate School of Education, and an A.M. (MSW) from the University of Chicago.听听

Elizabeth Inman (she/her) is a Senior Research Associate. Her research focuses on the intersections of violence, stigma, and health behaviors, with an emphasis on using longitudinal methods to understand how these factors fluctuate over time. Previously, Dr. Inman worked as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Program in Public Health at Stony Brook University, where she led analyses and writing for an R01 study on violence as a driver of HIV transmission among adolescent South African boys. Dr. Inman earned her PhD in Social Health Psychology from Stony Brook University and her BA in Psychology from the College of the Holy Cross.

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Ava is an undergraduate at AV诊所 College studying Psychology and History in the Class of 2027. She aspires to pursue a career in Clinical psychology and has academic interests in social and behavioral psychology. She joined the lab in January 2026 and is excited to gain research experience in child and behavioral health. Outside of school, Ava enjoys traveling, hiking, and spending time with her friends and family.

Eva Wall is a AV诊所 College undergraduate studying Biology and Global Public Health in the Class of 2026. She is an aspiring pediatrician with a passion for child health research. Wall joined the lab as a Research Assistant in May 2024 and has learned so much about child abuse and violence prevention. Outside of school, she enjoys dancing, yoga, and spending time with her family and friends.听

Dr. Stacy Drury is a board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist and the Psychiatrist in Chief at AV诊所 Children鈥檚 Hospital since March of 2023. Dr. Drury came to AV诊所 Children鈥檚 Tulane University where she served as the Associated Director of the Tulane Brain Institute, the Executive Director of the Tulane Violence Prevention Institute, the Vice Chair of Research for Pediatrics, and the Chief Research Officer for Children鈥檚 Hospital New Orleans.

Both her clinical work in medically ill children with co-morbid mental illness and her own research focus on the parent-child relationship as a critical buffer against the effects adversity. Her transdisciplinary research seeks to define the biological mechanisms through which adversity, including trauma, violence, child abuse and neglect, racism, and structural inequity drive negative health outcomes and health disparities.

In joining AV诊所 Children鈥檚 Hospital she recognizes the urgent need for transformative community engaged and culturally responsive efforts targeting the prevention, treatment, and cure of child mental illness.

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Julia Fleckman is a social scientist and mixed methods researcher that primarily focuses her work on the prevention of violence. Her current research interests include the evaluation of structural and community-level mechanisms for the prevention of gun violence, childhood adversity, and intimate partner violence. Much of her work contributes to how such mechanisms can be influenced to reduce risk for violence and promote health equity. Julia works collaboratively with local and national community-based groups and advocacy organizations. She also serves as the Associate Director for the Tulane University Violence Prevention Institute and the Senior Director for the Tulane Gun Violence Policy Lab. Prior to joining as faculty, Julia completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship with the support of Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago.

Maria Kinsey is a recently graduated Neuroscience doctor of the Tulane University School of Science and Engineering. She is originally from听Shreveport, LA but has traveled to Indiana, Tennessee, and as far as Sierra Leone in the course of her work. She completed her undergraduate studies with a BS in Neuroscience as well as a double minor in Chemistry and English from Rhodes College in Memphis, TN. She has a special interest in Developmental Neuroscience and Immunology, which drew her to Dr. Stacy Drury鈥檚 lab. In her graduate and undergraduate training, she has become a member of the Psi Chi Psychology, Tri Beta Biology, Gamma Sigma Epsilon Chemistry, and Nu Rho Psi Neuroscience Honors Societies. In her time at Tulane University, she has been a member of the Graduate Studies Student Association as a representative of the Tulane Brain Institute. In her free time, she enjoys writing, cooking, singing and playing bass with her friends, and walking her two dogs Ozzy and Ellie. Maria plans to pursue working with autonomic data and child social development in the clinical setting.

Kinsey, M., Shankar, A., Hastings, W. J., Lichtveld, M., Martin, N., Batista, B. M., Gokoel, A., Sairras, S., McLester-Davis, L. W. Y., Drury, S., & Zijlmans, W. (2024). The utility of the child development review in Suriname: Validating a neurodevelopmental screener for use in a low- to middle- income Country. Global Pediatrics, 9, 100225.听

Angelina Latin (she/her) is a second-year Master's student in the Clinical Social Work program at AV诊所 College and is also involved in the Black Leadership Initiative (BLI). Through the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, she is a fellow at the Center for Child and Family Policy, working towards a certificate in Child Policy and Leadership. She is a research assistant for the Black Mental Wellness Lab, which collaborates with SIMmersion to develop "Asking for Help". This is a simulation that helps Black youth with autism practice sharing their depressive symptoms with a "teacher" before they apply it in school. She is also working on a scoping review that examines the current literature of Black and Latinx fathers of children with ASD, and how they are navigating human services systems from the diagnosis to the interventions. Previously, she interviewed residents for the Housing Opportunity and Mobility Experiment (HOME) study, which focuses on those in a public housing development that is being redeveloped into a mixed-income community. She is also a social work intern at the Richard J. Murphy School in Dorchester. Her research interests include educational disparities, social determinants of mental and physical health, the mental wellness of Black children, community-based interventions, and the intersection of public health and social work. She aspires to become a therapist, providing mental health services to Black youth, and aims to conduct community-based participatory research.

Stacie LeBlanc, JD, MEd, is CEO and co-founder of The UP Institute, a think tank for upstream child abuse solutions, and executive director of UP for Champions, a nonprofit supporting child maltreatment professionals. A former child abuse prosecutor, she founded Child Advocacy Centers in Louisiana, led the Felony Child Abuse Division, and launched a Family Violence Program. Stacie has held leadership roles on state and national boards, including Immediate Past-President of APSAC and Chair of the National No Hit Zone Committee, which promotes a universal policy establishing zero tolerance for hitting children in family-centered settings such as healthcare facilities. She founded the New Orleans Children鈥檚 Advocacy Center and Audrey Hepburn CARE Center, serving over 1,500 children annually. At Tulane University, she launched the Child Advocacy Studies Training (CAST)听Program in 2017. Honored with numerous awards鈥攊ncluding the FBI Director鈥檚 Award and APA's Distinguished Contribution to Child Advocacy鈥擲tacie holds a JD from Loyola University New Orleans and an MEd in Early Childhood Development from the University of New Orleans.

Melissa McTernan holds a Ph.D. in Quantitative Psychology from the University of California, Davis. Prior to joining听the Research Services team听at AV诊所 College, she was an Assistant Professor at California State University in Sacramento. Melissa's primary research interests are in the area of applied statistics for the social and behavioral sciences. Some areas in which Melissa has expertise are methods for zero-inflated and longitudinal data, and random-effect models. She has experience with R, SAS, SPSS, Mplus, as well as Markdown and LaTeX.听Melissa collaborates with the CABHRI lab by providing statistical expertise and guidance in proposal development and manuscript preparation.

Nicole (she/her) is a Master鈥檚 student in Clinical Social Work at AV诊所 College, specializing in Social Neuroscience and Advanced Statistical Analysis. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Georgia State University with a Bachelor鈥檚 degree in Psychology. Following graduation, Nicole gained clinical and research experience focused on behavioral and emotional dysregulation in marginalized populations. Her research explores how childhood adversity and environmental stressors shape caregiver鈥揷hild relationships, with particular attention to how relational patterns influence children鈥檚 developmental and behavioral trajectories. Using social neuroscience and developmental frameworks, she examines pathways that contribute to mental health disparities and seeks to translate this knowledge into interventions that are culturally grounded and accessible. Nicole plans to pursue doctoral studies to further expand her research and advocate for systemic change in mental health practices for marginalized communities.

Seth Scholer is a Professor of Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University. His research has focused on the prevention of child abuse and improving population health. He has developed and successfully implemented a brief, clinic-based assessment tool (Quick Parenting Assessment (QPA)) and an intervention (Play Nicely) to support parents in their use of healthy discipline strategies. Seth's research has implications for reducing rates of many mental and physical health problems associated with Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). In addition, he serves on national advocacy boards and contributes to the development of child health policy in this area.

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Abby Sullivan earned her MS in Neuroscience听from Tulane University in 2021. During her time there, she acted as a research coordinator for a study exploring the long-term effects of two brief parenting interventions. Since then, she has assisted the CABHRI听lab with examining the effects of these brief parenting interventions on mothers and children's RSA data during dyadic interaction tasks.

After graduation, Abby first worked as a research assistant at the Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center where she worked on a study assessing the efficacy of a novel executive working听memory training for adolescents with ADHD. She then went on to serve as the lab manager for the Translational Emotion and Memory lab at Tufts University, where she primarily worked on a collaborative study with the Phelps lab at Harvard University investigating how pairing memory reactivation with cognitive restructuring alters neural representations of social anxiety memories and reduces negative memory-related feelings. Currently, Abby is pursuing her PhD in Clinical Psychology at Clark University.

Sabrina Yue Zheng, MSW, is a doctoral student at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, School of Social Work. Her reseach interestes span from child maltreatment, child welfare involvement and the co-occurrence of parental substance abuse and intimate partner violence, that affects child development and family function. Her work aims to prevent children from entering the child welfare system and to improve child and family long-term well-being.
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She received her MSW from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and received a BSW from China Women鈥檚 University.

Cailin Carleo earned her B.S. in Social Work from the University of New Hampshire in 2022 and her MSW with a certificate in Neuroscience and Social Work from BCSSW in 2023. She currently works as an inpatient clinical social worker on the detox unit at McLean Hospital in Belmont, MA.

Prior to working as an RA for the CABHRI lab, Cailin mainly worked with adult populations, but working with CABHRI broadened her perspective by learning about the world of research, specifically about child abuse prevention, and by observing how research findings translate to clinical practice. Through the collaborative and supportive environment of the CABHRI lab, she helped develop a manuscript and learned to analyze existing literature for use in both grant proposals and research projects.

Her experiences as an RA at CABHRI Lab continues to shape her clinical practice by solidifying her personal and professional interest in research, and understanding the value of utilizing evidence-based practices in her work!

Alice is a proud AV诊所 College alum (Class of 2023), where she earned a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Applied Psychology. She is currently pursuing her Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) at Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, with plans to specialize in internal medicine or pediatrics. Her academic interests include child development, early intervention, and reducing health disparities in underserved pediatric communities. She worked with the lab in Summer 2025 and contributed to research focused on child abuse prevention and family health. She is especially interested in using her medical training to bridge clinical care and research, with the goal of improving health outcomes for children. Outside of school, she enjoys playing instruments, drawing, running, and spending quality time with her family.

Annika Smith is an undergraduate student at AV诊所 College pursuing a B.S. in Psychology with a concentration in Clinical Psychology and a minor in Public Health and the Common Good. Her academic and professional interests center on child and adolescent mental health, developmental psychology, and the intersection of clinical psychology and neuroscience. Annika has experience in both clinical and research settings, including a clinical internship at NFI Massachusetts, where she supported youth and families through therapy, support groups, and mentoring services. She is excited to contribute to the lab鈥檚 work on child and behavioral health and deepen her research experience as she prepares to pursue a career in Clinical Psychology. Outside of the lab, Annika enjoys reading, playing the piano, and spending time outdoors.

Rosa Vitti is originally from Pittsburgh, PA, and earned her B.S. in Policy Analysis and Management from Cornell University. After completing her degree, she worked as an elementary school teacher before deciding to further her education. She went on to receive her MSW from BCSSW, with a concentration in children, youth, and families.

Currently, Rosa works as an adolescent and family therapist at Walden Behavioral Care, where she utilizes family-based treatment to help adolescents recover from eating disorders.

As a member of CABHRI, she enjoyed getting to work with a collaborative and supportive team. One of her favorite parts of working with this lab was getting to immerse herself in relevant research and literature in the field she now works in. As an adolescent and family therapist, having this evidence-based groundwork for best parenting practices helps her feel confident in the quality of care she can provide.