Meet Our Leadership

Andrea J. Phelps is the Deputy Director of Phoenix Australia, Australia’s national centre of excellence in posttraumatic mental health based at the University of Melbourne. There they combine clinical work, supervision and training with innovative research and consultation to government and industry on trauma related policy and strategy.  As the Deputy Director her responsibilities include strategic oversight of the Centre’s activities across research, service development and training; strategic planning and setting future directions; and leadership of flagship projects such as the NHMRC approved Australian Guidelines for the Treatment of PTSD which helped shape the process for the ISTSS PTSD Guidelines. She began her career as a clinician, holding senior clinical leadership positions in general mental health and specialised trauma treatment services. This background has shaped her approach to research and consultancy, ensuring that research is clinically relevant and consultancy advice is situated within an understanding of clinical complexity.  

Dr. Smith is a Research Health Scientist in the National Center for PTSD Women’s Health Sciences Division at VA Boston Healthcare System and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. His federally funded research program is focused on the effects of traumatic stress and mental health sequelae—PTSD, depression, and salient comorbidities—on outcomes related to physical health, functioning, and quality of life. He examines these outcomes and associated risk and resilience factors in populations at heightened risk for trauma exposure, especially military veterans, and often examines psychosocial risk models in the context of gender differences as well as aging.

Dr. Sonya Norman earned her B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Vassar College and her PhD in Counseling Psychology from Stanford University. She completed her pre-doctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California San Diego and VA San Diego. The focus of her fellowship was on the neurobiology of trauma among female survivors of intimate partner violence. In the course of doing assessments with our study participants and learning from them about their lives, she realized her passion was to study treatments to help people recover from the detrimental effects of trauma. She joined the faculty of the UCSD Department of Psychiatry shortly after. Studying treatment has been her research focus since then. In addition, early her career, she served as a VA psychologist, PTSD clinical team leader, and training director for a postdoctoral fellowship focused on evidence-based treatments at the San Diego VA. In 2012, while continuing her faculty appointment at UCSD, she transitioned from her VA roles to her position as the PTSD Consultation Program Director for the National Center for PTSD, where she lead a team of expert PTSD clinicians, administrators and researchers. In this capacity, she oversee over 2000 consultations per year related to treating veterans with PTSD and lead educational efforts on PTSD assessment and treatment for VA and community providers.

For more than 15 years, ISTSS has been my professional home. It is where I have found knowledge, friendship, and inspiration. I have served on the Board of Directors (2018–2024), as Treasurer on the Executive Committee (2020–2021), contributed to the Meetings of the Future Task Force, and currently serve on the Finance Committee. I had the privilege of chairing the Organizing Committee for the 2019 ISTSS Annual Meeting in Boston, where we launched new initiatives for global dissemination — Global Ambassadors and Young ISTSS Correspondents — aimed at amplifying diverse voices and extending the reach of the meeting beyond the conference room. 

As Research Professor and Research Director for Trauma, Disaster, and Forced Migration – Children and Adolescents, I bring extensive leadership experience and a strong commitment to advancing trauma research, practice, and systems-level change across sectors. My work focuses on the long-term health consequences of childhood trauma, survivor recovery after terrorism and violence, and strengthening frontline systems and workforce resilience in crisis settings. I have led and collaborated on large-scale, multidisciplinary projects across national and international contexts, with particular attention to equity, service access, and the implementation of evidence-based care. 

In this work, I have had the privilege of partnering with researchers, practitioners, and user groups — often in an advisory capacity to government institutions in health, justice, and education — to translate evidence into policy and practice. Together, we have worked to improve services across sectors, with a particular focus on those most in need, including trauma-exposed children, LGBTQ+ individuals, refugees, survivors of sexual assault, and other marginalized groups — while also supporting the needs and resilience of our frontline workers. 

I bring extensive experience supervising PhD candidates, mentoring early-career researchers, and building capacity among students, clinicians, and service leaders. From hands-on work in community practice, pediatric, and emergency wards in Norway to senior advisory roles in post-crisis settings in New Zealand, Canada, Serbia, and the Czech Republic, I have consistently championed evidence-based, trauma-informed care. These experiences have deepened my understanding of how trauma affects individuals, families, and communities — and how systems can be structured to respond effectively. 

Dr. Soraya Seedat is a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Executive Head of the Department of Psychiatry at Stellenbosch University. She held the South African Research Chair in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder for 15 years (until the end of 2022) and currently directs the South African Medical Research Council Unit on the Genomics of Brain Disorders. She has more than 20 years of clinical, epidemiological and basic neuroscience research experience as a psychiatrist working in the field of traumatic stress, anxiety and neuroAIDS has published over 500 peer-reviewed journal manuscripts, co-edited four books and 30 book chapters. She has served two terms as the President of the College of Psychiatrists of South Africa and three terms as Secretary and is currently a member of the Board of Directors and an Honorary Registrar of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa. Prof Seedat is an expert in the field of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety disorders, in adolescents and adults, and in the investigation of mechanisms of risk and resilience in adolescent and adult samples and has published widely in these areas. She has ongoing projects in PTSD, anxiety disorders, neuroAIDS and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. She has also been involved in multiple research training, capacity building and leadership development activities in sub-Saharan Africa and internationally, supported by NIMH grants and other funding initiatives.

Dr. Bedard-Gilligan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington (UW) and a licensed clinical psychologist in the state of Washington (WA). She is co-director of the Trauma Recovery and Resilience Innovations (TRI) program and is associate director of the UW Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress (UWCATS). Dr. Bedard-Gilligan’s research predominantly focuses on recovery process following trauma exposure, with specific emphases on the co-occurrence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use. She is currently a lead investigator on several clinical trials developing and testing brief interventions to promote trauma recovery and is involved in ongoing projects designed to train providers in trauma-focused behavioral treatment approaches. She also maintains an active clinical practice.

Dr. Iris M. Engelhard is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at Utrecht University and a licensed cognitive behavioral therapist. She is affiliated with Altrecht, where she connects science and clinical practice in trauma and anxiety treatment. Dr. Engelhard earned her PhD from Maastricht University and has held research positions at Harvard University and the VA Research Center. She has published over 200 works, received multiple prestigious grants, and serves on the European Journal of Psychotraumatology’s editorial board. A long-time ISTSS member, she has played key roles in conferences and delivered a keynote on intrusive memories at the 2023 ISTSS Annual Meeting.

Denise Hien, PhD, ABPP, is Senior Vice Provost of Research, Distinguished Professor and Helen E. Chaney Endowed Chair in Alcohol Studies of the Center of Alcohol & Substance Use Studies, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University-New Brunswick in New Jersey. Considered a leader in the field, with continuous funding from NIH (NIAAA, NIDA, NIMH) for over 30 years, her body of work has contributed to the evidence base on the treatment of individuals with trauma-related psychiatric disorders and their comorbidity with addictions, through conducting single- and multi-site clinical trials across the United States in community-based substance abuse treatment settings. Most of her NIH-funded research has focused on understanding and treating traumatic stress and PTSD among women and underrepresented minoritized populations (primarily Black/African American and Latinx women in Harlem, NY) with key goals of addressing health inequalities and understanding the ways in which race/ethnicity, culture, gender, and other aspects of social identities influence the treatment utilization and outcomes.

In order to advance the field of PTSD and SUD treatment, more recently she has been involved in numerous data sharing and big data collaborations including 1) the Global Collaboration on Traumatic Stress (https://www.global-psychotrauma.net/) creating scientific data stewardship on international trauma studies using an open science framework (OSF), 2) an OSF collaboration with Caltech and five other universities on a longitudinal social neuroscience study of Covid19 and its impacts, the COVID Dynamic Study (https://coviddynamic.caltech.edu/), and 3) Project Harmony (http://www.projectharmonyvct.com/) the largest data science project in the field, envisioned and led by Dr. Hien with an executive team of national and international leaders. Under her leadership she created an international consortium of 35 investigative teams of trauma and addiction researchers and a data repository with 42 individual patient data clinical trials (4500+ participants) which will provide a platform to enable new machine learning and AI discoveries to advance the next generations of research in this area.

She is board-certified in clinical psychology and serves on numerous national boards and scientific advisory groups, particularly those supporting data science repositories (National PTSD Repository, and the Veterans/Suicide Repository) and diversity training and mentoring for underrepresented groups in the sciences. Among many honors for her scholarship and mentoring, in 2023 she was given the Inaugural Mary Jean Kreek Award for Underserved Populations from the College of Problems of Drug Dependence and the Award for Excellence in Trauma Services for the Underserved: Policy, Advocacy from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.

Dr. Jana D. Javakhishvili is a Professor of Psychology and Director of the Institute of Addiction Studies at Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia. Her research interests focus on exploring mental health problems of war- and political oppression-affected populations. She is heavily engaged in the projects of the Federation Global Initiative on Psychiatry focused at improving human rights-based mental health care in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka, Ukraine and other war-affected countries. She is a Past President of ESTSS. Currently, she is on the editorial board of the European Journal of Psychotraumatology and a Trustee of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma Europe.

Dr. Rachel Hiller is an Associate Professor in Child Mental Health at University College London (UCL) and the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, in the United Kingdom. Her research is in the field of complex child trauma, with a particular focus on children with experience of out-of-home care (e.g., foster care, residential group care). Her work here spans research into social and cognitive mechanisms driving mental health and wellbeing, through to the testing of scalable mental health interventions delivered in child welfare and mental health settings, and the implementation of current best-evidenced practice. Her work includes a transdiagnostic focus, as well as a more specific focus on PTSD and complex PTSD.

Dr. Rachel Liebman a clinical psychologist at Toronto General Hospital and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. Dr. Liebman specializes in the treatment of co-occurring trauma-related disorders and high-risk problem behaviours such as eating disorders, self-harm, and suicide. Her research on development and adaptation of treatments for high-risk trauma-related conditions has been awarded multiple federal and institutional grants and she has published widely on mechanisms and processes associated with these conditions. She served on the Task Force for the Ontario Structured Psychotherapy Program for Gender Based Violence and she provides workshops, trainings and consultation on the assessment and treatment of trauma-related conditions internationally.  

Dr. Sarah Lowe is an Associate Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Yale School of Public Health (YSPH), with secondary appointments in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and Yale School of Nursing.

A clinical psychologist and psychiatric epidemiologist, Dr. Lowe previously held positions as an Associate Research Scientist of Epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, and an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Montclair State University. In the latter, she played a key role in developing the department’s first doctoral program.

Dr. Lowe’s scholarship focuses on the long-term mental health consequences of a range of potentially traumatic events, the mechanisms leading from exposures to mental health symptoms, and factors at multiple socio-ecological levels that shape post-trauma well-being. Dr. Lowe’s early work focused primarily on the impact of disasters on vulnerable populations, including low-income mothers after Hurricane Katrina, survivors from low-resource communities after Hurricane Sandy, cleanup workers after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and Puerto Rican adults with chronic health conditions after Hurricanes Maria and Irma.

In recent years, Dr. Lowe’s work has expanded to include psychological impacts of climate change beyond disasters, the intergenerational transmission of trauma-related conditions, and interventions to address the adverse impacts of trauma in global settings. Examples of her ongoing projects include: a community-based study to identify pathways from parents’ genocide-related and other lifetime trauma exposure to children’s psychosocial well-being in Rwanda; a mixed method study of displacement-related trauma, mental health, and sexual risk behaviors among internally displaced youth in Mozambique; an adaptation of a family-based intervention to address the adolescent mental health crisis in American Samoa; and an evaluation of a social media campaign and community program to prevent youth firearm violence in Hartford, CT.

Dr. Lowe’s work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Academy of Sciences, and the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, among others. She has received several awards, including the Robins/Guze Early Career Award from the American Psychopathological Association, the Award for Outstanding Contribution to Trauma Psychology by an Early Career Psychologist from American Psychological Association Division 56, and the YSPH Mentor of the Year Award.

Dr. Lowe earned her doctoral degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston, and completed a predoctoral internship at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical College and a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. She currently resides in Connecticut with her husband, son, and two cats.

Dr. Shalev is Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at Hadassah and the Hebrew University School of Medicine in Jerusalem, Israel. His research concerns the early detection, prevention, and treatment of traumatic stress disorders, exploring their underlying neurobiology and its translational potential and understanding the interpersonal, social, and humanistic dimensions of trauma survival.A long-time member of ISTSS, Dr. Shalev previously served on the Board in the 1980's.

Jennifer Sumner is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).  As a clinical psychologist with specialization in traumatic stress, her work focuses on the links between mental and physical health after trauma. She is a co-founder of the Physical Health working group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium-PTSD group, and  a member of the European Journal of Psychotraumatology Editorial Board.

Dr. Woods-Jaeger earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Duke University and her doctorate degree in child clinical psychology from the University of Washington.  Prior to her current position at Emory University, she was an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Director of Psychological Services and Research for the Children’s Mercy Hospital and Operation Breakthrough Partnership. In this role she spearheaded the development and implementation of a unique clinical care and research program that integrates primary care pediatrics, behavioral health, social services, and early education to address trauma and stress-related health disparities. She is currently a Principal Investigator on research projects supported by the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention focused on primary and secondary violence prevention and promoting resilience after experiencing trauma and adversity.  

I am an associate professor and clinical psychologist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. In my role at UAMS, I direct a large extramurally-funded research laboratory, co-direct our addiction research training program, and serve as associate director of our community engagement core. I feel fortunate to have been an ISTSS member for nearly 10 years and to have served in ISTSS leadership as chair of education production for nearly 5 years. In the latter role (described more thoroughly below), I have worked with ISTSS members of all career stages to make evidence-based information about traumatic stress, its consequences, and effective interventions accessible to the public and to provide clinically-relevant resources to our members.

Academically, my research, clinical practice, and training efforts largely focus on implementing and testing interventions to reduce the burden of traumatic stress exposure and sequelae on individuals and communities—particularly people who use drugs, have PTSD, and are currently or previously incarcerated. I have worked extensively within legal settings such as prisons, drug treatment courts, jails, and reentry centers with the goal of promoting adoption of evidence-based therapies for trauma and PTSD as a path to promote addiction recovery. A subset of my work has focused on justice-involved women, many of whom are survivors of sexual and domestic violence. The quality and impact of this work has been repeatedly validated by the research community; I have authored nearly 70 peer-reviewed publications and been PI or Co-I of 16 grants totaling over $40M in funding (nearly $10M as PI). Notably, my passion for mentoring is interspersed in my work and has also been recognized. In 2022, I was the inaugural recipient of UAMS’ Women Faculty Mentoring Excellence Award. In 2020, I was a UAMS Phenomenal Women award nominee based on a mentee’s letter of recommendation. If selected for a position on ISTSS’ Board of Directors, I will bring my passion for impactful science, effective clinical practice, and fostering the development of the next generation of practitioners and scholars to promote the organization’s mission.

Dr. Woods-Jaeger earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Duke University and her doctorate degree in child clinical psychology from the University of Washington.  Prior to her current position at Emory University, she was an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Director of Psychological Services and Research for the Children’s Mercy Hospital and Operation Breakthrough Partnership. In this role she spearheaded the development and implementation of a unique clinical care and research program that integrates primary care pediatrics, behavioral health, social services, and early education to address trauma and stress-related health disparities. She is currently a Principal Investigator on research projects supported by the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention focused on primary and secondary violence prevention and promoting resilience after experiencing trauma and adversity.