ABOUT US
The International College of Neuroethics and Neuroscience is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the understanding, treatment, and ethical care of people with schizophrenia through comprehensive research, and policy education.
Guided by a human rights perspective, ICONN works to challenge the criminalization of individuals living with schizophrenia – a brain disease that often leads to a harmful cycle of homelessness and incarceration.
OUR TEAM
Dr. Katherine Warburton
President
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Dr. Katherine Warburton serves as the Statewide Medical Director for the largest forensic inpatient system in the United States. Dr. Warburton is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry within the UC Davis Division of Psychiatry and the Law. She is board certified in both adult psychiatry and forensic psychiatry and has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications addressing a wide range of forensic and policy-related topics. Her scholarly contributions also include two published textbooks—Violence in Psychiatry and Decriminalizing Mental Illness. Her third book, Ethical and Clinical Complexities in the Treatment of Schizophrenia, is slated for release in early 2026. She is the recipient of the 2022 Christine M. West Award and the 2025 Judge Stephen S. Goss Leadership Award.
Greg Williams
Chief Executive Officer
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Gregory Williams is a retired executive, author, and leadership coach with extensive experience overseeing administrative operations at several large governmental organizations, including overseeing multi-billion dollar state and federal budgets.
During his tenure in California state government, Mr. Williams served as Chief Operating Officer at the California Department of State Hospitals and as Deputy Director for the Employment Development Department. In those roles, he developed operational and fiscal policy, testified before the state legislature in support of policy and funding needs and served on numerous state and national leadership and innovation teams to strengthen governmental leadership, heighten transparency and improve operational effectiveness.
Dr. Debbi Morrissette
Chief Strategy and Science Officer
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Dr. Debbi Ann Morrissette is an award-winning educator who began her career researching Alzheimer's disease (AD): first at Framingham State University (where she earned a B.S. in Biomedical Sciences), then in a double transgenic mouse model of AD at the University of South Florida, and finally, in a triple transgenic mouse model of AD at the University of California, Irvine where she earned her PhD in Neuroscience.
For the past 15+ years, Dr. Morrissette has worked as Senior Medical Writer and currently as Senior Director of Educational Development at the Neuroscience Education Institute.
Along with Dr. Stephen Stahl and other renowned key opinion leaders, Dr. Morrissette has authored numerous articles and books on the diagnosis and treatment of a variety of mental health conditions -including expert consensus guidelines on the assessment and management of violence, schizophrenia spectrum disorders, and mood spectrum disorders.
In addition to the written word, Dr. Morrissette uses musical and visual pedagogical tools to help educate and inspire clinicians and the patients they care for.
Dr. Susan Velasquez
Chief Program Officer
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Susan Velasquez received her bachelor’s from the University of California, Riverside, her Masters in Community/Clinical Psychology from California State University, Fullerton and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in multi-cultural and community psychology from Alliant University-Los Angeles.
Dr. Velasquez retired from Department of State Hospitals – Patton in 2023. During her employment at Department of State Hospitals - Patton, she worked as a psychologist on a monolingual Spanish speaking unit, oversaw a positive behavior support team, as the coordinator for psychology specialized services. Dr. Velasquez transitioned to working in a state-wide position in 2014, working on a statewide interdisciplinary team and then as the chief psychologist in the Clinical Operations division.
Dr. Velasquez has worked in the implementation of various evidenced based state wide programs, supervised a team of psychologists in the research and implementation of various treatment modalities, participated in various research projects, has co-authored several articles in the area of forensic mental heath and the criminalization of the mentally ill.
Since her retirement from the California Department of State Hospital, Dr. Velasquez has continued to work in the treatment and assessment of the chronically mentally ill. Specifically assessing individuals for appropriateness for Diversion, conducting forensic court ordered evaluations, and in the direct individual treatment of individuals with mental illness.
Brittney Swick
Chief Information Officer
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Brittney Swick is currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree in computer science at Western Governors University. She is starting her own business assisting nonprofits with any technical needs. Brittney’s focus is on website development, website management, and growing online presence. She is proud to assist ICONN in its meaningful mission.
OUR BOARD
Dr. Xavier Amador
LEAP Institute, California, United States
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Dr. Amador is an internationally renowned clinical psychologist and leader in his field. His books, published clinical research, worldwide speaking tours and extensive work in schizophrenia, bipolar and other disorders have been translated into 30 languages. He is also President of the LEAP Institute and a family caregiver of two close relatives with serious mental illness.
Author of many popular books including I am Right, You’re Wrong, Now What?; I am Not Sick, I Don’t Need Help!; and, When Someone You Love is Depressed: How to help without losing yourself; Dr. Amador draws on thirty years of experience as a therapist, his personal story, and published scientific research when giving advice.
He is a Visiting Professor of Psychology at the State University of New York, and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Utah. Over the course of two decades he was Professor of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology at Columbia University, and Director of Psychology at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. His expertise has been called upon by government, industry and the broadcast and print media where he has appeared as a frequent expert for CNN, ABC News, NBC News, CBS 60 Minutes, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and many other national and international news outlets.
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Dr. Justin Barry-Walsh
Mental Health, Addiction & Intellectual Disability Service (MHAIDS), New Zealand
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Dr. Barry-Walsh is a forensic psychiatrist based in Wellington, New Zealand. He is the Clinical Lead of the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre New Zealand (FTACNZ). He has worked in the field of threat assessment for a decade and has published in the area. He also works in the regional forensic service, which includes working in two prisons and providing reports and expert evidence to courts. From 2016 to 2023 he was Chair of the Faculty of Forensic Psychiatry of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP). In the past Dr. Barry-Walsh worked as a forensic psychiatrist in Melbourne, Victoria and was involved in the development of the RANZCP Advanced Training in Forensic Psychiatry Program. He remains actively involved in the training of forensic psychiatrists.
Dr. Barry-Walsh works with disadvantaged people who experience serious mental illness, often due to psychosis. The harms they experience and may cause to others as a result of their illness is visible, distressing, tragic and preventable. Their capacity to see and understand what is happening to them and around them can be overwhelmed by their illness. It is critical to have the tools to intervene, and it is unconscionable to stand aside and do nothing. This is the reason for his involvement with ICONN.
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Dr. Takesha Cooper
Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, United States
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Dr. Cooper is the Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, and Chief of Behavioral Health at Renown Health, Northern Nevada's largest not for profit hospital system.
Board-certified in both Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, she was recently selected to serve a 4-year term as a Psychiatry Director with the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. She serves on several national committees and is a reviewer for the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Dr. Cooper is nationally recognized for her passion for high-quality patient care and supports future practitioners through rigorous and culturally informed undergraduate and graduate medical education, research, and community collaboration. Her research explores the impact of adverse childhood experiences on mental health outcomes in children and adults. She is committed to illuminating how societal inequities lead to disparate outcomes for marginalized communities including those with psychiatric conditions.
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Read RW, Schlauch KA, Elhanan G, Neveux I, Koning S, Cooper T, Grzymski JJ. A study of impulsivity and adverse childhood experiences in a population health setting. Front Public Health. 2024 Dec 4;12:1447008. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1447008. PMID: 39697282; PMCID: PMC11652370.
Cooper T, Seigler MD, Stahl S. Rapid onset brain plasticity at novel pharmacologic targets hypothetically drives innovations for rapid onset antidepressant actions. Journal of Psychopharmacology. 2023 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02698811231158891
Cooper, T., Maguire, G., and Stahl, SM., Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology Case Studies, Volume 3, Cambridge University Press, New York. Nov 2021. https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/medicine/mental-health-psychiatry-and-clinical-psyc hology/case-studies-stahls-essential-psychopharmacology-volume-3
Yau MY, Ge S, Moss HB, Cooper T, Osei A, Ijeaku I, Deas D. Regional prevalence of adverse childhood experiences in the United States using a nationally representative school-based sample. SSM Popul Health. 2022 Jun 11;19:101145. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2022.101145. PMID: 35756547; PMCID: PMC9218229.
Dr. Christoph U. Correll
Zucker School of Medicine, New York, United States & Charité University Medicine, Berlin, Germany
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Christoph U. Correll, MD, is Professor of Psychiatry at The Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, New York, USA, and also Professor and Chair of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Charité University Medicine, Berlin, Germany. He completed his medical studies at the Free University of Berlin in Germany, and Dundee University Medical School in Scotland. He is board certified in general psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry, having completed both residencies at The Zucker Hillside Hospital in New York City. Since 1997, he has been working and conducting research in New York, USA, and since 2017, is also working in Germany. Professor Correll's research and clinical work focus on the identification, characterization, and treatment of youth and adults with severe mental illness, including psychotic and mood disorders, spanning all disease stages from the prodrome to first and multi-episode illness and up to refractory illness. He also focuses on psychopharmacology, epidemiology, clinical trials, comparative effectiveness, meta- analyses, the risk-benefit evaluation of psychotropic medications, and the interface between physical health and mental health. Dr. Correll has authored or co-authored over 700 journal articles that have been cited over 44,000 times. He served on several expert consensus panels on the use of antipsychotics across a range of psychiatric disorders and has received over 40 research awards for his work. Since 2014, the year of inception of this metric, he has been listed every year by Clarivate/Web of Science as one of the "most influential scientific minds" and "top 1% cited scientists in the area of psychiatry.”
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Dr. Jhilam Biswas
Massachusetts General Brigham Academic Medical Center, Massachusetts, United States
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Dr. Jhilam Biswas is a board-certified Adult and Forensic Psychiatrist and is the Director of the Psychiatry, Law, and Society Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Co-Director of the Harvard Mass General Brigham Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship. Clinically, she spent the first six years of her career practicing both clinical and forensic psychiatry at Bridgewater State Hospital, a strict security forensic hospital, housing individuals requiring a spectrum of high security and complicated legal needs. She was also a collaborative care psychiatrist at Simmons University Health Center and has extensive experience working with the mental disorders and stresses of college students. Currently she works as a Consult-Liaison Psychiatrist in the Department of Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s hospital.
Dr. Biswas specializes in mental health consultation with the legal system and focuses on the nuances of both criminal and civil law. Since starting her practice, she serves and leads on multiple psychiatric, forensic, and medical committees statewide and nationally. Currently, Dr. Biswas’s research aims at improving mental health laws to better serve patients and families and in criminal justice reform. Dr. Biswas has testified many times in the courtroom and maintains a special role in the state of Massachusetts as a Designated Forensic Psychiatrist (DFP), an accreditation required to conduct court- Her expertise is in serious mental illness, risk assessment, violence prevention, cultural competence, and consulting with social institutions and organizations.
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Dr. Felice Carabellese
Università Di Bari, Italy
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Prof. Felice Francesco Carabellese, MD, Psychiatry and Forensic Psychiatry, is Full Professor of Forensic Psychopathology and Legal Medicine, at the School of Medicine and School of Law, of the University of Bari, Aldo Moro, Italy and visiting Professor of Forensic Psychiatry of the Trinity College University of Dublin, Ireland.
He is the author and co-author of over 150 scientific papers, and about 50 chapters of manuals and handbooks on psychiatry and forensic psychology and has focused his research activity on the risk of violent and antisocial behaviors in offenders with mental disorders and on the effectiveness of forensic treatment.
Dr. Carabellese is a member and fellow of the most prestigious scientific associations of psychiatry and forensic psychology and criminology in Europe and United States and in the last 20 years he has been featured as a speaker in numerous international meetings in Europe and the US. He collaborates with international research groups on research projects in psychiatry and forensic psychology and as an expert for the Italian Court system, he has carried out over 1,500 expert assessments in both criminal and civil matters.
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Father Alberto Carrara
Dean, Faculty of Philosophy, Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum (APRA), The Vatican
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Alberto Carrara, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Director of the Neurobioethics Research Group (GdN) of the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum of Rome (APRA), Fellow of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights and Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV) in which he coordinates the Project dealing with “neurosciences and neuroethics”.
President of the IINBE - International Institute of Neurobioethics. Doctor both in Medical Biotechnology (Faculty of Medicine, University of Padua) and in Philosophy (Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum of Rome). Professor of Philosophical Anthropology and Neuroethics at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome and at the Faculty of Psychology of the European University of Rome (UER).
Since 2012, he is a MIUR teacher (Italian Ministry of Universities) at SISPI (International School of Specialization with Imaginative Procedure, a post-career school to practice psychotherapy). Since 2016, he is a member of the scientific council of the Brain Research Fondazione Onlus de Pisa, collaborating directly with Dr. Stephen M. Stahl (Cambridge University and University of California).
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Dr. Mary Davoren
National Forensic Mental Health Service, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
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Dr. Mary Davoren is a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist and lead consultant for the High Dependency ward at the Central Mental Hospital Portrane. She is the visiting Psychiatrist to Arbourhill Prison Dublin.
Dr. Davoren graduated with her medical degree at NUI Galway, Ireland (2005) and completed Psychiatry Training at the Mater Hospital Dublin and National Higher training scheme for Psychiatry (Ireland). She completed her Academic Clinical Fellowship at the Violence Prevention Research Unit, Queen Mary University of London one of the member units of the WHO Violence Prevention Alliance and her M.D. research degree on ‘Recovery Pathways in Forensic Settings’ in Trinity College Dublin. Prior to her appointment at the Central Mental Hospital Dublin, Dr. Davoren was a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist on Personality Disorder Pathway at Broadmoor High Secure Hospital England and High Secure Research Lead at Broadmoor.
Dr. Davoren was the recipient of the Young Scholar Award South London and Maudsley Research Day (2015), Forensic Faculty new research award (2015), Mohsin Naguib award RCPsych (2013) and the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland new research award (2011), EU Cooperation in Science and Technology Award (Netherlands – 2015). She has published book chapters and research papers in the areas of prisoner healthcare needs, recovery in forensic settings and the physical health outcomes of patients in secure hospitals. She is the lead for the Dundrum Forensic Redevelopment Evaluation Study (D-FOREST) a prospective study of patient benefit from the development of the new Central Mental Hospital Portrane, Co. Dublin. Dr. Davoren edited the book Seminars in Forensic Psychiatry 2nd Edition (2024) for the Royal College of Psychiatrists UK and Cambridge University Press. Dr. Davoren is Academic Secretary for the Forensic Faculty of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in London.
Dr. Davoren is Vice President of the Medical Council of Ireland and sits on several committees of the Medical Council, including the Preliminary Proceedings Committee, the Health Committee and the Education and Training Committee.
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Dr. Lia Parente, Forensic Psychologist and Psychotherapist. Expert consultant at the University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, PhD at the University of Rome “Sapienza”.
In the professional field, Dr. Parente has developed expertise in forensic psycho-evaluations in both criminal and civil law.
Dr. Parente has coordinated several research projects in the private social sector in socio-health context, developing experience in the design of research protocols, in the methodology and analysis of statistical data, in the identification of treatment paths, as well as in the drafting of national and international scientific works. The main line of research has examined the study of particular social, health and forensic phenomena, the implications of such phenomena and the prospect of treatment interventions aimed at resolving the critical issues identified.
In the field of adults, Dr. Parente deals with developing research projects useful for the development of good evaluations and treatment practices for psychiatric patients who have committed crimes; in the field of minors, the research area focuses on the evaluation and treatment of problematic family units and on the evaluation of minors in criminal and civil matters.
Since 2021 Dr. Parente has collaborated with the Criminology and Forensic Psychiatry Section of the University of Bari Aldo Moro as an expert consultant and has taken part in numerous national and international research projects, including: conflict to family trauma, a research project launched by the University of Bari, approved by the Puglia Region and the Court of Appeal of Bari; Validation for the Italian population of the structured professional judgment assessment tool “DUNDRUM-Toolkit”; Validation for the Italian population of the assessment tool for structured professional judgment “SAPROF”; identification of risk factors and protective factors in the population of forensic patients in Puglia and Basilicata (RISKMON); Comparative longitudinal study between an Italian and a California population of mentally disordered offenders: identification of forensic treatment effectiveness factor; Structured Professional Judgment in forensic evaluation in the family context and for listening to the minor.
Dr. Lia Parente works as an expert in several Italian courts and cultivates her passion for psychotherapy and treatment by teaching at a psychotherapy school recognized by the Ministry of Education in Italy.
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Dr. Lia Parente
Università Roma Sapienza, Italy
Dr. Andrew Ellis
University of New South Wales, Australia
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Dr. Ellis serves as a forensic psychiatrist and holds the position of Clinical Director for Forensic Mental Health at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). This role encompasses public mental health services for secure hospitals, prisons, courts, communities, and research initiatives. Additionally, he is a conjoint Associate Professor within the UNSW Faculty of Medicine, specifically in the Forensic Mental Health Program. His previous positions include Chair of Training for Forensic Psychiatry at the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, Medical Superintendent of The Forensic Hospital in Sydney, NSW, and the NHS International Fellow in Forensic Psychiatry based in London, UK.
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Dr. Harry Kennedy
University of Dublin, Ireland
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Harry Kennedy is Adjunct Professor of Forensic Psychiatry, University of Dublin, Trinity College; Hon. Skou Professor of Forensic Psychiatry, University of Aarhus, Denmark; and visiting professor of forensic psychiatry, University of Bari `Aldo Moro", Italy.
Professor Kennedy was consultant forensic psychiatrist and clinical director North London Forensic Service, Camlet Lodge Medium Secure Unit, London and Royal Free Hospital and UCL Medical School from 1992 to 2000. This role included clinical leadership of the move of the forensic psychiatry service from Friern Hospital to a new purpose built medium secure unit, Camlet Lodge in 1993. This role included expansion of the hospital service to a comprehensive national forensic mental health service with remand prison in-reach clinics and community after care residences and supervision teams.
In 2000 Professor Kennedy returned to Dublin as consultant forensic psychiatrist and executive clinical director for the National Forensic Mental Health Service and Central Mental hospital Dundrum. This role included expansion of the hospital service to a comprehensive national forensic mental health service with remand and sentenced prison in-reach clinics and community after care residences and supervision teams.
Also was responsible for medical leadership for the design of the comprehensive model of care and facilities of the new purpose-built hospital in Portrane (opened 2022) and national forensic care and treatment pathways.
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Judge Steve Leifman
Retired, 11th Circuit, Miami, Florida, United States
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Judge Steve Leifman recently retired as the Associate Administrative Judge of the Miami-Dade County Court – Criminal Division. He previously served as Special Advisor on Criminal Justice and Mental Health for the Supreme Court of Florida. For the past twenty-four years, Judge Leifman has been at the forefront of mental health and criminal justice reform movement in the United States.
He is the co-chair of the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Mental Health Committee and co-chair of the Judges and Psychiatrists Leadership Initiative, a Lecturer in Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical School and a Voluntary Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Miami School of Medicine.
In 2015, Judge Leifman received the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence. One of the nation’s highest judicial honors presented by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. Judge Leifman is also the first recipient to receive the Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Award for Judicial Excellence (2015). In 2018 he was awarded the Pardes Humanitarian Prize in Mental Health. In 2023, Judge Leifman was bestowed the Papal Medal Benemerenti from Pope Francis by Archbishop Thomas Wenski for his work in the judicial system on behalf of people with mental illnesses.
In 2024, he received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Nova Southeastern University for his commitment to improving the mental health and criminal justice systems. Judge Leifman is the subject of the Documentary, The Definition of Insanity which aired on PBS.
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Dr. Charles Scott
University of California, Davis, United States
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Charles Scott, MD, is Chief, Division of Psychiatry and the Law, Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship Training Director, and Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the University of California, Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, California. He is Board Certified in General Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and has Added Qualifications in Forensic Psychiatry and Addiction Psychiatry. Dr. Scott is a Past-President of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (AAPL) and is also Past-President of the Association of Directors of Forensic Psychiatry Fellowships. He has served as a member of the AAPL national task force to develop guidelines for the evaluation of criminal responsibility and competency to stand trial. Dr. Scott is one of four national AAPL Forensic Psychiatry Review Course Faculty instructors and in 2008 received the AAPL award as the most outstanding forensic psychiatry fellowship program instructor in the United States.
Dr. Scott has served as a forensic psychiatric consultant to jails, prisons, maximum security forensic inpatient units, California Department of State Hospitals, and as a consultant to the National Football League (NFL) providing training on violence risk assessment for NFL counselors. He has performed suitability evaluations for NASA’s Astronaut Selection Board. His academic subspecialty is child and adolescent forensic psychiatry. Dr. Scott has authored book chapters on juvenile violence, mental health law, and co-authored chapters on child psychiatry and the assessment of dangerousness. He has served as editor or co-editor for numerous books and is co-editor of the Third Edition of Principles and Practice of Forensic Psychiatry.
His research interests include the relationship of substance use to aggression among criminal defendants, on the quality of forensic evaluations of criminal responsibility, child witness testimony, malingering, and assessment of post-traumatic stress disorder. He lectures nationally on the topics of malingering, violence risk assessment, juvenile violence, substance use and violence, the assessment of sex offenders, correctional psychiatry, DSM-5 and the law, and malpractice issues in mental health.
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Dr. Stephen M. Stahl
University of California, School of Medicine - Riverside and San Diego - United States, University of Cambridge, UK
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Dr. Stahl has held faculty positions at Stanford University, the University of California at Los Angeles, the Institute of Psychiatry London, the Institute of Neurology London, and, currently, as Distinguished Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at the University of California Riverside, Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego and as Honorary Fellow in Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. Dr. Stahl is Senior Academic Advisor and Director of Psychopharmacology for the California Department of State Hospitals (DSH) where he has a leadership role in addressing violence and decriminalization of the seriously mentally ill in the five-hospital 6500 patient DSH.
Dr. Stahl is editor emeritus of CNS Spectrums, author of 600 articles and chapters with an H index of 75, and more than 2000 scientific presentations and abstracts, and is an internationally renowned clinician, researcher and teacher in psychiatry with subspecialty expertise in psychopharmacology. Dr. Stahl has written over 60 textbooks and edited 15 others, including the best-selling and award-winning textbook, Stahl’s Essential Psychopharmacology, now in its fifth edition and the best-selling and award-winning clinical manual, Essential Psychopharmacology Prescriber’s Guide, now in its eighth edition. Dr. Stahl has also published a novel, Shell Shock, a thriller that recounts the history of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and a biography of Nicola Tesla, showing the interaction of Tesla’s bipolar disorder with his genius. Dr. Stahl’s books have won the British Medical Association’s Book of the Year Award and first prize for Best Digital Medical Book.
Dr. Stahl has been awarded the International College of Neuropsycho-pharmacology (CINP) Lundbeck Foundation Award in Education for his contributions to postgraduate education in psychiatry and neurology. Dr. Stahl is also the winner of the A.E. Bennett Award of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, the Aristotle Gold Medal from Greece, the lifetime achievement award in psychiatry from the Sapienza University of Rome, the APA/San Diego Psychiatric Society Education Award, the UCSD Psychiatry Residency Teaching Award, the UC Riverside Psychiatry Residency Teaching Award, the Paykel Lecture from Cambridge University and has been cited as both one of “America’s Top Psychiatrists” and one of the “Best Doctors in America.” He was honored with the Distinguished Psychiatrist Award of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and gave the Distinguished Psychiatrist Lecturer for 2013. He was named the 2016 David Mrazek Award Winner of the APA and gave the Mrazek Pharmacogenomics Memorial Lecture at the 2016 APA meeting. His alma mater Northwestern University honored him by naming the award for the most promising medical student to go into psychiatry the “Stephen Stahl Award.” In 2018 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science by Üsküdar University in Istanbul Turkey. In 2024 Dr. Stahl was awarded an honorary doctorate (Doctor of Medical Sciences honoris causa) from the University of Cambridge.
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Dr. Susan Velasquez
Retired, California Department of State Hospitals, United States
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Susan Velasquez received her bachelor’s from the University of California, Riverside, her Masters in Community/Clinical Psychology from California State University, Fullerton and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in multi-cultural and community psychology from Alliant University-Los Angeles.
Dr. Velasquez retired from Department of State Hospitals – Patton in 2023. During her employment at Department of State Hospitals - Patton, she worked as a psychologist on a monolingual Spanish speaking unit, oversaw a positive behavior support team, as the coordinator for psychology specialized services. Dr. Velasquez transitioned to working in a state-wide position in 2014, working on a statewide interdisciplinary team and then as the chief psychologist in the Clinical Operations division.
Dr. Velasquez has worked in the implementation of various evidenced based statewide programs, supervised a team of psychologists in the research and implementation of various treatment modalities, participated in various research projects, has co-authored several articles in the area of forensic mental health and the criminalization of the mentally ill.
Since her retirement from the California Department of State Hospital, Dr. Velasquez has continued to work in the treatment and assessment of the chronically mentally ill. Specifically assessing individuals for appropriateness for Diversion, conducting forensic court ordered evaluations, and in the direct individual treatment of individuals with mental illness.
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Dr. Katherine Warburton serves as the Statewide Medical Director for the largest forensic inpatient system in the United States. Dr. Warburton is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry within the UC Davis Division of Psychiatry and the Law. She is board certified in both adult psychiatry and forensic psychiatry and has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications addressing a wide range of forensic and policy-related topics. Her scholarly contributions also include two published textbooks—Violence in Psychiatry and Decriminalizing Mental Illness. Her third book, Ethical and Clinical Complexities in the Treatment of Schizophrenia, is slated for release in early 2026. She is the recipient of the 2022 Christine M. West Award and the 2025 Judge Stephen S. Goss Leadership Award.
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Dr. Katherine Warburton
University of California, Davis, United States