Center Leadership and Professional Staff
We have been providing services and conducting research for over thirty years. Both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches inform our work, which draws on perspectives from psychology, social work, psychiatry, public health, education, family systems, organizational and systems development, and counseling.
The Center’s Director is David L. Snow, Ph.D., a Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, Child Study Center, and Epidemiology & Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, and Director, Division of Prevention and Community Research, Department of Psychiatry. He also serves as the Program Director for a Postdoctoral Research Training Program in Substance Abuse Prevention (T32) funded by NIDA. Dr. Snow is a clinical/community psychologist who has extensive experience in the design and evaluation of preventive interventions in community settings, particularly in the workplace and school systems, and in research aimed at identifying key risk and protective factors predictive of substance use/abuse, psychological symptoms, intimate partner violence, and other behavioral outcomes. His workplace intervention, Coping with Work and Family Stress, has been rigorously evaluated through grants from NIDA and NIAAA, and has been designated as a science-based program by the National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP) and as a SAMHSA Model Program. Along with ongoing efficacy and effectiveness trials, the program is being disseminated on a national and international basis. In addition, Dr. Snow has special interests in the protective and stress-mediating effects of coping and social support, methodological and ethical issues in prevention research, and technical assistance and organizational consultation.
The Center’s Deputy Director is Jacob Kraemer Tebes, Ph.D., an Associate Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, Child Study Center, and Epidemiology & Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, and Co-Director of the Division of Prevention and Community Research and Deputy Director of The Consultation Center. Dr. Tebes also currently serves as Principal Investigator of the Rhode Island Data Analytic Center, a public-academic partnership between Yale University and the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth, and Families, and is Co-Director of the Evaluation Research Area at The Consultation Center. Dr. Tebes is a clinical/community psychologist who has considerable experience in the design, implementation, and evaluation of prevention and community-based programs and service systems. His research has been funded by various federal grants (NIMH, NIDA, NCRR, CMHS, CSAP, ACYF), state agencies (Connecticut, Rhode Island), and private foundations, and is focused on: the promotion of resilience in at risk populations; the prevention of adolescent substance use through school and community-based interventions; prevention and evaluation research methodology; and interdisciplinary team science. Dr. Tebes teaches advanced seminars in prevention research methods, methods of community intervention, and clinical methods, and currently serves as Editor of the American Journal of Community Psychology.
Area Directors (listed below), provide leadership for each of our programs and research areas. Brief biographies are provided below for each program or research Director.
Christian M. Connell, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, is the Director of Child Development and Epidemiological Research at The Consultation Center. Dr. Connell’s research interests address contextual risk and protective processes that influence developmental and related outcomes for child and adolescent populations exposed to adversity. He has a particular focus on populations in contact with the child welfare and children’s mental health systems, including the intersection between parental substance use and child welfare (e.g., maltreatment and foster placement) outcomes. Another area of his research focuses on identification of individual, family, peer, and other risk and protective processes associated with involvement in adolescent substance use and associated risk behaviors, and evaluation of school-based interventions to prevent or reduce substance use. Dr. Connell has extensive experience in the translation of research findings into policy and practice. Finally, Dr. Connell has training and expertise in the use of advanced multivariate quantitative data analytic methods and teaches a year-long postdoctoral seminar “Data Analytic Methods for Prevention and Community-based Research” within the Division of Prevention and Community Research.
Cindy A. Crusto, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, is the Director of Program and Service System Evaluation at The Consultation Center. Dr. Crusto has more than 15 years of experience in developing, implementing, and evaluating preventive interventions in schools and community agencies. She also has extensive experience providing training and technical assistance to schools and to community-based organizations on the evaluation of prevention programs. She is interested in culturally relevant interventions for children from racial/ethnic minority and low-income backgrounds and school-based behavioral health services. Dr. Crusto’s research examines the impact of family violence on children and ecological influences on child and family well-being, and includes rigorous evaluations of community-based initiatives involving substance use and violence prevention, and the promotion of school readiness.
Teresa A. Freeman, M.A.T., LCSW, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, is the Director of Adolescent Programs at The Consultation Center. She has over 30 years of experience in education and social service, with special interests in urban education, youth development, group work, management and supervision. Ms. Freeman, a certified secondary school teacher in Connecticut, is a trainer/facilitator for the Youth Development Training and Resource Center, and also provides training, consultation, and mental health services for schools, community-based agencies, employees, and managers. Her special interests include workplace issues and organizational change, prevention programming for youth, staff development, and work with groups.
Derrick M. Gordon, Ph.D., Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, is the Director of the Program on Male Development at The Consultation Center, and on the faculty in the Community Research Core of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA). Dr. Gordon also coordinates the Predoctoral Psychology Training Program at The Consultation Center. Overall, Dr. Gordon’s work with men focuses on increasing health and positive involvement in family and community life. He has considerable experience in the development of interventions involving men transitioning from prison back to the community; the engagement of low-income, non-custodial fathers; services to adolescent fathers currently committed to child protection services; and men mandated to batterer intervention groups in the community. Dr. Gordon is an investigator or consultant on several federal and state-funded projects that seek to identify access and use of preventive and indicated health care services by men on the “fringes.” He is also currently a co-investigator on an NIH funded project that examines the STI risk of heterosexual young men to their pregnant female partners.
Nathan B. Hansen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, is the Director of HIV Prevention and Mental Health Research at The Consultation Center. He is also holds an appointment with the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA) at the Yale University School of Public Health as the Associate Director of the Development Core, faculty on the Clinical and Health Services Research Core, and Acting Director of Training. Dr. Hansen's research focuses on the intersection of the HIV epidemic and mental health, with a specific focus on the impact of trauma and interpersonal violence on the mental health and risk behavior of people living with or at risk for HIV infection. He has considerable experience in developing group and individual focused interventions to enhance the mental health and coping of people living with HIV. In addition to research in these areas, he has also conducted research examining the link between mental illness and substance use among people living with HIV. Dr. Hansen has extensive research and clinical experience, both domestically and internationally, in HIV and substance abuse prevention, the treatment of trauma and substance abuse/dependence, intervention development, and measure development.
Joy S. Kaufman, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, is the Director of Program and Service System Evaluation and the Director of Evaluation Research at The Consultation Center. Trained as a clinical and community psychologist, Dr. Kaufman has over 20 years experience in conducting program evaluations, needs assessments, and evaluations of service delivery systems. She has provided consultation and technical support to state departments on issues such as the development of performance indicators, training and technical assistance plans to train community-based organizations to implement mandated reporting requirements, and utilizing data to inform program and policy development. Dr. Kaufman's current research includes the identification of the individual and family risk factors that impact developmental outcomes in children with emotional and behavioral difficulties. In addition, Dr. Kaufman and her team are evaluating the process of implementing evidence-based programs for tobacco cessation and prevention in community health centers.
Susan Ottenheimer, LCSW, Assistant Clinical Professor of Social Work in Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine is the Director of Adult and Elder Programs at The Consultation Center. She serves as the Program Director for the Coping with Work and Family Stress dissemination project. She has extensive experience providing organization development and technical assistance consultation, serving as a senior consultant and lead trainer in the development and implementation of preventive and health promotion interventions particularly in the workplace and in the behavioral health field. She has designed and implemented a wide array of preventive and community-based programs for adults at-risk for psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, chronic diseases (linked to obesity, low levels of fitness, smoking and stress), and/or homelessness. Ms. Ottenheimer has special interests in service system development aimed at facilitating access to needed services, minimizing duplication of effort, and promoting inter-agency collaboration and coordination.
Tami P. Sullivan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, is the Director of Family Violence Research at The Consultation Center. Dr. Sullivan’s program of research focuses on understanding the relationships among intimate partner violence (IPV), posttraumatic stress, and alcohol, tobacco, and drug use. She is actively involved in research examining precursors, correlates, and outcomes of women’s victimization and their use of aggression in intimate relationships as well as the co-occurrence of IPV, posttraumatic stress, and substance use with specific attention to daily processes and intensive longitudinal data. She is particularly interested in risk and protective factor research that informs the development of interventions to be implemented in community settings. She has extensive clinical experience with victims and offenders of IPV, providing services in a range of settings from inpatient units, intensive outpatient day programs, and outpatient clinics to domestic violence shelters, transitional living programs, and various other community programs.
Nadia L. Ward, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, is the Director of Urban Education and Prevention Research at The Consultation Center. Dr. Ward’s work in the area of academic achievement for African American and Latino youth has spanned 15 years and has included training and consultation to universities, public schools systems, and foundations. She has worked extensively with high-risk, as well as high achieving, urban youth and their families in a variety of capacities and has evaluated academic enrichment and competence enhancing substance abuse and violence prevention programs in school and community settings. Currently, Dr. Ward oversees prevention programming and its rigorous evaluation for several multi-year urban school reform initiatives that involve more than 2,500 middle and high school students enrolled in over 30 schools in Connecticut and New York City.
We also employ two full-time professional staff to provide leadership for financial and human resource administration. Maria Cornacchia, B.S., supports administration of Yale/CMHC programs and Gail Hammell supports administration of The Consultation Center, Inc. programs. Both administrators have extensive experience with accounting and grants management we well as human resources monitoring and administration. Finally, we also employ or sponsor approximately 120 staff and students, divided about equally between full-time and part-time positions, to carry out program and research activities for the Center.
More information about individual programs and research areas can be found at our Web site: The Consultation Center.
