Welcome to the Sullivan Lab
The Family Violence Research Lab at Yale School of Medicine gathered on October 13, 2025, to wear purple in recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month—a national campaign established by Congress in 1989 to raise awareness about domestic violence and uplift survivor voices and experiences. This year's theme, "With Survivors, Always," underscores the importance of centering survivor needs and experiences in our research and community efforts.
Dr. Tami Sullivan, bottom row, middle, Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Family Violence Research and Programs, and her team are dedicated to advancing research on domestic violence. The lab's research aims to promote survivor safety, recovery, and resilience. One in two women in the United States experiences severe psychological, physical, or sexual abuse in their lifetime. Participating lab members are, bottom row, from left, Ana Hernandez, BS, Tami Sullivan, PhD, and Alexandra Torres Arsuaga, BA; middle row, from left, Marley Herard, MA, Laura Callinan, MPH and Alexandrya Pope, LMSW, MSW, MS; top row, from left, Ashley Clayton, MA and Melissa Schick, PhD.
The Sullivan Lab focuses on both individual and system-level factors that influence the well-being of women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV). Naturalistic studies employ micro-longitudinal designs to explore how daily experiences and behaviors unfold in natural environments. Interventional studies promote relationship health, resilience and recovery from trauma and substance use. Integral to the lab’s approach is community-partnered research, which centers women who have experienced IPV and the practitioners who support them.
At the individual level, the lab’s research advances understanding of factors that foster resilience, such as self-efficacy, empowerment, and hope, as well as factors that heighten the risk for negative outcomes, including posttraumatic stress, substance use, and sexual risk behaviors. The lab studies the impact of substance use, criminal justice, and other service system’s responses on women’s emotional and physical wellbeing, including the ways in which it promotes or impedes their safety, recovery and resilience.
Development of community-based and service-system interventions include a peer-led support group, a single-session intervention to promote hope, and a stepped-care behavioral health intervention aimed at reducing trauma symptoms to enhance retention in opioid use disorder care. The lab disseminates findings to researchers, practitioners, and the public through various formats, including practitioner briefs, blogs, infographics, webinars, and popular media, to accelerate the translation of research into changes in practice and policy.
Principal Investigator
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