Our Team

Jacob Kraemer Tebes is Professor of Psychiatry (Psychology) and in the Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, and Professor of Epidemiology (Social and Behavioral Sciences), Yale School of Public Health. He is Director of the Division of Prevention and Community Research in the Department of Psychiatry, Chief Psychologist at the Connecticut Mental Health Center, and Director of Yale's NIDA T32 Postdoctoral Research Training Program in Substance Abuse Prevention. Through a partnership with the City of New Haven, Continuum of Care, Inc., and Yale, he also serves as the Director of Elm City COMPASS (Compassionate Allies Serving our Streets), a community-based civilian initiative to complement and support the work of New Haven first responders (police, fire, emergency medical) to assist individuals experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis. Dr. Tebes is the former Executive Director of The Consultation Center at Yale and the former Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Community Psychology. Dr. Tebes received his B.S. in Psychology from Georgetown University and his Ph.D. in Clinical/Community Psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo. After completing a doctoral fellowship at Yale focused on developing partnerships with community stakeholders, he joined the faculty in the Department of Psychiatry. His professional activities include research, service, teaching, and administration, much of it centered on issues related to enhancing equity and social justice, reducing systemic barriers to opportunity, and promoting resilience. His research focuses on the promotion of resilience in at risk populations recovering from trauma or crises, usually through community-wide or school-based trauma-informed interventions, and on the prevention of adolescent substance use. His scholarly work has also focused on incorporating equity into how research is conducted; community research methods; program evaluation; philosophy of science; and team science. He has received funding for his research and community-based evaluations from NIH, SAMHSA, ACF, state and municipal agencies, and private foundations. Dr. Tebes also consults to public agencies, healthcare and community-based organizations, and schools on the development, implementation, and evaluation of programs and services, and on the use of data to inform practice and policy. He teaches or has taught a variety of seminars to postdoctoral and doctoral fellows in community and clinical psychology and in prevention science on the following topics: community-based interventions, prevention, human diversity and multiculturalism, community research methods, clinical methods of child intervention, and professional development. He has served on leadership teams of Yale training programs in interdisciplinary team science. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he led a tri-state, system-wide initiative to support healthcare workers and their families through virtual, interactive Stress and Resilience Town Halls.

Joy S. Kaufman, PhD is a Professor of Psychiatry (Psychology Section), Yale School of Medicine and Executive Director of the Yale Consultation Center and of YaleEVAL. Trained as a Clinical and Community Psychologist, Dr. Kaufman conducts large-scale, multi-level evaluations of health service delivery systems, provides consultation to governmental and community organizations regarding these evaluations, and carries out related research. These evaluations take place in under-resourced communities; involve close partnerships with state and municipal governments, community organizations, and other public stakeholders; and generate data that informs program and policy development. A unique feature of her work is the training of public stakeholders to evaluate the services they receive or to utilize data so that they can provide rigorous and systematic feedback to improve services and participate in decision-making about their community. Dr. Kaufman's research interests include the identification of contextual factors that impact outcomes for individuals with emotional and behavioral difficulties.

Dr. Ishita Sunita Arora is an Associate Research Scientist at Yale University's Department of Internal Medicine. Dr. Arora is a clinical and community psychologist who has worked with underserved and marginalized populations in the resource-limited settings of South Asia and the United States. Dr. Arora's research focuses on four core areas – (a) advancing health equity and evidence-based policy for women’s and maternal health, (b) promotion of girl empowerment and prevention of gender-based violence, (c) advancing anti-racism, diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice, and (d) equitable access and utilization of mental healthcare among historically minoritized communities. Dr. Arora has expertise in community-engaged participatory research, program development and evaluation, implementation science, and violence prevention and intervention in academic medicine, and community and not-for-profit organizations. Dr. Arora completed her predoctoral fellowship at Yale University’s Department of Psychiatry - The Consultation Center (TCC) and Connecticut Mental Health Center (CMHC). Dr. Arora earned her Ph.D. in Clinical and Community Psychology from the University of Maryland and a Master’s in Liberal Studies and Leadership from Ashoka University, India. In India, she has worked as a therapist for street kids and unhoused families for the not-for-profit organization Salaam Baalak Trust. Dr. Arora’s work is guided by anti-racist, anti-casteist, anti-oppressive, and decolonial praxis.

Ashley Clayton, MA, is the Research Manager of the Family Violence Research Program in the Sullivan Lab. Trained in community psychology, Ashley has developed and evaluated various community-based mental health interventions. Ashley ventured into the field of community psychology through a determination to use her first-hand experience with mental illness for good and her dedication to social justice. Ashley has extensive training in qualitative and quantitative research, with particular expertise in community-based participatory research, questionnaire development, and stigma. She is a mental health activist and has published numerous research papers on the social inclusion of individuals living with severe mental illness, maternal mental health, recovery-oriented and person-centered care, and healthcare narratives and essays. She is the Visual Arts Editor of The Perch, an Arts & Literary Journal published by Yale’s Program for Recovery & Community Health (PRCH).

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.

Elizabeth H. Connors, PhD, received her degree in Clinical Child and Community Psychology from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and is a licensed clinical psychologist. She is Director of School Mental Health Implementation Consultation and Research at The Consultation Center at Yale. Her research program focuses on improving the quality of mental health promotion, prevention and intervention services for children, adolescents and their families in critical access points such as schools and primary care settings. Dr. Connors is conducting stakeholder-informed research to discover the most practical ways to make school mental health treatment more student- and family- centered with ongoing, collaborative use of progress data. Dr. Connors is also involved in community-partnered program evaluation and quality improvement consultation and coaching to school, district and state teams to improve their mental health service capacity and performance. She collaborates with the University of Maryland National Center for School Mental Health to advance research, practice, policy and training about comprehensive school mental health system quality and sustainability nationwide.

Maria Christina Crouch (Deg Hit'an and Coahuiltecan Tribes), PhD, is a clinical-community psychologist and an Assistant Professor Adjunct at Yale School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry. Her clinical work and program of research is focused on the intersection of trauma-informed care, evidence-based practices, and practice-based evidence (Indigenous approaches) to address alcohol and drug misuse, and related health impacts of social determinants among American Indian and Alaska Native communities from a cultural, strengths-based approach.

Derrick Gordon, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry (Psychology Section), Child Study Center and Public Health at Yale University School of Medicine. He is the Director of the Program on Male Development in the Division of Prevention and Community Research of the Department of Psychiatry, and is a Core scientist in the Community Research Core of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA). Dr. Gordon has considerable experience in intervention and prevention development having served as an investigator on several federal, NIH, and state funded projects and studies focused on those factors that either support or undermine men transitioning from prison back to the community; the engagement of low-income, non-custodial fathers; the identification and service of adolescent fathers committed to child protection services; and men mandated to batterer intervention groups in the community. His funding portfolio includes NIH, foundation, HHS, local government, and community-based programs. Dr. Gordon’s work with men has and continues to focus on increasing the health of men and their positive involvement in family and community life. In his mentorship role, pre- and post doctoral fellows get to explore with Dr. Gordon how issues like adolescent fatherhood, low income fatherhood status, transitioning from prison to the community, and men’s access and use of health care services impact their efforts to be healthy community members. Overall Dr. Gordon in his research seeks to identify those factors that enhance the access and use of preventive and indicated health care services by men on the “fringes.”

Amy Griffin is the Director of Health Evaluation Initiatives at The Consultation Center and the Director of Strategy and Operations for YaleEVAL. Ms. Griffin holds a master’s degree in Communications and has advanced training in Family and Child Ecology and nonprofit management. Ms. Griffin brings more than 20 years of experience providing consultation on the development and implementation of program evaluations to nonprofit agencies, coalitions, foundations, and local and state departments. She trains nonprofit and state-level organizations in evaluation principles, techniques, and design, and frequents as an invited speaker at universities on evaluation, consultation, and group facilitation. Most recently, Ms. Griffin was selected by the Connecticut Department of Public Health (CTDPH) to provide specialized training to health practitioners in the state through a grant opportunity from the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors.

Frances is a postdoctoral fellow in the NIDA T32 program through the Division of Prevention and Community Research in the Department of Psychiatry. She earned a PhD in clinical (community) psychology from Bowling Green State University and is a registered board-certified art therapist. Frances’ research and clinical-community interventions focus on increasing health equity for people in recovery with intersecting marginalized identities. Branches of her research focus on the development and evaluation of 1) peer-led programs in healthcare organizational settings, 2) individual- and systems-level interventions to reduce stigma and structural discrimination towards people in recovery, and 3) scalable, digital or arts-based interventions for health promotion and prevention of mental health and substance use challenges.

Ms. Henry received her Bachelor's in Psychology from Central Connecticut State University in 2012 and her Master's in Social Work from the University of Connecticut in 2019. She has an interest in social justice, advocacy, criminal justice reform, research and social policy. Her research experience began in her Psychology courses and continued on throughout her time at the School of Social Work as she worked as a Research Assistant to the BSW Program Director, was awarded funds for a research project conducted on a travel study to Puerto Rico, and worked as a Research and Assessment Specialist to Florida State University's Institute for Justice Research and Development. She has contributed to two pending publications on environmental disaster's and their impact on domestic violence in Puerto Rico and microaggressions during a travel study experience.

Ana Hernandez. B.S. is a Research Assistant in the Family Violence Research Program in the Sullivan Lab, wherein Ana researches intimate partner violence (IPV), firearm exposure, post-traumatic stress, substance use, and HIV/sexual risk. Ms. Hernandez’s research interests center on trauma and posttraumatic stress responses. More specifically, she is interested in the retrieval of traumatic memories of bilingual and/or multilingual speakers and its effect on memory details. Throughout her research career, Ms. Hernandez has developed expertise in survey programming, trauma-informed interviewing practices, and cultural adaptation and translation of research materials. Ms. Hernandez holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Connecticut where she completed training in the Research Assistant Program through the Office of Undergraduate Research. Throughout her baccalaureate training, she worked in the Dr. Meyer’s Language and Brain Lab researching neurobiology and the influence of talker idiolect on phonetic adaptation. Additionally, Ms. Hernandez has experience researching health risk factors for cardiovascular disease from her work with Dr. Bruce Blanchard in the Department of Allied Health Sciences.

Kayla M. Hoskins, PhD is a NIDA-funded T32 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Yale School of Medicine (Division of Prevention and Community Research, Department of Psychiatry). Trained as a criminologist and in community psychology, Dr. Hoskins conducts interdisciplinary research to promote psychological/behavioral health equity and wellbeing among criminal legal system and substance-involved populations with a specific emphasis on the intersection of gender, victimization and trauma. She centers critical feminist theoretical perspectives and methods to 1) investigate socio-structural inequalities in connection to the service needs of marginalized (i.e., gendered, racialized, criminalized, victimized) individuals; and 2) applies principles from the field of implementation science to analyze and enhance interventions designed to interrupt cycles of victimization and illegal behavior, promote resiliency and recovery, and ameliorate disparities in the praxis of justice. Her research considers internal and external influences on individual wellbeing, reentry and desistance. She primarily utilizes qualitative, intersectional and mixed methodologies, which produce a wealth of data to promote the voices of diverse communities. Dr. Hoskins's work has been published in Sex Roles, the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Feminist Criminology, the Journal of Community Psychology, Crime & Delinquency, and Women & Criminal Justice. A first-authored paper published in Feminist Criminology received the journal’s Dr. Helen Eigenberg Best Article of the Year Award for 2020.

Luis Miguel Mestre, Ph.D., MS, is a Post Doctoral Fellow at The Consultation Center, Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Mestre's got his Ph.D. in Epidemiology with a minor in Data Science from Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington; his doctoral training was focused on quantitative epidemiology, statistics, obesity, aging, cigarette smoking, and health disparities. Dr. Mestre's current work as a post-doctoral fellow is in substance use, especially cigarette smoking, health disparities and substance use, and substance and obesity from a psychosocial perspective. Recent projects include polysubstance use in marginalized groups, clinical trials intervention in smoking cessation, food aversion, and eating disorders and their interaction with tobacco use, and substance use and obesity.