Team Members

Dr. Galina Portnoy specializes in the study of relationship health, intimate partner violence (IPV), trauma, and women's health. Dr. Portnoy founded and directs the Intimate Partner Violence Center for Implementation, Research, and Evaluation (IPV-CIRE), a national Center for developing, implementing, and evaluating trauma-informed practices for intimate partner violence detection, prevention, and treatment, with a particular focus on IPV use (i.e., perpetration) and bidirectional IPV. Dr. Portnoy is trained as a clinical and community psychologist, health services researcher, qualitative methodologist, and implementation scientist. Her current work focuses on the development and evaluation of screening and treatment for IPV, and strategies for disseminating and implementing empirically supported IPV practices in healthcare settings. Dr. Portnoy serves as Director for the Intimate Partner Violence Center for Implementation, Research, and Evaluation (IPV-CIRE), at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). The IPV-CIRE works to advance innovative, high-quality, Veteran-centered, and trauma-informed practices for promoting relationship health and safety and enhance the detection, prevention, and treatment of intimate partner violence (IPV) among Veterans, their families, and support networks. Through program development, implementation, evaluation, and translational research, The IPV-CIRE is dedicated to transforming findings into actionable healthcare innovations and policy recommendations. The IPV-CIRE's mission is to create a healthcare system where relationship health concerns are detected early, prevented proactively, and treated comprehensively. The IPV-CIRE is comprised of three cores: Innovation and Implementation Core: To develop innovative IPV practices for Veterans and strengthen current programming through program development and implementation; evaluation; and provision of training, consultation, and external facilitation to support large-scale implementation of best practices for IPV. Research Core: To inform IPV practice and policy by conducting translational research and determining factors for successful implementation of IPV innovations.Evaluation Core: To develop and execute a highly partnered, systematic, multi-phase program evaluation of the VA National IPV Assistance Program.

Dr. Martino specializes in the treatment of addictive disorders and of patients diagnosed with co-occurring psychiatric problems and chronic pain, with specific interests in motivational interviewing, group work, and brief interventions in medical settings. He has extensive experience conducting randomized controlled hybrid effectiveness-implementation multisite trials, feasibility and acceptability psychotherapy development studies, and mixed qualitative-quantitative formative evaluations. At VA Connecticut, he serves as the Chief of the Psychology Service and Co-Project Director of the Interpersonal Violence Center for Innovation, Research, and Evaluation (IPV-CIRE) Innovation and Implementation Core. His current research focuses on implementation strategies for implementing motivational interviewing-based interventions in the Veterans Healthcare Administration system.

Dr. Brandt completed a general Preventive Medicine residency at Madigan Army Medical Center in 1989 and a post-doctoral fellowship sponsored by the National Library of Medicine at Yale School of Medicine in 1997. She is board certified in Preventive Medicine and Clinical Informatics. Her research is interdisciplinary and focuses on issues related to the design, development and use of informatics tools in the domain of clinical research, as well as health services research.

Dr. Hill L. Wolfe is a health services researcher and implementation scientist, with specialized expertise in health informatics and both quantitative and qualitative research methods. His research focuses primarily on sexual and gender minority Veterans and aging Veteran populations. Dr. Wolfe's research interests include noncommunicable chronic diseases, substance use, behavioral health, patient engagement, and the evaluation and implementation of health service innovations. Previously, Dr. Wolfe worked as a Health Scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He was also a Fellow in the VA Medical Informatics Fellowship Program at VA West Haven and Yale School of Medicine.

Candice Presseau, PhD, is a research psychologist at VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Her research focuses on the phenomenology and treatment of trauma occurring across the developmental life span with particular interest and expertise in military and Veteran populations.

Dr. Yeterian's clinical and research background in trauma/PTSD and substance use disorders informs her approach to studying IPV. Within the Center, Dr. Yeterian is collaborating on projects focused on understanding the scope of bidirectional IPV among Veterans and how best to treat veterans who use IPV.

Dr. Carla Stover is a licensed clinical psychologist and Professor at the Yale University School of Medicine Child Study Center. Dr. Stover's research interests are focused on the impact of violence and trauma (particularly family violence) on child development and the advancement of best practice interventions for children and families affected by such violence exposure. Dr. Stover has provided clinical service to families impacted by domestic violence including acute/crisis response, as well as, longer term evidence based treatments like TF-CBT and Child Parent Psychotherapy. Dr. Stover has been awarded several grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to develop interventions for fathers with histories of intimate partner violence (IPV) and substance misuse. She developed Fathers for Change to enable fathers to reduce both their violence and substance use and improve their parenting. She has conducted trainings both nationally and internationally on engagement and treatment approaches for families impacted by trauma, IPV and substance misuse.

Dr. Relyea received his PhD in Community Psychology and Prevention Research from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2016. His research and evaluation work within student, community and military populations focuses on preventing sexual assault and harassment and improving outcomes for survivors. Dr. Relyea is currently on a Department of Veterans Affairs VISN 1 Career Development Award examining patient harassment at VA and the applicability of a bystander intervention approach to harassment.

Skye executes and oversees key research and administrative operations within the IPV-CIRE to ensure efficiency and to maintain high compliance standards. In addition to her specialization in the development and implementation of standard operating procedures and management of IRB protocols across research projects within the IPV-CIRE, she contributes to systems improvement and expansion initiatives. Skye has a strong background in clinical research with primary research interests in substance use disorder treatment and mental health. Her emergent interests are qualitative data analyses and program development.

Lauren received her Master of Science in Occupational Therapy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has worked in clinical research coordination for over 7 years. Prior to coming to VA Connecticut, she worked as a clinical research project coordinator at Brown University and the Providence VA Healthcare System. Lauren has a clinical background as an occupational therapist and is passionate about working on research with direct application to improving care. Lauren is responsible for coordinating multiple ongoing projects within the IPV-CIRE.

Sarah recently joined the IPV-CIRE team as a Research Social Worker. Sarah received her Master of Social Work at San Jose State University and has worked for the Veterans Health Administration for the past 8 years in various roles including therapist, Interpersonal Violence Assistance Program Coordinator, and Case Manager with the M2VA and Homeless Programs. Research and clinical interests include increasing DEI programming and interventions for Veterans, IPV use prevention, and trauma-informed practices.

Elizabeth Coppola, PhD, is a VA Advanced Medical Informatics postdoctoral fellow and a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Biomedical Informatics & Data Science at Yale School of Medicine. She is interested in understanding the impact of exposure to trauma and adversity throughout the life course from a risk and resilience perspective.

Eric DeRycke, MPH, is a statistician at VACHCS, and has over 10 years of experience. He is working in collaboration with the IPV-CIRE in support of the Evaluation Core. He is involved with database, and dashboard development, statistical analysis, and management.

Josh is an Air Force Veteran with a background in social and behavioral health and clinical drug research. He holds an MPH in International Health and Development through Tulane University. Josh transitioned to public health after more than 10 years as a primary and secondary educator in science and music, having used this role to implement programs in personal nutrition, environmental health, sustainability, project-based service learning, and student-led community education in the New Orleans charter school environment. He addresses health disparity challenges from a social determinants and structural justice perspective.

Melissa Skanderson, MSW, is a senior staff data programmer at VACHS. She has over 20 years of experience consulting with researchers to develop and implement observational cohort studies using the Department of Veterans Affairs electronic health record data. Her tasks include cohort creation, database development, and variable creation for use in reports and dashboard.

Rasheeda O’Connor, MA, is a Research Coordinator at the Veterans Affairs Hospital, jointly working in the Evaluation Core at the IPV-CIRE and PRIME Center. Her Research addresses bidirectional IPV and the disparities that exist within marginalized communities, including those of health, education, and economic concerns.

Diondra Parkes, LCSW has joined the IPV-CIRE after 2 years of part-time special assignments, where she assisted with (1) a congressional report on IPV prevalence across minority subgroups, and (2) projects associated with the newly developed Evaluation Core. She works as a Program Evaluation Consultant primarily focused on the evaluation of IPVAP through a variety of research projects to include the QUERI PRISM

Dr. Hoffman earned her PhD in Clinical-Community Psychology from DePaul University and completed her clinical residency with the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Clinical Team at VA Connecticut, West Haven campus. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Medical Informatics Program at VA Connecticut and Yale School of Medicine. Her research focuses on sexual violence, quantitative modeling, and health services. Her clinical work centers around the treatment of PTSD and related trauma symptoms.