Team Members

Dr. Portnoy specializes in the study of intimate partner violence (IPV) detection, prevention, and treatment, with a focus on IPV use (i.e., perpetration). Other primary research interests include the intersecting areas of relationship health, trauma, resilience, and women’s health. Dr. Portnoy's current research focuses on the development and evaluation of IPV screening and treatment in healthcare settings, particularly as related to IPV use, bidirectional IPV, and strategies for disseminating and implementing empirically supported IPV practices. Dr. Portnoy serves as Director for the Intimate Partner Violence Center for Innovation and Research (IPV-CIR) at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). The goal of the IPV-CIR is to develop, disseminate, implement, and evaluate innovative, high-quality, Veteran-centered, trauma-informed, and recovery-oriented practices for intimate partner violence (IPV) detection, prevention, and treatment. The IPV-CIR 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, 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 Services, Director of the Implementation, Dissemination, and Education Core of the VA HSR&D Center of Innovation (COIN) Pain Research, Informatics, Multi-morbidities, and Education (PRIME) Center, and Co-Project Director of the Interpersonal Violence Center for Innovation and Research, Innovation and Implementation Core. His current research focuses on strategies for implementing treatments and brief interventions in community treatment programs and VA and non-VA medical settings.

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.

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. 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. 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. 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.

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.

Dr. Webermann's research focuses on military sexual trauma (MST), including the VA disability claims processed associated with MST, individual-level risk and resilience factors associated with MST and its mental health sequelae, and intersections of these topics with identity (e.g., gender, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity).

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.

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.

Diondra Parkes, LCSW, 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 currently works as a research social worker and program evaluation specialist primarily focused on the evaluation of IPVAP through a variety of research projects to include the QUERI PRISM.

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.