Faculty

Carryl P. Navalta, Ph.D. received his B.S. in Psychobiology from the University of California-Los Angeles and his M.A. and Doctoral degrees from Binghamton University in Binghamton, NY. He is currently a faculty member of Boston University School of Medicine as of January 2012. From 1998 to 2011, Dr. Navalta was on the faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He worked during this period as a clinical and research psychologist at Children’s Hospital Boston (2008-2011) and McLean Hospital (1998-2008). Although his general area of expertise is mental health disorders of childhood and adolescence, Dr. Navalta has a strong interest in the neurobiological and psychosocial consequences of early psychological trauma as well as effective interventions for such sequelae. To that end, he was an investigator on several NIH grant-funded projects focused on understanding the neurobehavioral effects of childhood maltreatment (e.g., sexual and physical abuse, verbal abuse, witnessing domestic violence). Dr. Navalta also served as a researcher on a SAMHSA-funded center devoted to developing, adapting, evaluating, and disseminating effective treatment approaches for traumatized children and youth. Presently, Dr. Navalta is a member of the Family Systems Workgroup of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and a research associate at the Trauma Center, which is participating in a multisite field trial to validate the proposed diagnosis, Developmental Trauma Disorder, for inclusion in DSM-V. Clinically, I use a scientist-practitioner framework and provide evidence-based mental health services. Specifically, he conducts applied behavior analysis, behavior and cognitive-behavior therapy (including direct therapeutic exposure), and trauma systems therapy. Dr. Navalta’s overarching mission is to improve the lives of children and adolescents who are either at risk for or already have impairing mental health problems.

 

Stephen Brady, Ph.D., received his B.A. in Sociology from the University of Florida in Gainesville FL, and his M.A. and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Santa Barbara, CA. Dr. Brady has been a member of the Counselor Education Faculty at Boston University School of Medicine for over 20 years.  For the past 12 years he has served as Director of the Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program as well as an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Graduate Medical Sciences. Dr. Brady is the current Chair-Elect of the faculty at Boston University. he is also the past Chair of the American Mental Health Counseling Associations Professional Development Committee and past Chair of the APA Counsel on AIDS.  Dr. Brady is an active clinician who primarily counsels gay men.  His research interest has focused on HIV and serious mental disorders where he has led or been part of several federally funded projects. He is currently the Principal Investigator for an NIH R01 study for 2010-2015 examining Motivational Approaches for HIV prevention for mentally ill and homeless adults.

 

Dr.Luz Marilis López, Ph.D. joined the faculty at Boston University School of Social Work in 2005. She teaches clinical practice, group work interventions, and advanced level courses in substance abuse, trauma and mental health. Currently, she is the Principal Investigator of an evaluation study of Latinos in prison reentry at Tapestry Health in Springfield, Massachusetts (co-principal investigator, Lena Lundgren, PhD). This study is funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration/Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. The main objectives of this research are to implement innovative HIV prevention interventions and evidence-based treatment models for Latino substance users, and to prevent prison recidivism among Latinos in central Massachusetts. Dr. López has more than 16 years of professional experience in the fields of HIV and substance abuse prevention with diverse populations. She also developed and leads an annual cultural immersion travel course to Puerto Rico in which Boston University graduate students gain exposure to Puerto Rican culture, public health social work practice, and community participatory research.

 

Ruth Paris, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Practice at the Boston University School of Social Work, where she also serves as the Director of the Family Therapy Certificate Program. She has a program of research focused on family interventions and family processes. Through a series of funded multi-year research projects, Dr. Paris has evaluated and developed family-based interventions directed at the following issues: (1) isolated first time mothers in a home visiting program; (2) immigrant/refugee mothers receiving home-based services from bilingual/bicultural paraprofessionals; (3) mothers with postpartum depression and their infants in a dyadic home-based clinical treatment program; and (4) military service members with children under 5 years of age returning from Iraq or Afghanistan. The majority of these projects had a focus on diverse populations. She has served as a consultant on 2 federally-funded projects with teams at the Harvard School of Public Health focused on intimate partner violence and is currently an advisor on a K01 award recently funded by the NIH focused on beliefs and attitudes regarding corporal punishment in African American and Caucasian urban communities.

 

Eric Devine is licensed clinical psychologist working in the Psychiatry Department at Boston University School of Medicine.  He completed his graduate education at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and came to Boston for a clinical internship at the Boston VA Medical Center in Jamaica Plain.  Following this internship he completed a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at the Boston VA in medical informatics.  He began work at Boston University in 1999 in an alcohol a

nd drug clinical research lab whose mission to develop and test new forms of treatment for alcohol and drug use problems.  In this role, he gained extensive experience in the design and conduct of medication trials for addiction. He also had a role in the development of psychosocial treatments for addiction and has co-authored several treatment manuals developed for use in clinical trials for a range of funding agencies (e.g., NIHM, NIDA, SAMHSA).   He is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers and provides ongoing training and consultation in the use of motivational interviewing in research and clinical practice.  He teaches a course in the Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Med

icine programs focused on motivational interviewing and cognitive-behavioral treatment for addition.  He also teaches a fieldwork course focused on developing skills for the conduct of clinical trials.  He is a Vice-Chair of the BUMC Institutional Review Board’s Panel Blue.   His primary interests are substance abuse treatment, pathological gambling, HIV prevention, and dissemination of evidence-based treatment.

 

Kim T. Mueser, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and Executive Director of the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Boston University. Dr. Mueser’s professional interests include the development and evaluation of rehabilitation approaches for people with severe mental illness. His clinical and research interests include family psychoeducation, the treatment of co-occurring psychiatric and substance use disorders, psychiatric rehabilitation for serious mental illnesses, and the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. His research has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, and the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression. He is the co-author of over 10 books and treatment manuals, and has published extensively, including numerous peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters. Dr. Mueser has also given numerous lectures and workshops on psychiatric rehabilitation, both nationally and internationally.

 

 

Assistant Professor Nikki Wooten was recently awarded a NIDA Diversity Supplement to study the Early Identification of Substance Use and Psychological Problems in Army Women Veterans. She also has been named co-investigator on the NIDA-funded First Longitudinal Study of Missed Treatment Opportunities using DoD and VA Data (PI: Mary Jo Larson, Heller School, Brandeis University). Dr. Wooten’s research interests are  risk and protective factors associated with military service and deployments, gender differences in post-deployment mental health, and co-occurring substance use and psychological problems. She was also awarded a National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism New Investigator Travel Award to present a poster, Gender Differences in Behavioral Health Utilization in Active Duty Army Service Members (N=152,447), at the 2011 Addictions Health Services Research Conference. In addition to her esteemed awards and studies, Dr. Wooten is co-author of the forthcoming Military combat deployments and substance use: Review and future directions in Journal of Social Work Practice in Addictions, 12, 1-22, and has  published a book chapter, Occupational stress in social work practice, in theHandbook of Stress in the Occupations. The book targets stress along with other issues and problems associated with specific jobs. To read Dr. Wooten’s chapter, as well as the entire book, you can order the Handbook online. A preview of Dr. Wooten’s chapter is available on Amazon.