Biography

After graduating high school, I left Asheville for Los Angeles, where I attended UCLA for the next four years. During the week I attended classes and on the weekend I enjoyed the sites, people, beaches, and surf of Southern California. After graduating in 2006, I remained in L.A. for a year, tending bar and preparing to for graduate school.

In 2007, I moved to Philadelphia to enter the Drexel and Villanova’s joint degree program in Psychology and Law. For the next seven years, I trained and worked as a mentee of David DeMatteo, J.D., Ph.D. During that time I completed coursework in clinical, forensic, and neuropsychology; taught a variety of undergraduate courses; presented and published on a variety of topics; and trained as a practicum student in a privately-run prison, a student counseling center, a forensic assessment clinic, a brain injury rehabilitation unit, and an outpatient private practice.

From fall of 2013 through the end of summer 2014, I completed my APA internship in central North Carolina. While there I trained with Eric Elbogen, Ph.D., in forensic neuropsychology at Central Regional Hospital, working with patients with serious mental illness; with Karla Thompson, Ph.D., at UNC Chapel Hill’s outpatient neuropsychology clinic; and with the forensic psychologists at a nearby federal prison.

In fall, 2014, I returned to Philadelphia. For the next two years I completed my post-doctoral fellowship in clinical neuropsychology. Half of my time was spent in the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Center at Penn Rehab, working with neuropsychologist Kelli Williams, Ph.D., and the inpatient rehabilitation team of physiatry, nursing, and the physical, speech, occupational, and recreation therapists. The other half of my time was spent training under Thomas Swirsky-Sacchetti, Ph.D., ABPP-CN, and his team at Diversified Psychological Resources in clinical and forensic neuropsychological assessment.