Faculty & Staff — UVA Mental Health Policy & Practices

Daniel C. Murrie, Director, Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy, is a Professor in the UVA Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences. He oversees the UVA Forensic Clinic within ILPPP, the UVA postdoctoral fellowship in forensic psychology, and ILPPP’s state-university partnership to provide training programs in forensic evaluation. As a clinician, Dr. Murrie performs forensic evaluations in criminal and civil cases through the ILPPP’s Forensic Clinic, with an emphasis on capital cases. As a scholar, Dr. Murrie’s research and teaching address a variety of topics in forensic assessment, with a primary program of research addressing bias and quality control in forensic mental health evaluations. He also works nationally with several states to improve forensic mental health service systems.

Heather Zelle, J.D., Ph.D., Associate Director of Mental Health Policy Research, Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy, is an Associate Professor of Research in the School of Medicine Department of Public Health Sciences. She is licensed as an attorney in Pennsylvania (voluntary inactive status) and as a clinical psychologist in Virginia. Her research and policy interests include capacity to make healthcare decisions, as well as criminal legal decisions such as waiving Miranda rights, civil commitment policy and practices, and legal system interactions with people with mental illnesses. Dr. Zelle conducts clinical work infrequently, but remains interested in forensic assessments examining psycholegal issues such as capacity to waive Miranda rights.|CV

Richard J. Bonnie, Director Emeritus, Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy, is Harrison Foundation Professor of Law and Medicine, Professor of Public Policy, Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, and Director of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. He teaches and writes about health law and policy, bioethics, criminal law, and public policies relating to mental health, substance abuse, and public health.

Tanya Wanchek, J.D., Ph.D.,is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences. Dr. Wanchek teaches Health Care Economics and Health Policy from and Economic Perspective to both graduate and undergraduate students. Her research focuses on the analysis of the dental labor force, oral health outcomes, mental health policy, and cost-effectiveness analysis.

John Oliver, Esq., served in the Chesapeake City Attorney’s office for 31 years, as an Assistant and then Deputy City Attorney. His work there included behavioral health and social services law. Mr. Oliver works with the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy on several mental health law and service reform initiatives and in the publication of the Institute’s journal, Developments in Mental Health Law.

Graduate Research Assistants, are an enthusiastic group of graduate students, primarily from the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia, with strong academic records and an interest in pursuing research in mental health policy. Many go on to complete their Integrated Learning Experience with the ILPPP using the data and infrastructure available to graduate students affiliated with the ILPPP.

If you are a current graduate student interested in working with us, please contact Heather Zelle, J.D., Ph.D., zelle@virginia.edu.

Undergraduate Research Assistants, are a diverse group of undergraduate students from the University of Virginia with strong academic records and interest in mental health policy and practice.

Please note: The “Mental Health Law Lab” is not seeking undergraduate RAs for the ‘22-’23 academic year.

Xuemei Ding, LLM is the Institute Administrator. She oversees all business aspects of the Institute including the Forensic Psychiatry Clinic, all research projects and training programs.

Past Faculty & Staff

Sarah Leser, MPH, MPP, was a research specialist working on projects related to mental health reform in Virginia with a special focus on mandatory outpatient treatment. She primarily conducted qualitative research aimed at understanding variation in civil commitment practices and the delivery of mental health services across the Commonwealth. She worked closely with Community Services Boards and Special Justices to identify how policy can be changed to improve access to outpatient treatment for individuals experiencing mental health crisis.

Kathy Markie Faris Gwinn, MPH, was a research specialist on projects related to mental health law reform in Virginia with a special focus on data wrangling, data analysis, and database management. She primarily worked with multi-source datasets on civil commitment trends and special focus projects within the ILPPP such as emergency evaluations data from Community Services Boards around the state.

Ashleigh Allen Le, MPH, was a research specialist on projects related to mental health law reform in Virginia with a special focus on civil commitment data and policy in Virginia, including emergency mental health holds. She led the team’s data wrangling, data analysis, and database management for several projects.

Meret Hofer, Ph.D., was a doctoral candidate in the Community Psychology and Prevention Research program at the University of Virginia during her time with the ILPPP. Meret's research interests include mixed methods approaches to understanding the experiences of police officers. Currently, she is a Industrial/Organizational Psychologist in Policing Research at RTI International.

Edward Strickler, Jr., MA, MA, MPH, CHES, served for more than 15 years as Programs Coordinator involved in every aspect of Institute-sponsored training programs, symposiums, and conferences; as Managing Editor of Developments in Mental Health Law; and in other support of the mission of the Institute. His service helped to sustain and expand the translational enterprise of the Institute into its fourth decade as a national flagship in forensic mental health.

Sean Womack, M.A., is pursuing a doctorate in Clinical Psychology with a concentration in Quantitative Psychology through the University of Virginia School of Arts & Sciences. His quantitative research interests include structural equation modeling and causal inference methods.

Alex Jakubow, Ph.D., is now an Associate Director for Empirical Research and Data Support Services at the Duke University School of Law. Alex was previously an empirical research librarian at the University of Virginia School of Law. His work at the ILPPP focuses on the use of risk assessment in sentencing among Virginia judges and the use of Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT) in Virginia.