Executive Director

Kostas A. Katsavdakis, PhD
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Dr. Kostas Katsavdakis is a licensed psychologist. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at The Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, where he served as the primary interviewer in week-long intensive diagnostic evaluations of adults, including impaired corporate and mental health professionals faced with workplace related problems.  Since returning to New York in 2002, Dr. Katsavdakis served as the Assistant Director of Psychology of a maximum security forensic psychiatric hospital and currently devotes his time to a private criminal forensic and clinical practice, teaching and writing.  He is an Adjunct Associate Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice where he teaches courses in Criminal Forensic Assessment and the Analysis of Criminal Behavior.  Dr. Katsavdakis is sought out by attorneys and the Court to help evaluate defendants charged with violent sexual and non-sexual crimes and consults with private parties for threat assessment and risk management evaluations.  He has presented to various law organizations and mental health professionals on conducting violent risk and threat assessment in adults and youth.

Associates

Reid Meloy, PhD, ABPP
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Dr. Reid Meloy is a diplomate in forensic psychology of the American Board of Professional Psychology. He was formerly Chief of the Forensic Mental Health Division for San Diego County, and now devotes his time to a private criminal forensic practice, research, writing, and teaching. He is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine; an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego School of Law; and a faculty member of the San Diego Psychoanalytic Institute. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and is past President of the American Academy of Forensic Psychology. In 1992 he received the Distinguished Contribution to Psychology as a Profession Award from the California Psychological Association; in 1998 he received the first National Achievement Award from the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals; and in 2000 his stalking book received honorable mention, the Manfred Guttmacher Award, American Psychiatric Association.  He is also President of Forensis, Inc., a nonprofit, public benefit corporation which conducts forensic psychiatric and psychological research.  Dr. Meloy has authored or co-authored over one hundred eighty papers published in peer-reviewed psychiatric and psychological journals, and has authored, co-authored, or edited ten books: The Psychopathic Mind (1988), Clinical Guidelines for Involuntary Outpatient Treatment (1990), Violent Attachments (1992), Rorschach Assessment of Aggressive and Psychopathic Personalities (1994), Contemporary Rorschach Interpretation (1997), The Psychology of Stalking: Clinical and Forensic Perspectives (1998), Violence Risk and Threat Assessment (2000), The Mark of Cain (2001), The Scientific Pursuit of Stalking (2006), and Stalking, Threatening, and Attacking Public Figures (2008). He is also the co-developer with Dr. Steve White of the WAVR-21 (www.wavr21.com), the first structured professional judgment instrument for the assessment of workplace violence risk. He is a sought after psychological expert on various criminal cases throughout the United States and Europe, and is currently a consultant to the counterintelligence division of the FBI. He is also a member of the Fixated Research Group for the United Kingdom's Home Office concerning threats to the Royal Family and other British political figures and is a consultant to Team Psychologie & Sicherheit based in Darmstadt, Germany.

Jim Van Allen
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Jim Van Allen is the President of Behavioral Science Solutions Group Inc.

Jim has fifteen years of specialized experience as a Certified Profiler, and Threat Assessment Analyst. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and is a member of the Canadian Association of Threat Assessment Professionals.

Jim has lectured at Universities and Colleges, conferences and symposiums on applied criminal psychology, assessment and intervention of workplace violence and the pathways to violence of dangerous individuals. He has lectured internationally in the United States, The Netherlands, and Belgium. He has presented across Canada to Judicial officials, Crown Attorneys, Probation Officers, and to psychologists and psychiatrists, law enforcement, and corporate managers. He has testified as an expert in the Ontario Court of Justice, and Coroner's inquests regarding threat assessment, workplace violence, personality disorders, Psychopathy, and sexual misconduct.

Experience:

Jim has assisted international agencies respond to workplace violence, stalking, domestic violence, extortion and product tampering, and other threats. Jim is also experienced in the assessment and prevention of school violence. He is recognized for his expertise in assessing risk and developing intervention strategies for dangerous people and situations and for designing successful personality based interview strategies.

Jim is also recognized for his analysis of anonymous threatening documents and electronic communications.

Stephen G. White, PhD
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Dr. Stephen White is a psychologist and the President of Work Trauma Services Inc., a consulting group he founded in 1982 to assist employers with serious workplace crises. His extensive work in organizational trauma reduction led to his specializing, since 1989, in the assessment and management of workplace violence risk. Dr. White has consulted throughout the United States on over 4,000 threat cases for numerous Fortune 500 companies, private and public organizations, colleges and universities, and law enforcement agencies. He has designed and provided detailed employer threat management team training for responding to a wide range of potential risk scenarios. Dr. White has testified before the California State Legislature on behalf of workplace violence prevention legislation, and has published in the areas of workplace trauma management. He is the co-author of Threat Management of Stalking Cases in The Psychology of Stalking: Clinical and Forensic Perspectives (Academic Press, 1998). Dr. White, in collaboration with Dr. Reid Meloy, developed and published in 2007 The WAVR-21, the first scientifically based structured guide for assessing workplace violence risk. Dr. White was among invited experts of both the FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime and the American Society of Industrial Security to participate in their development of online and published guidelines for the prevention of workplace violence. More recently his consultation and training has expanded internationally to meet the growing global needs of clients. Since the events of September 11th, he has worked with corporate business continuity teams to integrate human resilience planning into disaster recovery efforts. Dr. White is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, where he currently co-facilitates a professional development group for medical students. He is a frequent guest lecturer at local, regional, and national forums for human resource, security, and line managers, law enforcement agencies, employment law attorneys, and employee assistance professionals.
 

Mary Ellen O'Toole, PhD

Mary Ellen O'Toole, PhD is recognized as one of the FBI's preeminent experts in the areas of criminal, violent and aberrant behavior. Dr. O'Toole's exemplary law enforcement career began in the San Francisco's District Attorney's Office as a Criminal Investigator and spans over 32 years. She was an FBI agent for 28 years, working more than half of her Bureau career in the organization's prestigious Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU). As one of the senior and most accomplished agents in the Unit. Dr. O'Toole consulted on many of the FBI's most high profile and complex criminal cases, as well as white collar and political corruption cases. Dr O'Toole has consulted with law enforcement agencies throughout the world on crimes of violence and other criminal behavior. During her time in the unit, Dr O'Toole developed an expertise in Criminal Investigative Analysis (CIA) as well as offender behavior. She has provided assistance to law enforcement and prosecutors on a wide range of violent and criminal behavior including homicides, sexual assaults, kidnappings, product tampering, school shootings and extortions. She has a unique expertise in the areas of targeted school violence, workplace violence and threat assessment.

Dr O'Toole is recognized as the FBI's leading expert in the area of "psychopathy.  Her work in psychopathy has put her on the forefront of mental health and law enforcement efforts to apply the concepts of this personality disorder to both violent and white collar offenders and their behavior and crime scenes. She lectures internationally on the application of the theory of psychopathy to real life situations. Dr. O'Toole is a much sought after speaker who has addressed multidisciplinary audiences from both the private and public sectors. She continues to lecture at the FBI Academy on psychopathy and interviewing. She has served as adjunct faculty to the FBI's Prestigious Leadership Development Institute (LDI) at the FBI Academy. While serving as an FBI Agent, Dr. O'Toole has been qualified as an expert witness for both the prosecution as well as defense counsel in high profile murder cases in the areas of crime scene assessment, criminal investigative analysis and offender behavior.

Dr. O'Toole is the FBI's primary researcher and author of The School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective available @ www.fbi.gov. Her other publications and writings are in the areas of psychopathy, targeted school violence, threat assessment and stalking, serial murder, child abduction and CIA.

Dr. O'Toole represented the FBI in her media appearances on Larry King Live, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Discovery Channel, Forensic Files, Investigative Channel, Discovery Channel and National Public Radio. She is currently an analyst with MSNBC for the upcoming series "Criminal Mindscape scheduled to air in the Fall, 2009.