Appendix
Committee and Staff Biosketches

COMMITTEE BIOSKETCHES

RICHARD J. BONNIE (Chair) is Harrison Foundation professor of medicine and law emeritus and director emeritus of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. He specializes in criminal law, mental health law, and public health law and has authored leading texts in these subjects. Dr. Bonnie also has research and policy interests in law relating to adolescence and aging. He has been involved in public service throughout his career, including appointments as secretary for the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse from 1976 to 1980 and chair of Virginia’s Commission on Mental Health Law Reform (2005–2011). Dr. Bonnie has served as an advisor to the American Psychiatric Association since 1979, receiving the Isaac Ray Award in 1998 and presidential commendations for service to American psychiatry in 2003 and 2016. He has also served on three MacArthur Foundation research networks, including Law and Neuroscience most recently. Dr. Bonnie was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 1991 and has chaired more than a dozen studies for the National Academies, including “Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic” (2017) and “The Promise of Adolescence” (2019). He received the University of Virginia’s highest honor, the Thomas Jefferson Award, in 2007.

MELISSA J. BRYMER is director of the Terrorism and Disaster Program of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)/Duke

University National Center for Child Traumatic Stress and its National Child Traumatic Stress Network. In this capacity, Dr. Brymer has been involved with the development of acute interventions, assessment, and educational materials in the areas of terrorism, disasters, mass violence, public health emergencies, and school crises. She is also a researcher at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Brymer was a presenter and reviewer for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report “Addressing the Long-Term Impact of COVID-19 on Children and Families.” She has served as a consultant for many federal, state, and local agencies across the country and internationally after disasters, terrorism, school shootings, and other mass emergencies and in school safety preparedness and prevention measures. Dr. Brymer was the lead advisor to the Newtown Public Schools Recovery Program; principal investigator for a National Institute of Justice project examining the short- and long-term impact of mass violence on communities; and a key partner to the National Mass Violence Resource Center, which includes preparedness, response, and recovery efforts. Dr. Brymer earned both her doctorates from Nova Southeastern University.

NATHANIEL G. HARNETT is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the Neurobiology of Affective and Traumatic Experiences Laboratory at McLean Hospital. His laboratory and research program investigates the neurobiological basis of susceptibility to trauma and stress-related disorders. Dr. Harnett further investigates how inequities in socioenvironmental contexts affect neural signatures of posttraumatic stress disorder. He has been funded by a Ford Foundation Fellowship and has received a National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia & Depression young investigator award and competitive grants from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Institute of Mental Health. He earned by Ph.D. in psychology and behavioral neuroscience from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2018 and completed postdoctoral training at McLean Hospital in 2021.

KRISTEN HARPER is vice president for public policy and engagement at Child Trends, a nonprofit research institute devoted to improving outcomes for children and families. In this role, she oversees the communications functions for Child Trends and serves as a strategic advisor working to improve the policy relevance of Child Trends’ portfolio and to connect researchers with public officials. Prior to working at Child Trends, Harper served for seven years in the U.S. Department of Education as a policy advisor, crafting regulations and supporting interagency partnerships to improve conditions for learning. She is a nationally recognized expert on education policy, racial and ethnic disparities in education, school discipline policy, and school health and climate, and she has been cited and quoted by The Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, Politico, Education Week, U.S. News & World Report, and The 74, among other publications. Harper has provided expert testimony before Congress and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on these issues. She is a proud member of the 2019–2021 class of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Child and Family Fellowship. Harper has an Ed.M. in education policy and management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. in political science from Loyola College in Maryland.

JUSTIN HEINZE is currently an associate professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education in the School of Public Health at University of Michigan and holds an appointment with the Combined Program in Education and Psychology. Dr. Heinze’s research investigates how schools influence disparities in violence and other risk outcomes from an ecological perspective that includes individual, interpersonal, and contextual influences on development. He is particularly interested in how structural features of school context and policy perpetuate inequity in violence and firearm outcomes but also how these institutions can serve as a setting for intervention. Dr. Heinze is the director of the National Center for School Safety, the faculty lead for Public Health IDEAS for Preventing Firearm Injury, and principal investigator of the Healthy Minds Study. He completed his

Ph.D. in education psychology from the University of Illinois Chicago in 2011.

SHERYL KATAOKA is professor emeritus in the Division of Population Behavioral Health, Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. As a national leader in school mental health, she has directed the Schools Committee for the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Dr. Kataoka has spent more than two decades conducting research examining ways to promote the mental and emotional health of children in schools. Her research has led to a greater understanding of the effects of traumatic stress on children and how school-based mental health services can improve students’ wellbeing and ability to learn. Dr. Kataoka served as a scientific advisor for the Federal Commission on School Safety for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2018 and served as a committee member for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s consensus study “Fostering Healthy Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Development among Children and Youth.” She received her Bachelor of Science degree at UCLA and her medical degree at the George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C.

CELESTE MALONE is an associate professor of school psychology at Howard University and immediate past president of the National Association of School Psychologists. Her primary research interest relates to multicultural and diversity issues embedded in the training and practice of school psychology. Specifically, Dr. Malone’s work addresses the development of multicultural competence through education and training, diversification of the profession of school psychology, and the relationship between culturally responsive practice and pre-K–12 student outcomes. A national expert in multicultural school psychology, she focuses her research on culturally responsive practices in school mental health and diversifying the school

psychology workforce. Dr. Malone has received several awards for her ongoing leadership and commitment to social justice including from the American Psychological Association, the Black School Psychologists Network, and the Maryland School Psychologists’ Association. She received her master’s degree in school counseling from Johns Hopkins University and her doctorate in school psychology from Temple University. Dr. Malone completed a postdoctoral fellowship in child clinical and pediatric psychology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

ANTHONY PEGUERO is a foundation professor of T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics & School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University. His research interests involve youth inequality and justice, socialization and marginalization, schools, and the adaptation of the children immigrants. Dr. Peguero is the director of the Laboratory for the Study of Youth Inequality and Justice. He is also a research affiliate at the Center on Crime, Race, and Justice at Northeastern University. Dr. Peguero is a member of the Racial Democracy, Crime, and Justice Network and Latina/o/x Criminology, which hold the dual goals of advancing research on the intersection of race, crime, and justice and of promoting racial democracy within the study of these issues by supporting junior scholars from underrepresented groups. He currently serves as president of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, vice president of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, vice president-elect of the Southern Sociological Society, and executive counselor of the American Society of Criminology. Dr. Peguero is also currently the deputy editor of Sociology of Education, associate editor of Race and Justice, and on the editorial board of Youth & Society, Journal of Crime and Justice, Deviant Behavior, Social Currents, Social Problems, and Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice.

ANDREA PULSKAMP serves as the Health and Safety Implementation Consultant for the Colorado Department of Education and is focused on building alignment across school

climate, safety, and mental health supports. In her current role, Pulskamp coordinates across multiple state, local, and national agencies to coordinate and integrate health and safety efforts in schools. She also supports local education agencies in identifying needs and recognizing disparities in data, policies, and practices to inform systematic improvements in how students, staff, and families experience school. Pulskamp serves on numerous statewide and national committees focused on school safety and mental health, and led the development and implementation of the Landscape of Wellbeing and Belonging website to provide guidance to schools and districts on the interconnected best practices to support students, staff, and families. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado Boulder and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Colorado Denver.

SONALI RAJAN is a professor in the Department of Health Studies & Applied Educational Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. She also holds a secondary faculty appointment in the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health. From 2022 to 2024, Dr. Rajan served as the inaugural/founding president of the Research Society for Firearm-Related Harms, and she was appointed as the senior director of research at Everytown Research in June 2025. Dr. Rajan is a school violence prevention researcher, studying gun violence, school safety, and adverse childhood experiences. She has co-led research in these areas funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Rajan’s work prioritizes the needs for schools and communities to collectively attend to the wellbeing of children while keeping them safe, reducing their exposure to violence, and ensuring opportunities for them to thrive. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, completed her graduate training at Columbia University, and completed her NIH-funded postdoctoral training at the National Development and Research Institutes.

DAVID J. SCHONFELD is a developmental–behavioral pediatrician (president of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 2006–2007) and founder/director of the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and professor of clinical pediatrics at Keck School of Medicine. He was faculty in pediatrics at Yale University School of Medicine; Head of the Section of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center; and pediatrician-in-chief at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children and pediatric chair at Drexel University School of Medicine. For 35 years, Dr. Schonfeld has provided consultation and training on supporting students and staff at times of crisis and loss in the aftermath of numerous school and community crisis events and disasters within the United States and abroad. He has conducted school-based research (e.g., funded by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Maternal and Child Health Bureau, and the Willam T. Grant Foundation) involving children’s understanding of and adjustment to serious illness/death and school-based interventions to promote adjustment and risk prevention. Dr. Schonfeld is chair of the National Advisory Committee on Children and Disasters and member of the executive committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Children and Disasters. In addition, he served on the National Biodefense Science Board and as a commissioner for both the National Commission on Children and Disasters and the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission.

NATALIE SLOPEN is an assistant professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her primary areas of expertise are social epidemiology and life course theory, with a focus on examining how social and environmental factors and traumatic experiences influence health and wellbeing in childhood and across the lifespan. Dr. Slopen has conducted extensive research on the biological embedding of early childhood experiences and health across the life

course, as well as on structural inequities and their role in shaping children’s health. She has received awards from National Institutes of Health and other organizations to support her research. In 2019, Dr. Slopen served on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s committee that produced Vibrant and Healthy Kids: Aligning Science, Practice, and Policy to Advance Health Equity. She received her doctoral degree from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and completed postdoctoral training at the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.

JEFF R. TEMPLE is a professor, licensed psychologist, and the Associate Dean for Clinical Research at the School of Behavioral Health Sciences at the University of Texas Health in Houston, where he also holds the Betty and Rose Pfefferbaum Chair in Child Mass Trauma and Resilience. As the founding director of the Center for Violence Prevention, his research focuses on the prevention of interpersonal and community violence, including firearm violence. Dr. Temple has been funded through the National Institute of Justice, National Institutes of Health, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has over 275 scholarly publications in a variety of high-impact journals including JAMA, JAMA Pediatrics, The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, Pediatrics, and the Journal of Adolescent Health. He recently coedited a book on adolescent dating violence, cochaired the Texas Task Force on Domestic Violence, served on the Board of Directors of the Texas Psychological Association, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Society for Prevention Research. Locally, Dr. Temple served for seven years as the vice president of the Galveston Independent School District Board of Trustees. His work has been featured on Forbes, CNN, New York Times, TIME, Washington Post, and even the satirical website, The Onion.

CONSULTANT BIOSKETCH

LUCY GUARNERA is a licensed clinical psychologist and assistant professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences at the Institute of Law Psychiatry & Public Policy (ILPPP). Her research seeks to improve the fairness and accuracy of the justice system, both by studying biased decision making among forensic experts and by investigating the legal experiences of vulnerable individuals. Dr. Guarnera’s original research on the legal experiences of women who become pregnant from rape was honored with the Best Dissertation Award and multiple grants from the American Psychology-Law Society. She specializes in forensic evaluations involving traumatic stress. As a clinician, Dr. Guarnera completed a predoctoral internship focused on traumatic stress in Charleston, South Carolina, and a postdoctoral fellowship in forensic psychology at the ILPPP.

STAFF BIOSKETCHES

NATACHA BLAIN serves as the senior board director of the Board on Children, Youth, and Families and the Committee on Law and Justice at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She has more than 20 years of experience working with policymakers and senior legislative officials on a variety of social justice issues and campaigns including serving as a Supreme Court Fellow, chief counsel to Senator Dick Durbin on the Senate Judiciary Committee and lead strategic advisor for the Children’s Defense Fund’s Cradle to Prison Pipeline Campaign. Prior to joining the National Academies, Dr. Blain served as associate director/acting executive director of Grantmakers for Children, Youth and Families. There she played a critical role in helping convene and engage diverse constituencies, fostering leadership, collaboration and innovation-sharing through a network of funders committed to the enduring wellbeing of children, youth, and families. Dr. Blain earned her Master of Science and Doctorate in

clinical psychology from Allegheny University of Health Sciences and Medical College of Pennsylvania–Hahnemann University (now Drexel University) respectively, and her Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from Villanova School of Law.

EMILY BACKES is deputy board director of the Committee on Law and Justice and the Board on Children, Youth, and Families in the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. During her time at the National Academies, she has served as study director for the reports Decarcerating Correctional Facilities during COVID-19: Advancing Health, Equity, and Safety; The Promise of Adolescence: Realizing Opportunity for All Youth; Birth Settings in America: Outcomes, Quality, Access, and Choice; and Transforming the Financing of Early Care and Education. Backes has also provided analytical and editorial assistance to National Academies projects on juvenile justice reform, policing, forensic science, illicit markets, science literacy, science communication, and science and human rights. She received an M.A. and B.A. in history from the University of Missouri, specializing in U.S. human rights policy and international law, and a J.D. from the University of the District of Columbia, where she represented clients as a student attorney with the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic and the Juvenile and Special Education Law Clinic.

REBEKAH HUTTON (Study director) is senior program officer with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She is served as study director of the Committee on the Impact of Active Shooter Drills on Student Health and Wellbeing. Previously, she was study director of the Committee on a New Vision for High-Quality Pre-K Curriculum; Committee on Summertime Experiences and Child and Adolescent Education, Health, and Safety; and Committee on Exploring the Opportunity Gap for Young Children from Birth to Age Eight. Prior to working at the National Academies, Hutton was an education management and information technology consultant working on projects in the

United States, as well as in Haiti, Equatorial Guinea, and Djibouti. She has also worked as a program manager and researcher at the National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt University and as an English-language lecturer in Tourcoing, France. During her time with the Board on Children, Youth, and Families, Hutton worked on projects focused on fostering the educational success of children and youth learning English, reducing child poverty, and promoting the mental, emotional, and behavioral health of children and youths. She received her M.Ed. from Vanderbilt University in international education policy and management.

TARA NAZARI is a senior program assistant with the Board on Children, Youth, and Families. Currently, she supports the Committee on the Impact of Active Shooter Drills on Student Health and Wellbeing, and the Committee on Understanding Breastfeeding Promotion, Initiation, and Support Across the United States. Before joining the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Nazari previously worked as a research assistant at the University of Maryland, assisting development of family and community-based interventions. She is a recent graduate from the University of Maryland, College Park and holds a Bachelor of Science in family science. She plans to pursue a Master of Public Health in the near future.

SUNIA YOUNG is a research associate with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Board on Children, Youth, and Families. She previously worked as a case manager at a Washington, DC-based behavioral health organization and as a contact tracer during the COVID-19 pandemic for the State of Utah. Young also interned at the Carter Center’s Mental Health Program and with a DC-based organization that supports Asian women who have experienced domestic violence and sexual assault. Additionally, she has studied the Persian language extensively and spent the summer of 2018 in Tajikistan studying the Iranian and Tajik dialects of Persian through the United States Department of State. Young graduated from Davidson College with a B.S. in

psychology and a minor in Arab studies. She is currently pursuing her Master’s in Public Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.