UK Center for the Study of Violence Against Children

Ginny Sprang, Ph.D., LSCW, Principal Investigator. Dr. Sprang is an Associate Professor of Social Work and Psychiatry. She holds the Buckhorn Endowed Professorship in Child Welfare and Children’s Mental Health and serves as a Faculty Associate for the UK Center for Research on Violence Against Women. Additionally, Dr. Sprang has served as PI or Co-PI (with major administrative and leadership responsibilities) on grant projects in excess of $3,900,000 in the past 3 years alone. She has numerous publications in referred journals and has been recognized internationally as a trauma researcher.

Heather Risk, Psy.D., Project Director. Dr. Risk completed her Master of Science at Eastern Kentucky University and her doctoral studies at Xavier University. Dr. Risk completed an APA accredited internship at the UC Davis Children’s Hospital, CAARE Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Sacramento, California and has years of clinical experience with child and adult victims of trauma. As Project Director for the SAMHSA funded, Child and Adolescent Trauma Treatment Institute (CATTI), which is a member of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), Dr. Risk conducts and researches empiricially-based treatments with victims of child maltreatment and trains other mental health professionals. Dr. Risk is a member of the UK CATS Project and participates as a trainer for the ASPR funded UK Behavioral Health Disaster Response Project. Dr. Risk’s clinical interests include providing empirically supported treatments to children and families who have experienced maltreatment.

James Clark, Ph.D., LCSW, Co-Principal Investigator. Dr. Clark is Associate Professor, Associate Dean for Research, and the Constance Wilson Professor of Mental Health in the University of Kentucky College of Social Work. Since 1996, Dr. Clark has served as PI or Co-PI on state and federal grants studying consumer satisfaction, organizational effectiveness, rural substance abuse intervention, and child maltreatment and trauma, and has published in these areas. He serves as a consultant for child, forensic, and mental health research and clinical programs throughout Kentucky.

Robert Walker, MSW, LCSW, Co-Principal Investigator. Mr. Walker is an Assistant Professor in Psychiatry. He has had four SAMHSA funded CSAT grants as evaluator and is PI on the state mandated Kentucky Substance Abuse Treatment Outcome Study. He has evaluated a Robert Wood Johnson initiative for drug using youth in eastern Kentucky and is a member of the medical IRB at the University of Kentucky. He is a member of the National Academy of Practice. He has published over sixty articles on substance abuse, professional ethics, partner violence victimization and is co-author of a comprehensive rev iew of research literature on victimization among women and a book on stalking. He has been co-investigator on three federally funded research projects.

Allen Brenzel, M.D., Co-Principal Investigator. Dr. Brenzel is a Board Certified Pediatrician, General Psychiatrist and Child Psychiatrist, and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry. He is the Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the UK Chandler Medical Center. He oversees UK’s broad array of primary and tertiary clinical services provided to children statewide and provides consultation to the UK Children’s Hospital and the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) staff regarding child trauma victims’ mental health needs. Dr. Brenzel is on the National Board of Prevent Child Abuse America, a statewide non-profit with the mission of preventing the abuse and neglect of children. He is in demand as an expert presenter in the areas of child and adolescent mental health services, medically fragile child welfare services, and pediatric psychopharmacology.

Carlton Craig, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator. Dr. Craig is an Assistant Professor in the College of Social Work. He is currently Co-PI on a research project that, in collaboration with the Kentucky Refugee Ministries, is evaluating the mental health of Bosnian refugees five years after resettlement in the U.S. He was a data analyst on several research teams at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), including the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being study. Dr. Craig was a clinician at the Detroit Veterans Administration Medical Center (VMAC) where he authored a number of manualized protocols for the Advanced Directive Clinic, Incentive Therapy Program, and Day Treatment program.

Michele Staton-Tindall, Ph.D., M.S.W., Co-Principal Investigator. Sh e is an Assistant Professor in the College of Social Work and serves as a faculty associate with the UK Center on Drug and Alcohol Research and the UK Research Center on Violence Against Women. Dr. Staton-Tindall is currently the Principal Investigator for two SAMHSA funded CSAT TCE evaluation projects, one of which focuses on enhancing substance abuse treatment for homeless women and the other includes enhancing substance abuse services for women who are pregnant, parenting, or post-partum. She is the PI on the Criminal Justice Kentucky Substance Abuse Treatment Outcome Study (CJKTOS). She has published in the area of substance use, female offenders, criminal justice treatment, and rural populations.

Otto Kaak, M.D., Co-Principal Investigator. Dr. Kaak is a Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the University of Kentucky and a Principal Investigator of the UK CATS project and Co-Principal Investigator for the UK Bioterrorism and Behavioral Health Project. He is the training director of the Triple Board Residency Program, a capacity he has filled since 1986 when the program was instituted as a pilot, and he is a founding member of the Kentucky Attachment Project, which educates, advocates and provides training for professionals working with children with attachment disorders.

Aimee Mau, MSW, LCSW, Treatment and Training Specialist. Ms. Mau completed her Master of Social Work at the University of Kentucky. Prior to graduate school, Ms. Mau gained approximately six years of field experience working with children and adults whose lives were impacted by domestic violence. During graduate school, Ms. Mau was a research assistant and team member with the Comprehensive Assessment and Training Services (CATS) Project. Following graduation, Ms. Mau’s role at the CATS Project was expanded into a position as a clinical team leader where she continues to lead a multidisciplinary group of social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychiatric nurses in the assessment of maltreated children and their families. As Treatment and Training Specialist for the Child and Adolescent Trauma Treatment Institute (CATTI), Ms. Mau provides empirically-based interventions to children and families who have experienced maltreatment and training/mentoring on empirically-based interventions to Regional Clinical Associates involved with this SAMHSA-funded project.

Angela Combs, MS, LPCC, Therapist and Trainer, completed her Master of Science in Counseling Psychology at the University of Kentucky. Ms. Combs has over 8 years of clinical experience working with children who have been impacted by traumatic events and their families in the capacities of an individual and group therapist, in-home therapist, and in assessment. As a Clinical Team Leader for the Comprehensive Assessment and Training Services (CATS) Project, Ms. Combs coordinates a multidisciplinary team of clinical social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychiatric nurses to conduct multidimensional assessments of maltreated children and their families. Ms. Combs is also the Educator Coordinator for the CATS Project and oversees the development and activities of students of various levels and disciplines and provides clinical supervision. As a Therapist and Trainer for the Child and Adolescent Trauma Treatment Institute, Ms. Combs provides empirically-based interventions to children and families who have experienced maltreatment and training/mentoring to Regional Clinical Associates involved with the SAMHSA-funded project.

Last updated on 2-28-08
comments or questions may be sent to
Gary Trumble, trumble@uky.edu