Our mission is to advance knowledge at the intersection of psychology and child-serving systems such as the juvenile legal and child welfare systems.
Meet the Team
-
Kathleen Kemp, Ph.D.
Director & Founder
-
Miyah Grant, Psy.D.
Clinical Forensic Psychologist
-
Crosby Modrowski, Ph.D.
Clinical Forensic Psychologist
-
Miguel Nuñez, Ph.D.
Clinical Forensic Psychologist
-
Kaitlin Sheerin, Ph.D.
Clinical Forensic Psychologist
Kathleen Kemp, Ph.D., earned her graduate degree in clinical psychology with a specialization in forensic psychology at Drexel University and completed her predoctoral internship at University of Massachusetts Medical School/Worcester State Hospital. Dr. Kemp completed her forensic psychology fellowship at the University of Virginia's Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy and Western State Hospital. She specializes in forensic mental health evaluations with adolescents in the juvenile legal and child welfare systems. She has served as the Director of the Rhode Island Family Court Mental Health Clinic for almost 10 years where she directs the Adolescent Forensic and Addiction Psychology fellowship and Juvenile Justice Behavioral Health internship positions.
Dr. Kemp consults nationally with cross-sector partners in the areas of legal involvement, behavioral health, and homelessness to conduct evaluations, research, and cross-systems mappings to collaboratively map local networks, identify areas of need, and find opportunities to drive system-change.
She co-developed CHIME, the Child Homelessness Intercept Mapping & Engagement (CHIME) initiative, with Dr. Patricia Griffin. CHIME is an interactive community strategy highlighting cross-system collaboration among state and municipal executive offices and departments, community leaders, front line staff, and people with lived experience to improve services for accompanied children experiencing homelessness.
She is an Assistant Professor (Research) at the Brown University Warren Alpert Medical School and Research Psychologist with Rhode Island Hospital Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Bradley/Hasbro Children's Research Center. She has received funding from NIMH and NIDA for several studies in the areas of suicide prevention, mental health, and substance use among youth involved in the juvenile legal system. Her clinical research focuses on suicide prevention as well as the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based treatment with juvenile legal and child welfare involved-youth.
Dr. Miyah Grant is a clinical forensic psychologist dedicated to promoting behavioral health, justice, and equitable outcomes within the juvenile legal system. She is a licensed staff psychologist at the RI Family Court Mental Health Clinic. Dr. Grant’s work centers on exploring, understanding, and addressing the unique challenges faced by system-involved youth and families. Dr. Grant has particular experience in conducting forensic evaluations with juvenile-legal involved youth and treating adolescents with complex clinical concerns. Her clinical research interests include 1) exploring the mental health consequences of intersecting inequalities and disadvantages marginalized youth face within the juvenile legal system and 2) addressing ethnoracial disparities in youth diversion and minority contact.
Dr. Grant earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Ohio University and her PsyD in clinical psychology (Child and Adolescent Concentration) from the University of Indianapolis. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University with specialty focus on Adolescent Forensic and Addiction Psychology. Dr. Grant serves as a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University. She actively contributes to the Child Track social justice subcommittee and the DEIB Diversity Mentoring Program.
Dr. Modrowski is an Assistant Professor of Research at the Brown University Warren Alpert Medical School and a Research Scientist at the Bradley/Hasbro Children's Research Center. Dr. Modrowski also serves as the Director of the Rhode Island Family Court’s Court Improvement Project and is a consulting psychologist at both the Rhode Island Family Court and Rhode Island Training School. Dr. Modrowski earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and her PhD in Clinical Psychology (Children & Families Concentration) from the University of Utah. As a graduate student, Dr. Modrowski's work was funded by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Dr. Modrowski completed her APA-accredited predoctoral residency through Brown’s Clinical Psychology Internship Training Program and completed an NIH T32 postdoctoral research fellowship at Brown.
Dr. Modrowski’s program of research focuses on examining the sequelae of trauma and maltreatment exposure in youth involved in the juvenile legal and child welfare systems. She is particularly interested in investigating risk and protective factors associated with crossing over from child welfare to juvenile justice system involvement. Dr. Modrowski’s clinical interests involve child and adolescent mental health, with a specific focus on at-risk populations, including system-involved youth. Dr. Modrowski also has expertise in providing evidence-based trauma-focused interventions and is Nationally Certified in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
Dr. Nuñez is a postdoctoral fellow in the APA-accredited Clinical Child Psychology Specialty Program's Adolescent Forensic and Addiction Psychology Fellowship at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University. He also completed his APA-accredited internship program at Brown within the Child-Track - Juvenile Justice/Behavioral Health program. Dr. Nuñez received his PhD at the APA-accredited doctoral training program in clinical psychology at the University of Cincinnati. During graduate school, he was the recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) and the University of Cincinnati Provost Graduate Research Fellowship. He was UC's student commencement speaker at the Summer 2023 doctoral hooding and master's recognition ceremony.
Dr. Nuñez’ clinical interest lies in working with individuals involved with the justice and/or child welfare systems. He utilizes third-wave cognitive behavioral strategies in treatment. While he has received training in many different types of psychological evaluations, he has focused and received specialized training in forensic mental health assessments with both juveniles and adults. Dr. Nunez’ research interest lies in resilience among systems-involved individuals. He aims to identify malleable characteristics at the individual, social, and community level, as well as policies, that not only help in avoiding further systems-involvement, but also promote the achievement of positive outcomes.
When he's not spending time with friends, he can usually be found exploring different parks around New England with his pit bull and chihuahua, Jefe and Chico.
Dr. Kaitlin Sheerin is an Assistant Professor (Research Scholars Track) at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and a Research Scientist through the Bradley-Hasbro Children's Research Center at Rhode Island Hospital. She also serves as a consulting psychologist for the Rhode Island Family Court. She received her PhD in Clinical Child Psychology in 2021 from the University of Missouri. She completed her APA-accredited predoctoral residency through Brown's Clinical Psychology Training Program and also completed an NIH T32 postdoctoral research fellowship at Brown.
Broadly, Dr. Sheerin's work focuses on improving the behavioral health of youth involved in the juvenile legal system. She is particularly interested in (a) developing, adapting, and evaluating intervention and assessment approaches for complex clinical concerns (e.g., substance use, delinquent and harmful behaviors, suicidal thoughts and behaviors) for youth involved in the system and (b) promoting equitable access to quality behavioral healthcare for these system-involved youth. She also has a secondary interest in diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice-related issues in health service psychology training and has published in this area.