"Only to the extent that someone is living out this self transcendence of human existence,
are they truly human or do they become their true self.
They become so, not by concerning with his self's actualization,
but by forgetting himself and giving himself, overlooking himself and focusing outward."
- Viktor Frankl
Associate Dean
Professor of Counseling Psychology
College of Education & Professional Studies
University of South Alabama
Director of Graduate Studies
Director of the Office of Contracts & Grants
Faculty Development
Research
External Relations
Ph.D. - Counseling Psychology - 2004
University of Georgia
APA Accredited Program
Pre-Doctoral Internship - Elson Student Health Center, University of Virginia
Major Professor: Georgia B. Calhoun, Ph.D.
M.Ed. - Community Counseling - 2000
University of Georgia
CACREP-Accredited Program
B.A. - Psychology - University of Georgia - 1996
Parent-adolescent conflict and externalizing disorders
Trauma intervention with adolescents
Juvenile and adult forensic psychological evaluation
Stefurak Psychological Consulting LLC - this my consulting business that provides a wide range of psychological consultation services to human service organizations.
https://sites.google.com/stefurakconsulting.com/stefurakconsulting
Organizational change and strategic planning in human services organizations
Supervision and leadership practices in human services organizations
Personnel evaluation and quality improvement in human services organizations
Implementation of Trauma-Informed Care
Expert Testimony & Psychological Evaluation
Mixed Methods research and the Dialectical Pluralism paradigm (Johnson & Stefurak, 2013; Johnson, 2015; Stefurak, Johnson, Shatto & Jones, 2018; Johnson & Stefurak, 2012; Stefurak, Johnson, Shatto & Jones, 2018)
Juvenile offenders, specifically the interrelationships between trauma and psychopathy
Public safety and emergency medical professionals mental health and trauma-informed practices
Program impact evaluation of the Helping Families Initiative, a program of Volunteers of America
Evaluation of the Child Advocacy Center of Mobile's Crisis Response Team procedures
Co-PI on a Office of Violence Against Women grant focusing on building a sexual assault prevention system of care on USA's campus
Co-PI on a Department of Justice grant focusing on delivery of Crisis Intervention Team training to rural law enforcement agencies
Initiating embedded scholars program in the USA Alabama Math, Science, Technology Initiative site.
Qualitative analysis of interviews with stakeholders in the City of Mobile Sexual Assault Kit Initiative grants that sought to address the backlog of sexual assault kits that had not been submitted for DNA analysis and erect new best practice standards for sexual assault investigations.
Duncan, J., Lathan, E., Langhinrichsen-Rohling, J. & Stefurak, T. (2025). Rape by any other name… Comparing sexual assault cases labeled “suspicious circumstances” to those labeled sex crimes. Journal of Criminal Justice., 96.
Lathan, E., Stefurak, J., Duncan, J. & Langhinrichsen-Rohling, J. (2025). Mock jurors’ personal connection to sexual assault victimization relates to propensity to convict in a representative community sample. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law.
Henderson, R.R., McCarty, D.L., Currier, J.M., Stefurak, T., Parker, S.M., & Lambert, A.G. (2024). Is Spirituality a Verb? How Christian A.A. Members Conceptualize Spirituality. Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health.
Shatto, E. H., Stefurak, J., Rinner, A. E., & Kantra, L. M. (2023). Trauma-Informed Supervision: The Supervisory Needs of Mental Health Therapists Engaged in Trauma-Related Work. Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision, 17(5). Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/jcps/vol17/iss5/2
Selwyn, C.N., Dolan, C., Koon-Magnin, S., Stefurak, T., & Rudd, A. (2023). Caring for sexual assault victim-surivors on college campuses. In R.E. Lovell & J. Langhinrichsen-Rohling (Eds.), Sexual Assault Kits and Reforming the Response to Rape. Routledge.
Langhinrichsen-Rohling, J., Lathan, E.C., Stefurak, T., & Duncan, J. (2022). Transforming police response to sexual assault from the inside out: A case study of the Mobile, Alabama, sexual assault kit promise initiative. In R.E. Lovell & J. Langhinrichsen-Rohling (Eds.), Sexual Assault Kits and Reforming the Response to Rape. Routledge.
Stefurak, T., Dixon, V.S., Johnson, R.B. (2023). Dialectical Pluralism and counseling & psychotherapy research. In S. Bager-Charleson & A. McBeath (Eds.), Enjoying Research in Counselling and Psychotherapy. Palgrave MacMillan.
McCarty, D., Christian, D., & Stefurak, T. (2023). Adlerian-Informed Supervision: Protecting counselors from burnout and improving client outcomes in the juvenile justice system. Psychological Services, 20(2), 318–325.
Class of 2013 (began fall of 2009)
Bachelor's: Birmingham Southern University
Dissertation: Exposure to Trauma and Self-Reported Female Juvenile Delinquency: Examining the Mediating Roles of PTSD Symptoms, Interpersonal Impairment, and Emotion Regulation
Internship: San Antonio/Bexar County Juvenile Probation Dept.
Postdoctoral Fellowship: Bexar County Juvenile Probation Dept.
Previous: Staff Psychologist & Clinical Manager, Bexar County Juvenile Probation Dept., San Antonio, TX
Previous : Director of Clinical Training, Institute on Violence Abuse & Trauma
Psychologist, Naval Medical Center, San Diego, CA
Current: Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech School of Medicine
Class of 2014 (began fall of 2010)
Bachelor's: Auburn Montgomery
Dissertation: Do Mental Health Factors Moderate the Relationship between Measures of Poverty and Juvenile Delinquency?
Internship: Chicago Leadership Consortium: Lawrence Hall Youth Services
Current: private practice - Alabama Psychiatry, Montgomery, AL
Class of 2014 (began fall of 2010)
Bachelor's: Northwestern St. U. of LAMaster's: Northwestern St. U. of LA
Dissertation: Organizational Readiness to Adopt Evidence-Based Risk/Need Assessment in Juvenile Probation
Internship: Torrance State Hospital, PA
Previous: Staff Psychologist, Monroe Correctional Complex, Special Offenders Unit, Seattle, WA
Psychologist, Included Health
Current: private practice
Class of 2015 (began fall 2011)
Bachelor's: Samford U.
Dissertation: Depression in African American Women: Examining the Effects of Racial Identity, Religiosity and Social Support
Internship: University of Western Kentucky, Counseling & Testing Center.
Current: private practice
Class of 2016 (began fall of 2012)Bachelor's: Harding U.
Master's Applied Psychology: Emporia State U.
Dissertation: Organizational Psychosocial Capacity to Adopt Evidence-Based Services in a Child Residential Treatment Facility
Internship: University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences,
Psychiatric Research Institute, Child & Adolescent Track.
Current: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Missouri - Columbia
Class 2017 (began fall 2012)
Bachelor's: U. South Alabama
Dissertation: The Roles of Adult Attachment and
Racialized Experiences on Help-Seeking Intentions
Internship: Milton Hershey School
Post-Doctoral Fellowship - Pennsylvania Counseling Services
Current: Psychologist Mobile, AL VA Service Center
Class of 2018 (began fall of 2014)
Bachelor's in Psychology, LSU
Master's Applied Psychology: Auburn Montgomery
Dissertation: Psychopathy, Intelligence & Offense Patterns in Detained Adolescents
Internship: Bexar County Juvenile Probation Department, San Antonio, TX
Current: private practice - Center for Calm Living, Fairhope, AL
Class of 2020 (began fall of 2015)
Bachelor's in Psychology, Xavier UniversityMaster's
Thesis: Body Image & Compensatory Behaviors among Black Women
Dissertation Proposed August of 2018:
Body Image and Mental Health among Black Women: Examining Culture-Specific Factors
Internship: Youth Services Department, West Palm Beach, FL
Postdoctoral Fellowship - Wellness 360, Dallas, TX
Current: Psychologist, Department of Psychology, Oschner Clinic, New Orleans, LA
Class of 2019 (began fall of 2013)
Bachelor's in Psychology, UAB
Thesis: Psychological Violence Perpetration in Intimate Relationships as Related to Adult Attachment Style, Victimization & Masculine Gender Roles
Dissertation: Mixed methods analysis of attitudes towards gun ownership: The roles of honor culture and adherence to masculine role norms.
Internship: Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center, 59th Medical Wing, Joint Base San Antonio Lackland, United States Air Force
Current: Maj, USAF, Mental Health Flight Commander, 852d Medical Squadron. Geilenkirchen NATO AB, Germany
Class of 2020 (began fall of 2016)
Master's, Correctional Counseling, Santa Clara University
Pre-dissertation Research Paper: The Dark Triad Personality Traits & the Impact of Knowledge of the Impact of Incarceration as Predictors of Criminal Sentencing Preferences among the Public
Dissertation - Rape by any other name…: The impact of labeling sexual assault reports “suspicious circumstances
Internship: Atascadero, California State Forensic Hospital
Postdoctoral Fellowship: Biltmore Psychological Services, Asheville, NC
Current: private practice
Class of 2022 (began fall of 2017)
Master's, Brain & Behavioral Science, University of South Alabama
Thesis: An Examination of Eye Gaze During Judgments of Faces of Known Murderers and Control Participants (Dr. Jack Shelley-Tremblay Chair)
Dissertation: Threat Detection from Phenotypic Facial Features (Dr. Jack Shelley-Tremblay, Co-Chair, Dr. Tres Stefurak, Co-Chair)
Internship & Postdoctoral Fellowship: Copper Lake School for Girls and Lincoln Hills School for Boys, Wisconsin Department of Corrections, Irma, WI
Current: Psychologist at Family Forward, St. Louis, MO
Class of 2023 (began fall of 2018)
M.A., Criminology, St. John's University
Dissertation: Is it good to be bad? The potential buffering role of callous-unemotional traits on the relationship between trauma and juvenile offending.
Internship: Lexington Federal Medical Center, U.S. Bureau of Prisons, Lexington, KY
Postdoctoral Fellowship: Lexington Federal Medical Center, U.S. Bureau of Prisons, Lexington, KY
Current: Staff Psychologist at Lexington Federal Medical Center, U.S. Bureau of Prisons, Lexington, KY
Class of 2023 (began fall of 2018)
BS, Psychology, University of South Florida
Thesis: Examining the influence of racial and crime stereotypes on verdict decisions and death penalty recommendations. (University of South Alabama Thesis Award - 2021)
Dissertation: Intelligence, trauma & personality in juvenile offenders: A latent profile analysis
Internship: Arkansas State Hospital, Little Rock Arkansas
Postdoctoral Fellowship: Child Welfare and Trauma-Informed Care at the Vanderbilt Center for Excellence, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical School
Current: Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track), Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN
Victoria Dixon
Class of 2026 (began fall of 2021)
B.S., Psychology, University of South Alabama
M.S., Clinical Mental Health Counseling, University of South Alabama
Thesis: Law Enforcement Decision-Making in Child Sexual Abuse Cases: Examining the influence of victim age, statement consistency, & parental validation on perceptions of victim credibility
Dissertation: Investigation of the Current State of the U.S. Child Welfare systems: A mixed-methods project?
Internship: University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR Child Focus Track
Class of 2026 (began fall of 2021)
B.A., Communications, McKendree University
M.S., Journalism, University of North Texas
M.S., Clinical Mental Health Counseling, University of North Florida
Internship: Madigan Army Medical Center Tacoma, WA
Class of 2026 (began in fall of 2021)
B.A., Psychology, Ewha Womans University, South Korea
M.A., Clinical Psychology, Ewha Womans University, South Korea
M.A., Forensic Psychology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Dissertation: Psychopathy and Trauma: Emotion dysregulation and delinquency among youth involved In the justice system.
Internship: Florida Department of Corrections, Zephyrhills, FL
Class of 2028 (began in fall 2023)
BS, Psychology, University of South Alabama
M.S., Clinical Mental Health Counseling, University of South Alabama
Class of 2030
B.S., Psychology, Oakwood University
Clinical/Translational Research Coordinator I - Mini-MENDS project, Criticsl Illness, Brain Dysfunction & Survivorship Center, Vanderbilt University (2022-2025)
Thesis: The Role of Locus of Control and Religious Problem Solving Style in Psychological Help-SeekingAndrews, S., Stefurak, T., & Mehta, S. (2011). Between a rock and a hard place? The relationship of locus of control and religious problem solving with attitudes towards psychological help-seeking. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 14(9), 855-876. Currently: Clinical Psychologist, Houston TX VA Hospital
Thesis: College Campus Racial Demographics and Depression Among African American Women
Thesis: Exploration of Gender-Specific Correlates of Prejudice Towards Homosexuals
Stefurak, T., Taylor, C., & Mehta, S. (2010). Gender-specific models of homosexual prejudice: Religiosity, authoritarianism, and gender roles. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 2(4), 247-261.
Currently: Montgomery County Alabama District Attorney's Office, Victims Services Officer
