Background

Dr. Verona hails from Miami, FL, where she completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Miami (1995). She completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the Department of Psychology at Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL (2001), where she worked with Dr. Chris Patrick in the areas of emotion, psychopathy, and aggression. She spent a year on clinical internship at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh Medical School. In 2001, she arrived at her first position as Assistant Professor of Psychology at Kent State University in Ohio, and then joined the faculty in the Psychology Department at the University of Illinois in 2004. She was awarded tenure and promotion to Associate Professor at Illinois in 2008. She is now a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of South Florida and co-director of the Center for Justice Research & Policy. She serves as the Director of the DARC Research Lab, where she conducts and supervises students on research into the biosocial factors involved in disinhibited forms of psychopathology, prevention and prediction of aggression and violence, and intersections of psychology and crime justice. She has authored over 90 peer-reviewed journal articles in high impact journals such as Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Psychophysiology, and American Journal of Psychiatry; and has served as PI on projects funded by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA). She received the Early Career Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy and a Mid-Career Research Award at the University of Illinois. She is also a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. Her service and administrative experience is extensive, having served as Director of Clinical Training at USF, contributor to the NIMH RDoC Matrix (CMAT) Revision Committee, Associate Editor at the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, chair of the University of Illinois Social-Behavioral IRB committee, planning committee member for the annual SafeSummit violence prevention conference, and member of the State of Illinois Clinical Psychologist Licensing Board. She is a licensed clinical psychologist in the state of Florida (and previously in Illinois) and supervises a handful of doctoral students every year who are conducting evidence-based treatment and assessment with persons showing symptoms of personality disorder and emotional dysregulation.

Research Interests

Dr. Verona has pursued several distinct but related areas of research. The first has involved experimental laboratory research that examines emotional and cognitive process in aggression, psychopathy and externalizing disorders, using behavior and psychophysiological (EEG and startle) methodologies. In other work, Dr. Verona has focused on using models of temperament/personality and emotion to advance understanding of antisocial behavior, aggression, and impulsive behaviors. An especially novel feature of this work involves investigating the spectrum of emotional experience and expression at its two extremes in this population: 1) the classic psychopath, in whom emotional reactivity is believed to be blunted or deficient; and 2) highly antisocial individuals who may be at particular risk for affective violence — with an added focus on gender differences and distinct manifestations (borderline, suicidality, sexual behaviors).

More recently, Dr. Verona has been working to examine criminogenic risk factors, violence and mental health in jail adult inmates as well as at-risk youth in the community, and evaluates and helps develop programs to address needs and risks, recidivism and post-release outcomes with the goal of informing policy and criminal justice practices.