Hi, I'm Julia McDonald (she/her)
I was born and raised in Houston, Texas. I graduated from Texas A&M in 2016 with a BS in psychology and a minor in neuroscience. In 2024, I received my PhD in clinical psychology from the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, Florida. I am currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center of Excellence in Substance Addiction Treatment and Education (CESATE), located within the Puget Sound VA Health Care System in Seattle, Washington.
Interests
High-risk, high-need, and underserved populations (e.g., criminal legal system involvement, homelessness, addiction, suicide-risk, serious mental illness)
Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)
Emotion dysregulation
Intervention science
Vulnerable transitions (e.g., reentry following incarceration, inpatient discharge)
Externalizing traits, behaviors, and disorders (e.g., psychopathy, aggression, violence, crime, disinhibition and antagonism, antisocial and substance use disorders)
Biopsychosocial risk factors for crime and violence
Open science
Skills
Intervention science (program development, RCT designs)
Assessment (psychodiagnostic, forensic, personality, violence and suicide risk assessment)
Therapy (DBT, CBT, crisis intervention, telehealth)
Experimental design
Psychophysiology (EEG/ERP, startle EMG) data collection and analysis (EGI/Net Station, EEGLab/ERPLab)