BOARD OF DIRECTORS
ISITDBT 2024 Conference Chairs
Aditi Vijay, Ed.M., PhD
President
Aditi Vijay, Ed.M., Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist specializing in Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Suicide Prevention. She is an Assistant Professor in the combined School and Clinical Psychology doctoral program at Kean University. Her clinical and research interests focus on improving quality of life for adolescents and emerging adults with a focus on those who self-harm or experience chronic suicidal ideation and improving access to care for underserved populations.
Her current research focuses on dissemination and implementation of Dialectical Behavior Therapy, the function of DBT consultation teams, and the role of emotion dysregulation in the maintenance of trauma symptoms. She completed her Master’s in Education, with a specialization in Risk and Prevention, at Harvard University and her doctorate in Psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Carla D. Chugani, PhD, LPC
Vice-President
Carla D. Chugani, PhD, LPC is Vice President of Clinical Content and Affairs at Mantra Health, a digital mental health company focused on increasing access to high quality, evidence-based mental health care for college students.
Prior to this, she was an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Clinical and Translational Science at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where she continues to hold a faculty appointment.
Dr. Chugani’s research is focused on the intersection of mental health and higher education. Her work has included both clinical and psycho-educational applications of DBT for college students. She is also a Linehan Board Certified DBT Clinician.
ISITDBT Board Members
Maureen Zalewski, PhD
Board Member
Dr. Maureen Zalewski received her Ph.D. in child clinical psychology in 2012 from the University of Washington, where she trained at the Behavior Research and Therapy Clincs for 2 years with Dr. Linehan. Currently she is the Director of Clinical Training and an associate professor at the University of Oregon. She also serves as the Director of Child Behavioral Health Training at the Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health.
She is a licensed psychologist (OR) and is Linehan Board Certified in conducting Dialectical Behavior Therapy. Her program of research is on child development in the context of parental mental health disorders, with expertise in maternal borderline personality disorder, parenting, and the development of children’s emotion regulation. She conducts two-generation DBT RCTs with the goal of improving maternal emotion regulation in order to promote growth in preschooler emotion regulation. She is engaged in treatment development work on integrating parent training and DBT and more recently started a study on self-injurious thoughts and behaviors during the perinatal transition.
Her lab, the Parent Mental Health Research Clinic, is funded by the NIMH, NIDA, and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Dr. Zalewski’s work has been recognized by multiple early career research awards.
Jennifer Sayrs, PhD
Treasurer
Dr. Jennifer Sayrs received her Ph.D. from the University of Nevada, Reno. She served as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Marsha Linehan at the University of Washington. She has a great deal of experience with DBT, serves as a DBT trainer for Behavioral Tech, and is the Director of the DBT Center at EBTCS. She also has experience with treating anxiety disorders, depression, substance dependence, body dysmorphic disorder, and body-focused repetitive disorders. Dr. Sayrs is currently a board member for both the American Board of Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology and a specialty board member of the American Board of Professional Psychology.
Vibh Forsythe Cox, PhD
Board Member
Vibh Forsythe Cox, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and a DBT-Linehan Board of Certification certified clinician. She earned her Doctorate from The Ohio State University. Dr. Forsythe Cox has delivered DBT in a variety of settings including Maximum security forensic inpatient, Veterans Affairs medical centers, University Psychological services centers, and private outpatient clinics.
At present, Dr. Forsythe Cox is the Director of the Marsha M. Linehan Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Clinic at the University of Washington. The MML DBT clinic is a specialty training clinic where advanced graduate students are trained in DBT. Through the support of generous donors, the MML DBT clinic is able to provide comprehensive DBT for clients with limited resources. Dr. Forsythe Cox is also a Trainer and Consultant for Behavioral Tech, LLC (BTECH). In her work with Behavioral Tech, Dr. Forsythe Cox provides consultation and training to DBT teams internationally, and specializes in working with newly forming DBT teams. She is also the Training and Development Specialist at BTECH, working as part of the team that creates content for BTECH’s training offerings. Dr. Forsythe Cox was part of the team that helped develop BTECH’s online training offerings, which have helped increase access to DBT training for many professionals internationally.
Mariah Covington, BA, MA
Board Member
Mariah Covington earned her B.A. in Sociology from Howard University and her M.A. in Forensic Psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Mariah implemented DBT STEPS-A (Dialectical Behavior Therapy: Skills for Training Emotional Problem Solving for Adolescents) as the school-wide social emotional learning program at a boarding school for at-risk youth in Washington, DC. Prior to that, Mariah worked at a residential treatment facility for adolescence, where she conducted and published peer reviewed journal articles on the effectiveness of DBT. In this role, she also co-facilitated DBT group skills training.
Mariah has worked extensively with adolescents who have experienced trauma, cognitive difficulties, mood disorders, ADHD, anxiety, and depression. She also works with parents to provide a continuity of care. Mariah is a member of the ISITDBT board. Currently, she works at Wake Kendall in Washington DC, providing DBT treatment and therapeutic services for adolescents. Mariah also provides training and consultation for DBT in Schools.
In her free time, Mariah enjoys cooking, traveling, exercising, and spending time with family. Mariah also has a weekly podcast called “How Come They Didn’t Teach Me That in School?” which discusses how schools can respond to the emotional well being of children.
Alison Tebbet-Mock, PhD
Board Secretary
Alison Tebbett-Mock, PhD is a Supervising Psychologist at Northwell, Zucker Hillside Hospital in Queens, NY since 2013. She is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. She is the DBT team leader for the acute-care adolescent psychiatric inpatient unit and engages in program development, consultation, the provision of psychotherapy for adolescent inpatients and their families, supervision of psychology trainees, teaching and mentoring of multidisciplinary team members, and research. Her interests include dissemination and implementation of empirically based treatments for youth and their families particularly DBT, trauma specific cognitive behavioral therapies, and milieu interventions. Dr. Tebbett-Mock earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in Child Clinical Psychology in 2013 at St. John’s University, NY.
Hollie Granato, ABPP
Board Member
Dr. Hollie Granato, ABPP, received her doctorate from the University of Washington in 2016, where her work focused on addictive behaviors, sexual trauma, and emotion dysregulation. She trained extensively with the treatment developers of Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Functional Analytic Psychotherapy, and is a certified CBT diplomate/trainer by the Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapy.
She is a licensed clinical psychologist and DBT board certified therapist in private practice, providing comprehensive DBT and CBT treatment to clients in California, Texas, Hawaii, and all psypact participating states. Her practice, Verdant Mental Health, hosts a training program for post-doctoral students.
She serves as faculty at the University of Texas – Austin, where she supervises psychiatry residents, as well as serves on the Diversity Action Committee for the Academy of CBT and the board for the International Society for the Improvement and Teaching of DBT. She also currently consults on two federally funded grants and mentors research students on projects related to DBT, suicide prevention, and LGBTQIA+ related topics.