Staff
Center Director
Dr. Dominic Parrott is the founding Director of the Center for Research on Interpersonal Violence and a Professor of Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences. His service to the field of interpersonal violence includes his role as the Executive Secretary for the International Society for Research on Aggression (2014-present), a Consulting Editor for Aggressive Behavior (2009-present), an Associate Editor (2014-2017) and Consulting Editor (2017-present) for Psychology of Violence. He is a nationally recognized expert on the intersection between alcohol and violence as well as the use of laboratory-based methods to study aggressive behavior. Dr. Parrott is the primary contact for all questions related to the Center.
Associate to the Director
Ralph Coates, Associate to the Director. Ralph is responsible for implementation and maintenance of the Center budgets, supervising the accounting system and establishing internal control of accounting procedures as well as managing fiscal information related to Center grants and contracts. This includes monitoring compliance with federal, state and university policies. He is also the Center’s liaison with human resources, accounts payable, disbursements and other units in the Department of Psychology and College of Arts & Sciences. Ralph received his Master’s in Public Administration from Marist College. For questions related to Center events and the website please contact: Ralph Coates, Associate to the Director at rcoates@gsu.edu
Director of Community Engagement & Outreach
Dennis Reidy is an Assistant Professor in Health Promotion & Behavior in the School of Public Health at Georgia State University. Dr. Reidy worked as a scientist in the Division of Violence Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for eight years before coming to Georgia State in 2018. His research focuses on informing, developing, and evaluating innovative interventions to prevent violence and associated delinquency outcomes (e.g., substance use, risky sexual behavior, mental health, etc.) and promote health and well-being. He is particularly interested in investigating cross-cutting risk and protective factors to inform the development of prevention strategies that will impact multiple health outcomes.
Internal Advisory Board
Dr. Amanda Gilmore is a clinical psychologist and an Assistant Professor in the Mark Chaffin Center for Healthy Development and the Department of Health Policy & Behavioral Sciences in the School of Public Health. She is also affiliated with the Department of Psychology (Clinical and Community) and the Center for Research on Interpersonal Violence. Dr. Gilmore’s research interests primarily focus on the development and testing of (1) integrated prevention programs for alcohol and drug use, sexual assault, and sexual risk behaviors among high-risk groups including adolescents, college students, and service members, (2) innovative technology-based interventions to improve the rate of treatment access and decrease treatment drop-out among underserved populations; and (3) secondary prevention programs for individuals who experienced recent sexual assault. Throughout her work she focuses on cultural factors related to gender identity, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity. She also focuses her work on reducing barriers to accessing treatment for underserved populations.
Dennis Reidy is an Assistant Professor in Health Promotion & Behavior in the School of Public Health at Georgia State University. Dr. Reidy worked as a scientist in the Division of Violence Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for eight years before coming to Georgia State in 2018. His research focuses on informing, developing, and evaluating innovative interventions to prevent violence and associated delinquency outcomes (e.g., substance use, risky sexual behavior, mental health, etc.) and promote health and well-being. He is particularly interested in investigating cross-cutting risk and protective factors to inform the development of prevention strategies that will impact multiple health outcomes.
Dr. Kelley has spent the majority of her career researching various aspects of child maltreatment, including multigenerational families where grandparents are raising grandchildren. She is the founder and director of Project Healthy Grandparents at Georgia State University, a research/community service program that aids grandparents raising grandchildren in parent-absent homes. To date, Project Healthy Grandparents has served over 900 families, including over 2000 children. The program has also secured over 5 million dollars of federal, state, and private funding. From 1999 to 2011 Dr. Kelley served as Dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences at Georgia State University.
Dr. Swartout’s current research program can be broken down into three main areas: (1) social influences on individuals’ aggressive attitudes and behaviors; (2) person-centered approaches to analyze longitudinal data on violence and victimization; and (3) exploring the relation between substance use and violence. His first research area began as a conceptual application of the social influence, social networks, and attitudes literatures to the study of violence and aggression. The general goal of this research area is to combine psychological and sociological principles and methods to better situate violence in a social and structural context, with an emphasis on better understanding sexual violence.
Dr. Dominic Parrott is the founding Director of the Center for Research on Interpersonal Violence and a Professor of Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences. His service to the field of interpersonal violence includes his role as the Executive Secretary for the International Society for Research on Aggression (2014-present), a Consulting Editor for Aggressive Behavior (2009-present), an Associate Editor (2014-2017) and Consulting Editor (2017-present) for Psychology of Violence. He is a nationally recognized expert on the intersection between alcohol and violence as well as the use of laboratory-based methods to study aggressive behavior. Dr. Parrott is the primary contact for all questions related to the Center.