Experts from FIU are available for media interviews to discuss various issues surrounding the confirmation hearing of Brett M. Kavanaugh for the U.S. Supreme Court.
For help reaching these experts, please contact FIU’s Office of Media Relations at 305-348-2232 or
- Madeline Baró, associate director, media relations: 305-348-2234 or mbaro@fiu.edu
- Dianne Fernandez, broadcast media manager, media relations: 305-608-4870 or dfernand37@fiu.edu
- Chrystian Tejedor, account manager for the College of Arts, Sciences & Education: 305-348-2860, cell phone: 305-209-0484 or ctejedor@fiu.edu
- Ayleen Barbel Fattal, account manager for the College of Arts, Sciences & Education: 305-348-4492, abarbel@fiu.edu
- Evelyn S. Gonzalez, account manager for the College of Arts, Sciences & Education: 305-348-4493, esgonzal@fiu.edu
- Gisela Valencia, junior account manager for the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs: 305-348-3173 or gvalenci@fiu.edu
- Gregory Miller, digital marketing manager for the College of Law: 305-348-0577 or grmiller@fiu.edu
Political Science
Kathryn DePalo
Political Scientist
Kathryn DePalo is a faculty member in the Department of Politics and International Relations and the director of the Pre-Law Advising and Training Office at FIU. She has extensive experience in state and local government processes and elections, particularly in Connecticut and Florida. She has managed several campaigns, including a successful county-wide judicial campaign in Broward County, Florida. Her teaching focus is on American politics, including judicial process, gender and politics as well as state and local government. She has published on topics such as state judicial selection and career paths of term-limited legislators. She has been quoted in numerous local, national and international media outlets and is a featured columnist for the Sayfie Review. She is the past president of the Florida Political Science Association. She received her Ph.D. in political science from FIU in 2006. She also holds a Master of Arts degree in political science from Florida Atlantic University and a B.A. in communications from the University of Connecticut.
Office: 305-348-2859
Email: Kathryn.Depalo@fiu.edu
Sara Moats
Political Scientist
Sara Moats is a faculty member in the Department of Politics and International Relations. Her research focuses on American political institutions, interest groups and international organizations. Specifically, she focuses on the interaction between domestic interest groups and the various levels of government, both domestically and internationally. She teaches a variety of American politics courses at FIU, including American federalism, the legislative process and environmental politics. She holds a Ph.D. from West Virginia University.
Office: (305) 348-4279
Email: smoats@fiu.edu
Psychology
Deborah Goldfarb
Legal psychologist
Deborah Goldfarb is an assistant professor of psychology. She studies a number of topics at the intersection of law and psychology, including legal attitudes, developmental intuitive jurisprudence and memory in victims and eyewitnesses. Goldfarb can discuss issues related to adults’ ability to accurately remember traumatic events, including child sexual abuse, that occurred in childhood. Her work analyzes the effect of time on memory for legally-relevant events. She has published articles on child sexual abuse allegations, children’s eyewitness memory and testimony and delay in disclosure of non-parental child sexual abuse for several publications including Clinical Psychological Science, Behavioral Sciences & the Law and American Psychologist. She also practiced for a number of years as an attorney, including as a law clerk in the federal courts. Goldfarb obtained her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School and Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of California, Davis.
Office: 305-348-7902
Email: Deborah.goldfarb@fiu.edu
Ronald Fisher
Legal psychologist
Ron Fisher is a Professor of Psychology at Florida International University. His research on cognitive interview was invoked at the Senate Judicary Committee hearing on Sept. 27. Fisher co-developed the Cognitive Interview procedure for interviewing cooperative witnesses and has trained several criminal and non-criminal investigative agencies on the procedure both here and abroad (including FBI, U.S. military, NASA, National Transportation Safety Board). He served as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. His research interests include eyewitness memory and using cognitive psychological principles to detect deception.
Office: 305-919-5853
Email: ronald.fisher@fiu.edu
Jacqueline Evans
Legal psychologist
Jacqueline Evans is an assistant professor of psychology. She leads the Theory-based Research on Interviewing, Interrogation, Intelligence-gathering, and Assessing Deception Lab. She studies the application of psychological theory to the criminal justice system, with a primary focus on investigative interviewing contexts. Evans can discuss issues related to witness memory, best practices for questioning witnesses including the cognitive interview and the impact of alcohol intoxication on witness memory. She has published research on interviewing sober and intoxicated witnesses, interrogation of suspects and deception detection. Her work has been published in outlets including Psychology, Public Policy, and Law and Applied Cognitive Psychology and has been funded by the FBI and the National Science Foundation. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Florida International University after attending the University of Virginia, where she earned a B.A. in Cognitive Science, and B.A. in Economics, and a minor in Psychology.
Office: 305-348-6563
Email: jacevans@fiu.edu
Nadja Schreiber Compo
Legal psychologist
Nadja Schreiber Compo is an associate professor of psychology and the co-director of the legal psychology doctoral program. Her research focuses on investigative interviewing and witness memory, especially in the context of vulnerable witnesses such as intoxicated witnesses. Schreiber Compo can discuss the reliability of witness memory when intoxicated including the memory for faces and events. She looks at examining real-world interviewers’ perceptions, experiences and behaviors, and confirmatory bias in a variety of settings including witness and victim interviewing and forensic expertise. She has been an invited speaker on numerous occasions including the International Association of Forensic Toxicologists, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the International Forensic Research Institute, the Miami-Dade Forensic Services Bureau, and the Dade-County and Allegheny County Public Defender’s Office. She has published more than 25 peer-reviewed articles. She is an Associate Editor for Applied Cognitive Psychology and is on the editorial board of the APA journal Psychology, Public Policy and the Law. She has also worked with several law enforcement agencies on research and investigative interviewing training and has consulted in various legal cases.
Phone: 305-348-3384
Email: schreibe@fiu.edu
Vicki Burns
Psychologist
Vicki Burns is an instructor for FIU’s Center for Women’s and Gender Studies. Her research focuses on how gender, race or ethnicity and other demographic factors relate to sexual assault prevention efforts with a particular focus on bystander intervention strategies. Burns can discuss the impact of rape culture and consent, as well as prevention efforts and strategies as they relate to the prevalence of sexual assault in the United States. She is a member of FIU’s Title IX Committee and faculty advisor for FIU’s Women, Sexuality and Gender Studies Student Association. She is also part of a multi-college national research project funded by the Centers for Disease Control that is investigating best practices for sexual assault prevention on college campuses. Burns was recently recognized by the American Psychological Association for her newly-created academic course on campus sexual assault. Burns holds a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Miami and a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Florida.
Office: 305-348-7557
Email: vburns@fiu.edu
Asia Eaton
Social psychologist
Asia Eaton is an assistant professor of psychology and director of the Power, Women and Relationships Lab at FIU. Her research explores the relationship between social power and gender in the U.S. and the implications of enacting powerful roles and gender roles for individuals’ attitudes and behaviors. Her areas of expertise include social power and attitude strength, leadership and gender, and dating and gender. Eaton can discuss how gender roles in the U.S. support intimate partner violence and victim blaming. She has published articles on women and gender issues for several publications including American Psychologist and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Eaton is an Associate Editor for Psychology of Women Quarterly and a Consulting Editor for Sex Roles, and was elected to serve on Society for Psychological Studies of Social Issues council for 2018-2021. Eaton holds a Ph.D. in Social Psychology with a minor in Statistics from the University of Chicago. She completed her undergraduate work at Carnegie Mellon University, receiving a B.S. in Psychology and a B.A. in Philosophy.
Office: 305-348-0229
Email: aeaton@fiu.edu
Law
Phyllis Diane Kotey
Clinical Professor of Law
Professor Phyllis Williams Kotey, a senior judge, came to FIU College of Law in 2004 with a distinguished record of service to the bench and bar. She is a Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Externship and Pro Bono Program. As Director of the Legal Externship Program, she has assisted students in judicial, civil and criminal placements at the local, state and national levels. She has facilitated student initiated pro bono service in Columbia, South America and around the country including New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Phone: 305.348.5950
Email: koteyp@fiu.edu
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