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American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Psychological Ethics and National Security

2003 Members' Biographical Statements

Members of the Presidential Task Force on Psychological Ethics and National Security

Jean Maria Arrigo, PhD

Jean Maria Arrigo, PhD, has studied ethics of military intelligence and weapons development on human subjects for a decade as an independent scholar. Originally trained in mathematics (University of California, Berkeley, BA 1966; University of California, San Diego, MA 1969), Dr. Arrigo's volunteer human rights work in Central America in the 1980s led her to doctoral studies in social psychology. She initially undertook dissertation research on ethics of weapons development in the "naming, blaming, and shaming" tradition of human rights scholarship. However, her interviews with intelligence professionals and her own experience as a university whistleblower alerted her that moral trade-offs can arise in any idealistic hierarchical institution, whether military or civilian, by similar mechanisms. Her dissertation, Sins and Salvations in Clandestine Scientific Research (1999), demonstrated how reasonable epistemic principles of weapons research on human subjects generate intractable moral problems.

In pursuit of cross-disciplinary moral discourse, Dr. Arrigo and ethicist Charles Young organized A Pilot Workshop on the Ethics of Political and Military Intelligence for Insiders and Outsiders at Claremont Graduate University (2000). Dr. Arrigo has brought intelligence professionals from the U.S. military and the Tibetan government-in-exile to speak at four APA conventions and has made presentations to the Joint Services Conference on Professional Ethics. In 2004, she served as primary trainer for the TRADOC Chaplain Service School Instructor Training Workshop on the topic of spiritual devastation of covert operators. These activities culminated in A Dialogue between Peace Psychology and Military Ethics, coedited with Richard Wagner, for a special issue of Peace and Conflict (2005, 11(1)). Fellowships at the University of Virginia and the Institute of Medical Humanities at Galveston enabled Dr. Arrigo to develop educational theater performances about weapons development that represent both military and victim perspectives. Her Redemption from Black Operations; The People Who Disappeared Twice; You, the Interrogator; The Human Radiation Experiments Roundtable; and What Is the Filial Duty of the Daughter of a Torturer? have been performed at universities and conferences. To continue this path of public education, she founded the nonprofit Project on Ethics and Art in Testimony, Inc.

Dr. Arrigo endeavors to promote intelligence ethics as a field of study and to support moral voices within the national intelligence system. She established the Ethics of Intelligence and Weapons Development Oral History Collection (2004) at Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley, and The Intelligence Ethics Collection (2005) at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, Stanford University, to gather oral histories and personal papers from concerned intelligence professionals. Her "Utilitarian Argument against Torture Interrogation of Terrorists" (2004, Science and Engineering Ethics, 10, 543-572) and "Perils of Torture Interrogation" (2005, Armed Forces Journal, forthcoming) particularly speak to issues that lie before the APA Presidential Task Force on Psychological Ethics and National Security.

Morgan Banks, PhD

Colonel Morgan Banks, PhD, is currently the Command Psychologist and Chief of the Psychological Applications Directorate of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC). This directorate is responsible for the psychological selection and assessment of all USASOC personnel, and for the psychological oversight of high-risk USASOC training. In addition, this directorate is responsible for the creation and execution of leader development programs for Special Forces and 75th Ranger Regiment personnel to include 360-degree assessment instruments. It is also responsible for all operational psychology support to USASOC combat units. Col. Banks provides technical supervision and oversight to all USASOC psychologists. He is the senior Army Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) Psychologist, responsible for the training and oversight of all Army SERE Psychologists, who include those involved in SERE training and in the repatriation of former detainees and prisoners of war. He provides technical support and consultation to all Army psychologists providing interrogation support, and his office currently provides the only Army training for psychologists in repatriation planning and execution, interrogation support, and behavioral profiling.

Col. Banks has served over twenty-three years on active duty, most of that time as a Psychologist in Army Special Operations. His initial duty assignment as a psychologist was to assist in establishing the Army's first permanent SERE training program involving a simulated captivity experience. While in this assignment, he established the psychological screening program for U.S. Army Special Forces personnel. His next assignment was as a Medical Company Commander in the 3rd Infantry Division, where he deployed his company into northern Iraq in 1991 to provide medical treatment to Kurdish refugees following the first Gulf War. He was then assigned to the Army's John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School as the Command Psychologist, responsible for conducting the psychological screening of all Special Forces Personnel. Col. Banks was then selected for the Army's Command and General Staff College, and following his graduation in 1995, was again assigned within USASOC to a classified unit as a Command Psychologist. In this position, he provided psychology support to various combat and peacekeeping operations throughout the world. In 1991, Col. Banks was selected to be the Command Psychologist for USASOC. Immediately following 9/11, he was sent to Central Command (CENTCOM), in order to assist in predicting likely terrorist courses of action against the United States. While there, he helped establish the first Joint Interagency Task Force for CENTCOM. In November 1991, he deployed to Afghanistan, where he spent four months over the winter of 2001/2002 at Bagram Airfield, supporting combat operations against Al Qaida and Taliban fighters. He returned to his current position in March 1992. Col. Banks was recently a member of the Department of the Army Inspector General's team studying the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody.

Col. Banks received his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of New Orleans, his Master of Arts and his Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology from the University of Southern Mississippi, and his Master of Military Art and Science in Military History from the Army's Command and General Staff College.

Robert A. Fein, PhD

Robert A. Fein, PhD, is a forensic psychologist with a specialty in threat assessment and the prevention of targeted violence. He is currently a consultant to the Directorate for Behavioral Sciences of the Department of Defense Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), the DOD Criminal Investigative Task Force (CITF), and the U.S. Secret Service's National Threat Assessment Center. He also serves as a member of the Intelligence Science Board.

Dr. Fein has spent the last twenty-eight years working to understand and prevent targeted violence. He has conducted forensic mental health evaluations of several thousand violent offenders, has testified in state and federal courts on over 1,000 occasions on questions of "dangerousness," and has consulted on many hundreds of cases of potential workplace violence. For more than twenty years, Dr. Fein has worked with the U.S. Secret Service. In his work with the Secret Service, he reviewed and consulted on several hundred protective intelligence cases concerning the assessment and management of persons who might present harm to the President and other national leaders. He codirected two major Secret Service operational studies of targeted violence: one on assassination, the other on school attacks. In the first of these studies, Dr. Fein examined the cases of all persons known to have attacked or attempted to attack a prominent public official or public figure in the United States from 1950 to 2000. As part of this work, he personally interviewed more than 20 assassins and near-assassins. In the second study, he and his colleagues systematically reviewed 37 instances of targeted school attacks in the United States in the past twenty-five years.

Recently, Dr. Fein has turned his attention to the prevention of targeted terrorist attacks. He is currently working with the Directorate for Behavioral Sciences of the DOD Counterintelligence Field Activity to conduct operational studies of Al Qaida preattack terrorist behaviors.

Dr. Fein received his Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology and Public Practice from Harvard University in 1974and his Diplomate from the American Board of Forensic Psychology in 1982. He received the American Academy of Forensic Psychology's Award for Distinguished Career Contributions to Forensic Psychology for 2003. He holds appointments at the Harvard Medical School and the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Dr. Fein is coauthor with Bryan Vossekuil of Threat Assessment: An Approach to Prevent Targeted Violence, published by the National Institute of Justice in 1995; Protective Intelligence and Threat Assessment Investigations: A Guide for State and Local Law Enforcement Officials, published the National Institute of Justice in 1998; and "Assassination in the United States: An Operational Study of Recent Assassins, Attackers, and Near-Lethal Approachers," published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences in 1999. In addition, together with Mr. Vossekuil, he has coauthored a guide to school threat assessment, a monograph on preventing assassination, a book chapter on assassination and stalking behaviors, and other work on preventing targeted violent attacks.

Michael G. Gelles, PsyD

Michael G. Gelles, PsyD, is the chief psychologist for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. In this capacity he assists NCIS and a multitude of other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies with criminal investigations. Dr. Gelles conducts psychological assessments of criminals and victims and psychological autopsies; he also provides insight into interviews and interrogations. Dr. Gelles's forensic expertise is used in forensic hypnosis and risk assessment of workplace violence, stalking, and interpersonal violence. Dr. Gelles is also active in supporting the counterintelligence and counterterrorism missions for NCIS, DOD, and the federal law enforcement community. He was the lead psychologist for the behavioral consultation team for the Criminal Investigations Task force.

Prior to joining NCIS in 1990, Dr. Gelles served as a clinical psychologist for the U.S. Navy. He is active in a number of professional organizations including the American Psychological Association Division of Police Psychology, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Psychology Services Section, the Society of Police and Criminal Psychology, and the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals. Dr. Gelles is also a frequent lecturer and has published numerous professional papers on topics relating to forensic psychology, law enforcement, and terrorism.

Dr. Gelles received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Delaware and his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology from Yeshiva University in New York. He completed his clinical and forensic training at the National Naval Medical School and his advanced training at the Washington School of Psychiatry. He holds academic appointments in psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and at the Washington School of Psychiatry.

Larry C. James, PhD

Colonel Larry C. James, PhD, served as the Chief, Department of Psychology at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for the past five years. In this capacity, he also was the Chief Psychologist for the Army's northeast region and had responsibility over 100 psychologists in this region. Currently, Dr. James is the Chief, Department of Psychology, Tripler Army Medical Center, Honolulu, Hawaii. During the Military's response to 9/11 at the Pentagon, Col. James was the Chief Psychologist for the Mental Health Task Force. Dr. James has been awarded the Bronze Star and the Joint Service Commendation medals for his superior and distinguished services during the global war on terrorism. In 2003, he was the Chief Psychologist for the Joint Intelligence Group at GTMO, Cuba, and in 2004 he was the Director, Behavioral Science Unit, Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center at Abu Ghraib, Iraq. Col. James was assigned to Iraq to develop legal and ethical policies consistent with the Geneva Convention Guidelines and the APA Ethics Code in response to the abuse scandal. Also, while at Abu Ghraib, Iraq, Dr. James was tasked with developing a mental health clinic to deliver services to approximately 8,000 prisoners.

Bryce E. Lefever, PhD

Captain Bryce E. Lefever, PhD, received his Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology from the University of Illinois and joined the Navy in 1987. He was assigned to the Navy's Survival Evasion Resistance Escape (SERE) School from 1990 to 1993, where he insured the safe training of high-risk-of-capture personnel undergoing intensive exposure to enemy interrogation, torture, and exploitation techniques. He served with Navy Special Forces from 1998 to 2003 and was deployed as the Joint Special Forces Task Force psychologist to Afghanistan in 2002, where he lectured to interrogators and was consulted on various interrogation techniques. Capt. Lefever has been deployed to many parts of the world during his career including Haiti, Panama, Israel, Afghanistan, Italy, Bahrain, Crete, Puerto Rico, Iceland, Antarctica, and Spain where he has lectured on Brainwashing: The Method of Forceful Indoctrination and taught The Management and Treatment of Combat Stress.

Olivia Moorehead-Slaughter, PhD

Olivia Moorehead-Slaughter, PhD, is a licensed psychologist with eighteen years of experience in working with children, adults, and families across settings that include schools, outpatient mental health clinics, juvenile and probate courts, community health centers, and social service agencies. In the late 1990s, Dr. Moorehead-Slaughter was the Vice President of Behavioral Health Services at Dimock Community Health Center. Currently, she is the psychologist at The Park School in Brookline, MA, a nursery through Grade 9 independent school. She is a Senior Faculty Consultant for the Center for Multicultural Training Program, an APA-accredited psychology doctoral internship program at Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine.

Dr. Moorehead-Slaughter's professional endeavors have included extensive involvement as a member of the Massachusetts Board of Professional Licensure of Psychologists. During her almost seven years of membership on this board, Dr. Moorehead-Slaughter has served as Secretary, Vice Chair, and Chair of the board. From 2000 to 2002, she was an Associate Member of the Ethics Committee of APA. She is now a Member of the Ethics Committee serving a term from 2004 to 2006. Dr. Moorehead-Slaughter is the current Vice Chair of the Ethics Committee.

Dr. Moorehead-Slaughter also has a private consulting practice through which she is involved in numerous research and clinical consultation projects with the Boston University School of Medicine, conducts workshops and presentations, and provides clinical consultation.

Dr. Moorehead-Slaughter is married with two sons, ages 15 and 11.

R. Scott Shumate, PsyD

R. Scott Shumate, PsyD, received his Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology from the University of Denver in 1985, is licensed to practice in both Virginia and Maryland, and is a member of the National Registry for Health Care Providers. He has worked for the federal government in highly classified positions that have required him to travel extensively and live overseas. He has performed many of his duties under highly stressful and difficult circumstances. In May of 2003, Dr. Shumate accepted a senior position in the Department of Defense as the Director of Behavioral Science for the Counterintelligence Field Activity. Currently, he has 20 psychologists and a multimillion dollar budget as he provides operational psychological support to several Defense Agencies though CIFA. DOD/CIFA is responsible for support to offensive and defensive counterintelligence (CI) efforts to protect and retain security over DOD assets, resources, and infrastructure. His team of renowned forensic psychologists are engaged in risk assessments of the Guantanamo Bay Detainees.

Dr. Shumate's extensive experience and knowledge of Middle Eastern culture have been documented in several classified articles and publications. He was the chief operational psychologist for the Counter-Terrorism Center from 2000 to 2003 and has interviewed many renowned individuals associated with various terrorist networks. He has had the opportunity to interview individuals who were "recruited" to be suicide bombers and either elected not to execute their mission or were apprehended prior to execution or after technical problems that kept the mission from being successful. Having worked in a nontraditional capacity for the better part of two decades, he has wrestled with ethical conflicts and has been sought by other psychologists in the community to consult on cases and issues that often involved ethical dilemmas.

Dr. Shumate has spoken to several classified audiences on the Chinese mindset after spending five years as the Chief Operational Psychologist for China Operations and considerable time in Asia and elsewhere. He is often consulted on issues of recruitment, handling, debriefing, and case management. His extensive experience in these areas as well as in counterterrorism has led to many public speaking engagements, including at Harvard Law School.

Dr. Shumate has been consulted by numerous federal agencies including the U.S. Secret Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Agency, Homeland Security, the Transportation Security Administration, the Department of Energy, the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations, the Navy Criminal Investigative Service, and the U.S. Army Intelligence Command as well as the U.S. Attorney's offices and multiple local and state law enforcement agencies.

Nina K. Thomas, PhD

Nina K. Thomas, PhD, ABPP (in psychoanalysis), FAPA, received her Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology from Columbia University Teachers College and holds a certificate in psychoanalysis from the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. She is in private practice in New York City and Morristown, NJ. A Past President of the New Jersey Psychological Association, Dr. Thomas was awarded NJPA's "Psychologist of the Year" award in 1995 and was the 2003 honoree of the Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society for her work in the aftermath of 9/11.

In addition to her clinical work with individuals, groups, and families, Dr. Thomas is a supervisor and the Cochair of the Relational Orientation of the Post Doctoral Program at New York University and senior supervisor, faculty member, and training analyst at the Contemporary Center for Advanced Psychoanalytic Studies at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, NJ. She presents regularly on the subject of trauma and disaster and has published, among other things, "An eye for an eye: revenge in the aftermath of trauma," in Living With Terror, Working With Trauma: A Clinician's Handbook, edited by Danielle Knafo, published by Aronson in 2005. She is also the author of "The Use of the Hero," in the forthcoming On the Ground after September 11: Mental Health Responses and Practical Knowledge Gained, edited by Yael Danieli and Robert Dingman to be published by Haworth Press in 2005. Her essay, "When the Rules of War Are Broken," was published in the Psychoanalyst Activist in the summer of 2004.

For the past seven years, Dr. Thomas has conducted research on how victim-witnesses of war, ethnic conflict, and political repression are affected psychologically by giving testimony in war crimes tribunals and truth commission proceedings, and particularly on how their expectations for "justice" are relevant for their experiences in the truth recovery processes or for the reconstruction of their lives postconflict. This research emerged from her work in Bosnia immediately following the war in that country, during which time she provided training and consultation to local mental health workers at the invitation of Catholic Relief Services. Her research has taken her to the proceedings of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague, to Bosnia, and also to South Africa.

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Dr. Thomas served as Cochair of the American Group Psychotherapy Association's Disaster Outreach Task Force. The recipient of a multimillion dollar grant from the New York Times Company Foundation, 9/11 Neediest Cases Fund, Dr. Thomas directed the design and implementation of direct clinical services as well as support, education, and training for those agencies and individuals affected by the terrorist attacks. She also cochaired the AGPA conference dedicated to developing protocols for intervening with special populations in the face of future disasters or terrorist attacks.

Within APA, Dr. Thomas has served as a member of the Task Force on Governance, CAPP, the Finance Committee, as well as the Task Force on the Psychological Effects of the Efforts to Prevent Terrorism, with particular focus on the effect on immigrant groups.

Michael G. Wessells, PhD

Michael G. Wessells, PhD, is Senior Child Protection Specialist for Christian Children's Fund and Professor of Psychology at Randolph-Macon College. He has served as President of the Division of Peace Psychology of the American Psychological Association and of Psychologists for Social Responsibility and as Cochair of the InterAction Protection Working Group. His research on children and armed conflict examines child soldiers, psychosocial assistance in emergencies, and postconflict reconstruction for peace. He regularly advises U. N. agencies, donors, and governments on the situation of children in armed conflict and issues regarding child protection and well-being. In countries such as Afghanistan, Angola, Sierra Leone, Uganda, East Timor, Kosova, and South Africa, he helps to develop community-based, culturally grounded programs that assist children, families, and communities affected by armed conflict.

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