First time requests for consultation services should be directed to:
WTS professionals bring strong credentials and many years of experience to their violence risk assessment services. We apply this clinical specialty in workplace, campus, and other contexts where dynamic risk management and multi-disciplinary collaboration are essential. Our consultants pursue additional professional interests in diverse settings, allowing us to benefit from each other’s varying perspectives.
Our related specialties include forensic and court-related evaluations and expert testimony, police psychology, sexual harassment and sexual deviance, threats to public figures, correctional psychology and community management of violent offenders, organizational crisis intervention and trauma reduction, and research in stalking, psychopathy, mass murder, and risk assessment. In addition we can refer clients to expert security and legal resources with whom we have closely worked.
Executive Staff
Stephen G. White, Ph.D.
President
Jolee J. Brunton, Ph.D.
Vice President
Business Office:
Sandy Ryan, B.A.
Business Manager
Lisa Ekström
Business Coordinator
Consulting Staff
Stephen G. White, Ph.D., is a psychologist and the President of Work Trauma Services Inc., a consulting group he originally founded in 1982 to assist employers with serious workplace crises. His extensive work in organizational trauma reduction led to his specializing, since 1989, in the assessment and management of workplace and campus violence risk. Dr. White has consulted nationally and internationally on over 4,500 threat cases for numerous Fortune 500 companies, private and public organizations, law firms and their clientele, colleges and universities, and law enforcement, military and governmental entities. He has testified before the California State Legislature on behalf of workplace violence prevention legislation. Dr. White has authored or co-authored peer-reviewed publications on stalking, workplace and campus mass murder, violence risk assessment, autism and violence, and workplace trauma management. Dr. White, in collaboration with Dr. Reid Meloy, developed and published in 2007 The WAVR-21. Now in its third edition, the WAVR-21 is an evidence-based structured professional judgment guide for assessing workplace and campus violence risk. Dr. White has contributed chapters on workplace violence in the first and second editions of The International Handbook of Threat Assessment, published by Oxford University Press, and is a Contributing Editor for the Journal of Threat Assessment and Management. He was a member of the expert panel of the 2012 US Army-sponsored Workplace Violence in the Military Program, providing peer reviews of scientific proposals to study predictors of targeted violence across Department of Defense service areas. In 2022 he received the Distinguished Achievement award from the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals. Dr. White has served as an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, where he co-facilitated professional development groups for medical students. He is a sought-after trainer and a frequent guest lecturer at regional, national, and international forums for security, human resource, and mental health professionals, campus administrators, law enforcement agencies, and employment law attorneys.
Jolee J. Brunton, Ph.D., has been a major contributor to WTS since 1991 in her role as Vice President of Threat Management Services. Most prominently she conducts threat assessment services and training, and consults on the management of mental disorders in workplace contexts. In addition she is the chief psychologist for Focus Psychological Services which she founded in 1984 to provide clinical and consultation services to public safety agencies in the San Diego area. Dr. Brunton is the chief psychologist for the San Diego Police Department, providing consultation on issues such as the use of deadly force, intervention with mentally disordered violent offenders, organizational consultation, conflict management, and clinical services to police personnel. She is certified in hostage negotiation through the Administration of Justice, California State University, San Jose. Dr. Brunton has been an invited participant to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s symposia on police psychology and provides training for Hostage Negotiation in conjunction with the FBI’s San Diego office. In addition, Dr. Brunton has over 20 years experience in the assessment, management, and treatment of acute psychiatric patients including those at risk for violence. Throughout her career she has continued an extensive record of workplace crisis and trauma intervention and alternate dispute resolution.
Philip Saragoza, M.D., is a board-certified forensic psychiatrist who joined WTS in 2015 and is now a senior associate, providing direct and indirect threat assessments, training, and forensic psychiatric consultation to WTS associates and clients. In addition, Dr. Saragoza conducts fitness for duty assessments for WTS clients, and has experience and particular interest regarding individuals of concern holding extremist and conspiratorial beliefs. He has a private practice in clinical and forensic psychiatry based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he is an adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical School. Previously, Dr. Saragoza served as the Director of UM’s Forensic Psychiatry Clinic, conducting evaluations and consultations on issues related to violence risk, fitness for duty, psychiatric disability, civil commitment, need for guardianship or conservatorship, and other forensic issues. He is the psychiatric consultant for the University’s integrated disability management program, the University health system’s employee assistance program, and the health system's threat assessment team. Through these agencies alone, he has conducted well over a thousand case consultations involving claims of psychiatric disability, fitness for duty, hostile work environment, workplace harassment and employee violence risk. Dr. Saragoza previously worked for several years as a Consulting Forensic Examiner at the State of Michigan’s Center for Forensic Psychiatry, a high-security hospital for mentally ill offenders. There, he treated inpatients found Incompetent to Stand Trial or legally insane, many for violent offenses, performed release-planning risk assessments, and conducted court-ordered examinations of competency and sanity. Dr. Saragoza has conducted many criminal forensic assessments of individuals who have engaged in threats, stalking and violent behavior, and has served as an expert witness on civil and criminal psychiatric issues in numerous courts. As an educator, he supervises residents and fellows in forensic psychiatry and provides lectures and seminars to a wide variety of professionals, including mental health professionals in academic and community settings, corporate and human resource managers, and campus audiences. His peer-reviewed publications include topics such as psychopathy, malingering, workplace violence risk, campus threat assessment, and the role of expert opinion in various criminal contexts.
J. Reid Meloy, Ph.D., ABPP, is a board-certified forensic psychologist (ABPP) and consults on criminal and civil cases throughout the U.S. and Europe. He is a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, and a faculty member of the San Diego Psychoanalytic Center. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and is past president of the American Academy of Forensic Psychology. He has received a number of awards and honors, including the first National Achievement Award in 1998 from the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals, the Manfred Guttmacher Award from the American Psychiatric Association in 2021, and the Distinguished Contribution to Forensic Psychology Award from the American Academy of Forensic Psychology in 2022. He was the Yochelson Visiting Scholar at Yale University in 2015, and Visiting Scholar at the Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich—originally the Burgholzli Clinic--in 2018. Dr. Meloy has authored or co-authored over two hundred fifty papers published in peer-reviewed psychiatric and psychological journals, and has authored, co-authored or edited thirteen books. He has been consulting, researching and writing about personality disorder, psychopathy, stalking, narcissism, criminality, mental disorder, and targeted violence for the past thirty years. His first book, The Psychopathic Mind (Aronson, 1988), was an integration of the biological and psychodynamic understanding of psychopathy. His co-edited book with Drs. Hoffmann and Sheridan, Stalking, Threatening and Attacking Public Figures (Oxford University Press, 2008), led to a commissioned study for the National Academy of Sciences on threats toward public figures published in 2011 (www.nap.edu). The first edition of the International Handbook of Threat Assessment was published in 2014, and the second edition in 2021 (Oxford University Press). Dr. Stephen White and he created the WAVR-21 (www.wavr21.com), a widely utilized structured professional judgment instrument for targeted workplace and campus violence, now in its third edition. Dr. Meloy has been a consultant on criminal, counterintelligence, and counterterrorism cases for the Behavioral Analysis Unit, FBI, Quantico, for the past twenty-one years. His counterterrorism work began when he was retained as the consulting forensic psychologist by the U.S. Attorney General in the prosecution of the defendants McVeigh and Nichols in the Oklahoma City bombing cases. He is the originator and developer of the TRAP- 18 (Terrorist Radicalization Assessment Protocol; mhs.com), a validated risk assessment instrument used by counterterrorism professionals in North America, Europe and Australia. He was a member of the Fixated Research Group for the United Kingdom’s Home Office concerning threats to the Royal Family and British political figures, and is a consulting member of Work Trauma Services, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, and Team Psychology and Security in Darmstadt, Germany. He was also a founding associate editor of the Journal of Threat Assessment and Management. Dr. Meloy is intermittently quoted in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times and NPR. He was a technical consultant to the television series CSI from its inception in 2000 until its final episode in 2015; and is the technical consultant to “Indivisible: Healing Hate,” a Paramount+ television series exploring the historical roots of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.
Paul M. Isenstadt, L.C.S.W., maintains an active private practice in forensic evaluations of adults and adolescents with an emphasis on sexual and violent offenders. In addition he has conducted evaluations and consultations on workplace threats of violence for over 15 years under the auspices of WTS. Mr. Isenstadt has also specialized in correctional mental health evaluation, treatment and program administration since 1965. After over 25 years as the Director of Programming and Residential Services at Comcor, Inc., a Community Corrections Program in Colorado Springs, Mr. Isenstadt now pursues his private forensic practice full time and consults on behalf of WTS. He is a published author and his specialty has allowed him to be an expert witness at the local, state and national levels. Mr. Isenstadt is the former Deputy Director of the Pikes Peak Mental Health Center, overseeing a staff in excess of 200 clinicians and employees. As a Senior Duty Officer in the United States Army, he administered a mental health clinic in the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas for four years. He served as Senior Research Administrator at the National Assessment Study for Juvenile Corrections and was the Chief Social Worker at the Michigan Department of Mental Health Center for Forensic Psychiatry, a program for mentally ill offenders. He is active in several local organizations focusing on child safety. In addition to providing risk assessments for our WTS clients, Mr. Isenstadt serves as a consultant and trainer on sex offender issues involving the workplace.
Kristine Kienlen, Psy.D., is the President of Minnesota Threat Assessment & Forensic Professionals, Inc., a private practice providing threat management consultation services and forensic psychological evaluations. Dr. Kienlen has over 16 years of experience conducting forensic psychological evaluations and serving as an expert witness for a range of criminal and civil litigation matters. Her work in both the public and private sectors has involved comprehensive forensic psychological assessments of thousands of individuals for Minnesota District Courts, attorneys, employers, and others. Dr. Kienlen has extensive experience and expertise conducting psychological evaluations and risk assessments of individuals who have engaged in threats, harassment and stalking, sexual offenses, and other serious violence. She has conducted and published research on stalking in peer-reviewed journals, and is a frequent presenter to professional groups on stalking, forensic evaluation, and threat assessment. Her evaluations address a range of issues including violence risk, competence to stand trial, criminal responsibility (insanity defense), pre-sentencing issues, civil commitment, and emotional distress in personal injury or employment litigation. As a consultant to college campuses and employers, Dr. Kienlen provides case assessments, training for multidisciplinary threat assessment teams, and assistance with policy development, awareness building, and protocols for violence prevention. Dr. Kienlen is a trained professional user of the WAVR-21 and collaborates with WTS on regional risk assessments and training programs.
Mark Brenzinger, Psy.D., is a licensed clinical and forensic psychologist and president of Midwest Behavioral Risk Management, located near Chicago. His independent practice concentrates on assessing and managing risk of violence and sexual deviance. Dr. Brenzinger has conducted hundreds of direct (in-person) violence risk and indirect threat assessments with male and female subjects and consulted on over 1000 threat cases. He also conducts fitness for duty evaluations for employers, specializing in cases involving intimidating and aggressive behaviors. Dr. Brenzinger provides screening, analysis, assessment, and case management for all forms of inappropriate and threatening correspondence received from either identified or anonymous persons or groups. He has conducted over 400 psychosexual / sex offender risk assessments and regularly provides expert court testimony. His clients include Fortune 500 and mid-sized corporations, private security and investigation agencies, public figures, state and federal courts, correctional facilities, and community mental health agencies. Dr. Brenzinger regularly assists corporations and their threat management teams in identifying, assessing, managing, and monitoring potential and actual threats to the organization, its personnel and their families. Additionally, he delivers advanced training to threat management and executive protection teams to mitigate the risk to their clients. He is an active member and regular guest speaker at the Chicago Chapter of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals and ASIS International. Dr. Brenzinger provides WTS clients with violence risk assessments, case consultation and training services, including with the WAVR-21.
Ronald F. Tunkel, M.C.J., the principal of Aquia Behavioral Analysis & Threat Assessment Consultancy, based near Quantico, Virginia, assists intelligence and security-related governmental organizations, law enforcement agencies, high profile/high net-worth individuals, corporations, and law firms. Mr. Tunkel served for 30 years as a Special Agent/Criminal Profiler with the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF). His last assignment before retiring was a three-year diplomatic post as the ATF Attaché to the European Police Agency (Europol) in The Hague, Netherlands. For 18 years Mr. Tunkel was detailed as a criminal profiler to the FBI’s elite Critical Incident Response Group, Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) at Quantico, where he conducted on-site investigative support, research, and training for law enforcement, intelligence, and security agencies throughout the world. His current focus on criminal profiling and behavioral analysis includes crime scene analysis, investigative suggestions, cold-case reviews, unknown offender profiling, indirect personality assessments, and prosecution and media strategies. Mr. Tunkel’s additional specialties include analysis of anonymous communications, statement analysis of veracity and motives applicable to legal proceedings, and strategic interviewing to elicit truthful statements and enhance memory recall for use in trial preparation or the review of depositions, testimony, and media statements. Mr. Tunkel is certified by both the FBI and the International Criminal Investigative Analysis Fellowship in the discipline of Behavioral Analysis/Criminal Investigative Profiling. He has conducted research on violent offenders, and is a published author in peer-reviewed journals and texts, including chapters in both the first and upcoming second edition of the International Handbook of Threat Assessment. Mr. Tunkel has conducted numerous workplace and campus threat assessment consultations and is trained in the WAVR-21 methodology. He currently collaborates with other WTS consultants to provide his various specialty services to WTS clients.
Sharon S. Smith, Ph.D., is a retired FBI agent who holds a PhD in psychology from Georgetown University. She is the President of Forensic Psycholinguistics. Her areas of specialization include threat assessment, detection of deception, school and workplace violence, and criminal and corporate psychopathy. She has consulted throughout the United States to intelligence and security-related governmental agencies, law enforcement agencies, and attorneys and security directors for high profile/high net-worth individuals and corporations. Dr. Smith’s 25-year FBI career included nine years at the FBI's elite Behavioral Science Unit where she taught and assisted law enforcement agencies throughout the world in analyzing sexual homicides, serial rapes, threats, workplace violence, arsons, detection of deception, and psychopathy. At the FBI Academy, Dr. Smith designed and conducted interviewing courses for nearly a thousand FBI special agent trainees. She worked on a range of crimes in three field offices including as an undercover agent on multiple cases. She also served at FBI Headquarters, in both its Congressional Affairs Office and its National Press Office. After retiring from the FBI, Dr. Smith served as a Senior Expert and Instructor for a Boston-based company, where she worked with many of New York’s largest investment clients in the instruction and application of deception detection, threat assessment, and psychopathy. She is extensively published, including articles in the FBI’s Law Enforcement Bulletin (July, 2012), book chapters in Stalking, Threatening and Attacking Public Figures (Oxford University Press, 2008) and The International Handbook of Threat Assessment (Oxford University Press, 2014). Dr. Smith has been accepted as an expert on threat assessment by Canadian courts. Additionally, her research lead to the development of Threat Triage, a web-based threat risk assessment software. Dr. Smith provides threat assessment and case consultation services to WTS clients.
Kostas Katsavdakis, Ph.D., ABPP, is a licensed psychologist and diplomate in forensic psychology of the American Board of Professional Psychology. He is based in New York where he has practiced for the past 18 years. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at The Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, where he served as the primary interviewer in week-long intensive diagnostic evaluations of adults, including impaired corporate and mental health professionals faced with workplace related problems. Since returning to New York in 2002, Dr. Katsavdakis served as the Assistant Director of Psychology at a maximum security forensic psychiatric hospital and currently devotes his time to a private criminal forensic and clinical practice, teaching and writing. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where he teaches courses in Criminal Forensic Assessment, the Analysis of Criminal Behavior, and the assessment of psychopathy. He has published in numerous areas, including the evaluation of impaired professionals, threat assessment, and mass murder. Dr. Katsavdakis is sought out by attorneys and the Court to evaluate defendants charged with violent sexual and non-sexual crimes, and consults with private parties for threat assessment and risk management evaluations. Dr. Katsavdakis has qualified as an expert in trial court proceedings and testified on at least 30 occasions. He has presented to various law organizations and mental health professionals on conducting violent risk and threat assessment of adults and youth. Dr. Katsavdakis provides workplace and campus violence risk assessment consultations for WTS clients.
Marvin W. Acklin, Ph.D., ABPP, ABAP, is a board-certified assessment, clinical, and forensic psychologist in full-time independent practice in Honolulu. Licensed in Hawaii since 1989, Dr. Acklin is Co-Director of Pacific Forensic Associates, Inc., where he provides risk assessments for public and private agencies in Hawaii. His areas of expertise include psychosexual evaluations, assessments of violence risk and recidivism, and workplace threat assessments. He holds Board Certifications in Clinical and Forensic Psychology (American Board of Professional Psychology) and Assessment Psychology (American Board of Assessment Psychology). Dr. Acklin is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the John Burns School of Medicine, Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine. He is a Fellow of the Society for Personality Assessment, and American Psychology Association Divisions 12 (Clinical Psychology) and 42 (Independent practice). Dr. Acklin completed a postdoctoral program in clinical psychopharmacology and has extensive experience as a consultant in inpatient psychiatry. He has served on the Editorial Board of the Journal for Personality Assessment since 1985, and presented symposia and workshops in clinical, assessment, and forensic psychology at the national level. He is the author or coauthor of over 30 peer-reviewed articles or book chapters, and maintains an active research program in clinical, assessment, and forensic psychology. Dr. Acklin has been a forensic examiner for the Hawaii judiciary for 16 years and has performed hundreds of child custody evaluations and mental examinations of criminal defendants, addressing issues of competency to stand trial, mental state at the time of the offense, and recidivistic violence. Dr. Acklin has conducted or supervised over 3,500 psychological evaluations, and has been qualified as an expert witness in state, federal, military, and immigration courts in Hawaii. Dr. Acklin is a trained professional user of the WAVR-21 and provides risk assessments and case consultations on behalf of WTS.
Terry Kukor Ph.D., ABPP is a licensed psychologist in Ohio, where he has specialized in forensic evaluations, risk assessment, and consultation since 1989. He is currently the Director of Forensic and Specialized Assessment Services for Netcare Access in Columbus, a non-profit organization that provides crisis intervention and behavioral health assessment services. He supervises a team of 25 psychologists conducting criminal forensic evaluations, a team of psychologists conducting civil forensic assessment, the Probate Pre-screeners (conducting evaluations for involuntary civil commitment and guardianship), and the Older Adult Assessment program. He serves on the Ohio Attorney General’s taskforce on Criminal Justice and Mental Illness, including the subcommittee on Mental Health and the Courts. Dr. Kukor holds academic appointments as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Miami University, and as an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Drexel University, where he teaches Forensic Psychology. He is also a member of the Auxiliary Faculty, Department of Psychiatry, at The Ohio State University. He is an approved trainer for the Suicide Prevention Resource Center. At the Netcare Forensic Center he conducts and supervises criminal forensic evaluations on court-referred adults and juveniles and is the Director of Training for Netcare’s pre-doctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship in Forensic Psychology. Dr. Kukor has performed hundreds of forensic evaluations, and conducts workshops on violence risk and threat assessment, violence and mental illness, workplace violence, assessment & management of suicide risk, the psychology of stalking, and assessment of malingering. He is a member of the teaching faculty for the American Academy of Forensic Psychology workshop series, where he teaches workshops on critical thinking in forensic assessment, sanity evaluations, and competency to stand trial. He has authored professional chapters on juvenile competency, practice and ethics in forensic animal maltreatment evaluations, and ethics and professional issues in forensic psychology. Dr. Kukor joined WTS as an associate in 2015.
John Matthew Fabian, Psy.D., J.D., ABPP is a Texas-based board certified forensic and clinical psychologist and fellowship trained clinical neuropsychologist. He specializes in criminal and civil forensic psychological and neuropsychological evaluations including death penalty litigation, competency to stand trial, insanity/diminished capacity, Miranda competency and false confessions, violence and sexual violence risk assessment, internet pornography/solicitation, alcohol blackout/intoxication and long-term effects of substances on brain/behavior functioning, and juvenile transfer and homicide cases. Dr. Fabian was formerly director of a state court psychiatric clinic and has worked and testified in several adult and juvenile court psychiatric clinics in Ohio. He served as a forensic psychologist at a maximum-security state forensic hospital and Federal Bureau of Prison forensic studies center in Minnesota. He currently consults as a forensic psychologist and neuropsychologist for several court systems in central Texas, conducting pretrial and presentence evaluations. Dr. Fabian has been an expert witness in over 700 murder cases and has testified in 450 state and federal cases in 20 states. In addition, Dr. Fabian has extensive experience in clinical neuropsychology. He has consulted with Neurology and Neurosciences Associates, examining adults with severe neurological dysfunction, and with Applewood Psychiatric Centers, examining high-risk urban children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders. Dr. Fabian has also worked as a clinical neuropsychologist and fellow at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine Center for Neuropsychological Services, and Raymond G. Murphy Veteran’s Administration Polytrauma Traumatic Brain Injury and PTSD unit, specializing in military forensic expert witness evaluations and testimony. Dr. Fabian has faculty appointments at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston McGovern Medical School Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and at the Forensic Psychology Postdoctoral Fellowship Walter Reed National Military Medical Center-Center for Forensic Behavioral Science. In addition to teaching courses in forensic psychology, neuropsychology and the law, and violence risk assessment, he is published in law review, peer review, and bar journals. He has been associated with WTS since 2019.
JoAnn Lippert, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist specializing in forensic evaluations and consultations in criminal and civil actions involving violence, threats of violence and allegations of harassment and hostile work environments. Dr. Lippert has been in clinical practice since 1978 and has been a consultant to municipal, county, and federal law enforcement agencies and schools in Nevada, California, and other states since 1985. She has also been a frequent consultant and faculty member in U.S. Department of Justice training and research programs. In the past Dr. Lippert served as a consultant on the Department’s Criminal Crisis Response Initiative, a project providing training to multi-disciplinary community response teams on responding to mass criminal victimization and terrorism. In 1999 she completed a five-year research and development grant for the Department of Justice on child abduction and family trauma response. Dr. Lippert has served on the Nevada Attorney General’s Task Force on Sex Crimes, and the California Task Force on Abduction. She was previously an Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of Nevada School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and maintains a private practice in Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada. Since 1989 she has assisted a number of major corporations and state agencies across the United States in assessing and responding to workplace threats of violence and harassment, including for WTS. Dr. Lippert has provided assessment and consultation services to WTS clients since 1995.
Sandy Ryan, B.A., is the Business Manager of WTS Inc. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and has completed a Multimedia Studies program at the California State University at San Francisco Extension. Ms. Ryan has extensive training in computer applications and programming environments. With twenty years experience in business support positions, she has worked to develop accounting systems, cloud storage solutions, and computer networks for multiple Bay Area start-up companies. She has been a member of WTS since 1997 where she manages business functions, supports WTS consultants and clients, and oversees our electronic assessment program services (eWAVR).
Lisa Ekström, is the Business Coordinator at WTS. Joining us in 2013, she provides business administration, accounting, and communications support as a member of the WTS team.