ABOUT US

Dr. Morgan completed a California Psychology Internship Counsel (CAPIC) Accredited postdoctoral fellowship in the assessment and management of sexual violence risk, which included certification by the California Sex Offender Management Board (CASOMB) and the State Authorized Risk Assessment for Tools for Sex Offenders (SARATSO).

Dr. Morgan maintains membership with the American Psychological Association (APA), the American Psychology-Law Society (APLS, Division 41), the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA), and associate membership with the American Association of Addiction Medicine. Dr. Morgan is a Certified Trainer in the Historical Risk Management-20, Version 3 (HCR-20v3) for the California Department of State Hospitals.

Dr. Morgan has held employment in California Department of State Hospitals since 2014, including working with hospitalized and incarcerated populations. Throughout her tenure within the California Department of State Hospitals, Dr. Morgan has served as the Chair of the Forensic Quality Review Panel at Napa State Hospital, the Sex Offender Treatment Clinical Coordinator, and treating psychologist on an interdisciplinary treatment team. Dr. Morgan currently serves as the Supervising Psychologist within the Forensic Services Department, overseeing a team of psychologist experts in assessments of dangerousness and readiness for release to community-based care. She participates in program development, including interdepartmental and interagency collaboration to facilitate continuity of patient care and community safety, in accordance with professional, ethical, and legal principles.

Prior to entering State service, Dr. Morgan has had experience treating and evaluating adults and adolescents in community-based settings, including pre-graduate employment as a counselor working with children and adolescents designated as Severely Emotionally Disturbed (SED) in a residential group home setting. Dr. Morgan also serves as a forensic expert on the Sacramento County Adult Expert Witness Panel conducting evaluations as appointed by the court, and maintains a clinical practice including providing supervision in community-based practice.

Dr. Neely is expertly trained and experienced in the assessment and treatment of adults with psychiatric disorders. She has provided psychiatric treatment across various clinical settings including correctional, state hospital, inpatient, outpatient, substance use clinic, and various consultation services. As a forensic expert, Dr. Neely applies evidence-based evaluation to each forensic consultation.

During her general psychiatry residency at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, she trained at Parkland Memorial Hospital, a large, urban county hospital which houses one of the nation’s largest psychiatric emergency departments and serves the most vulnerable psychiatric patients in the DFW metroplex. She also trained in additional psychiatric inpatient and outpatient settings within the privately operated UTSW hospital system as well as the VA North Texas Health Care System. During her time in residency, Dr. Neely received specialized training and graduated with special distinctions through pursuing a concentration in Women’s Mental Health. In this academic concentration, she received formal training in women’s mental health issues including, but not limited to, infertility, miscarriage, abortion, peripartum mental health issues, complex trauma, as well as providing consultation to the obstetrics and gynecology inpatient and outpatient services.

Dr. Neely has performed numerous forensic psychiatric evaluations in various contexts, including court-ordered cases, private consultations, as well as evaluations in the public psychiatry setting. She has been qualified as an expert in the field of psychiatry in adult courts in various counties throughout California and Texas. Her areas of interest within forensic psychiatry include psychiatric diagnosis, criminal responsibility, sexual and general violence risk assessments, fitness for duty, malingering, psychological injury, sexual harassment/assault, and death penalty matters. Currently, Dr. Neely works as a forensic senior psychiatrist specialist at Napa State Hospital.

Dr. Neely is a member of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), American Medical Association (AMA), American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (AAPL), and the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP).

Dr. Powers’ breadth of professional experience also includes positions as the Program Manager of an adolescent day treatment program serving individuals with severe emotional disturbance, and Program Director of a level 10/12 adolescent group home for female foster children. She has also served as a psychologist and senior psychologist specialist for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and Clinical Coordinator for Sex Offender Treatment for California Department of State Hospitals.

Dr. Powers is currently a Forensic Senior Psychologist Specialist within the Forensic Services Division at the California Department of State Hospitals, where she conducts forensic evaluations for individuals committed pursuant to competency to stand trial, not guilty by reason of insanity, and offenders with a mental disorder. She is a member of the DSH predoctoral psychology Internship Advisory Committee, leads annual intern seminars, and provides individual and specialty rotation supervision.

Dr. Gala’s academic research interests include affective neuroscience and emotional regulation and expression within deaf culture. He has been a guest lecturer to local universities, teaching neuropsychological assessment and cultural considerations for individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Dr. Gala is currently an adjunct professor at Gallaudet University, where he teaches doctoral level ethics. In the past, he has taught undergraduate abnormal psychology.

Dr. Gala’s clinical work centers on forensic and neuropsychological assessment and psychotherapy with adolescents and adults. He completed his APA accredited clinical internship with the Superior Courts of the District of Columbia Child Guidance Clinic. Evaluations included juvenile competency, neuropsychological, psychoeducational, psychological, violence risk, and psychosexual evaluations. He has also provided individual therapy, competency restoration, sex offender treatment, and helped to develop the only youth anger management program approved by the DC court.

His additional training included conducting both civil and criminal forensic neuropsychological evaluations for individuals with severe mental illness at St. Elizabeths Psychiatric Hospital in Washington D.C. and Springfield Psychiatric Hospital Center in Sykesville, Maryland. Furthermore, Dr. Gala received training at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center: Rehabilitative and Neuropsychology, providing assessment and therapy to individuals recovering from strokes, spinal injuries, and neurological illnesses.

Prior to earning his Doctoral Degree, Dr. Gala completed his Masters of Science in Applied Behavioral Analysis. During this time he worked as a behavioral therapist in a school for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. He has worked as a behavioral analyst providing school and home-based interventions, and established school-wide programs and trainings addressing behavioral challenges. Dr. Gala combines behavioral principles with exploration of a client’s current functioning and developmental history to promote positive growth.

Dr. Leppert has held employment in California Department of State Hospitals (DSH) since 2009, including working with hospitalized and incarcerated populations as a Staff Psychologist at DSH-Napa. Throughout her tenure within DSH, Dr. Leppert has served as the Co-Chair of the Psychology Department, Chair of the Psychology Credential Committee, supervised pre-doctoral interns, and served as a member of the Internship Advisory Committee.

In addition, Dr. Leppert served as a Senior Psychologist Specialist in the Forensic Service Department, where she conducted forensic evaluations for individuals committed pursuant to competency to stand trial, not guilty by reason of insanity, and offenders with a mental disorder. Dr. Leppert also served as a Forensic Needs Assessment Coordinator, an essential role in program development, including hospital-wide restructure of our assessment and treatment approach for offenders with mental disorders (OMD) patient population.

Dr. Leppert served as the Deputy Chief of the Forensic Service Department at DSH-Napa, providing direct supervision to a team of Senior Psychologist Specialists who provide expertise in assessments of competency to stand trial, assessment of dangerousness and readiness for release to community-based care. Additionally, Dr. Leppert worked collaboratively with our DSH Legal team to ensure the departmental practices were commensurate with the autorotating legal statutes.

Dr. Leppert currently serves as the Assistant Chief Psychologist of the Patient Management Unit at DSH-Sacramento, where she supervises a clinical team comprised of seven Consulting Psychologists and six Nurse practitioners. In her current role, Dr. Leppert is responsible for overseeing care coordination efforts and providing consultation and direct supervision to clinical staff in the planning, evaluation, and appropriate placement of patients during the preadmission process with Penal Code (PC) 1370 Incompetent to Stand Trial (IST) patients. Additionally, she leads the development and implementation of policies and procedures related to patient movement, substantive treatment options, and participates in broader Departmental efforts in clinical best practices and appropriate preadmission pathway utilization.

Additional professional endeavors include teaching courses in phenomenological qualitative research course and psychopathology to graduate students in psychology at Sofia University.

Dr. Schirmer is currently Forensic Division Director for Marin County Health and Human Services, where he oversees multiple programs at the intersection of behavioral health and the criminal justice system. He has also been involved in academic training, as Adjunct Faculty with Saybrook University.

Dr. Schirmer's specialty practice areas include forensic psychology, serious mental illness, neuropsychology, and intellectual disabilities. He is experienced administering, interpreting, and testifying about psychological assessment instruments focused on trial competency, violence risk assessment, sexual offense risk, malingering, and intellectual and cognitive functioning. He has been qualified as an expert witness in courts in 11 California counties.

Dr. Schirmer is a Certified Correctional Health Professional and has published research in multiple journals and presented at dozens of national and international conferences.

Dr. Maldonado-Renta conducted forensic evaluations for the Connecticut Department of Children and Families and the Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut. She participated as a clinician in research projects involving eating disorders and was an instructor of third-year medical students at Yale University School of Medicine, where she taught an abbreviated version of Motivational Interviewing. Fluently bilingual in Spanish and English, she has offered services at different levels in the federal probation system as a probation officer, sentencing guidelines specialist, mental health specialist, supervisor of probation officers, and assistant deputy chief.

Evidence-based practices take into account the implications of Latino cultural values on clinical treatment, to offer the best individual action plans for the provision of services to this clinical population.

Subsequently, she became a consultant for the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, conducting regional and webinar training, advising over twenty grantee agencies on the implementation of integrated services for co-occurring disorders. As part of the consulting, she personally visited each agency throughout the state and created individual action plans for each agency with the goal of increasing their level of capability for the provision of services to this clinical population.

Dr. Maldonado-Renta completed her doctoral education during her 22-year career at the United States Probation Office, United States District Courts in Puerto Rico and Southern Florida.

Her clinical expertise and her interest in the implementation of evidence-based practices for community corrections led her to become involved in the training of federal probation officers. She received specialized training from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts in Washington, D.C. in community corrections and the evolution of supervision within the federal system. Dr. Maldonado-Renta is also a certified Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT) facilitator who co-facilitated groups with federal offenders in Miami, Florida.