Andrea Avila

Andrea Avila, JD, PhD

(she/her)

Andrea graduated from Providence College with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.  As an undergraduate, she worked as a Research / Teaching Assistant at Providence College for Drs. John Colby and George Raymond, and at Brown University's Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies for Dr. Suzanne Colby.  After graduation, she worked for two years as Prevention Specialist for Community Partnership of the Ozarks in Springfield, Missouri, helping community coalitions develop and manage grant-funded, evidenced-based programs to prevent substance abuse and violence in their communities. 

Once accepted to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Andrea was concurrently enrolled in the Clinical Psychology Training Program and the Law-Psychology Program.  She ultimately graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Law with a Juris Doctor in December 2015 and has been a member of the Nebraska Bar since April 2016.  While at UNL's College of Law, Andrea served as an Executive Editor for the Nebraska Law Review, completed a concentration in Criminal Law, earned CALI awards in Property Law and Evidence, and graduated 7^th in her class.  She completed an externship at the Lancaster County Attorney’s office where she negotiated plea bargains and diversion agreements, prosecuted crime at trial, and argued before the Nebraska Court of Appeals. 

She also graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with her PhD in Psychology in August 2019.  While completing her PhD program, she was a proud member of UNL’s Serious Mental Illness Research Group under the mentorship of Dr. Will Spaulding and earned a forensic emphasis as well as a statistics concentration.  Her training experiences included working at SAVI (Substance Abuse and Violence Initiative), Disability Rights Nebraska, University of Nebraska Public Policy Center, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, the Community Mental Health Center, Nebraska Probation and Parole Department, and OUR Homes (i.e., an organization providing assisted-living, case management, medication management, day rehabilitation programming, and mental health services).  Her dissertation was funded by the Social Security Administration, through Mathematica Policy Center’s Disability Research Consortium, and focused on how the long-term policy implications of the SCOTUS decision known as Olmstead varied by state.  Prior to her graduation in August 2019, she completed a year long internship at Oregon State Hospital focusing on forensic assessment, treatment for the guilty except for insanity population, neuropsychological assessment, and violence risk assessment. 

Since her graduation, she completed a forensic fellowship at Patton State Hospital, where she focused on fitness to proceed and violence risk assessments.  She became licensed in Oregon and Nebraska, and has since worked primarily providing clinical and forensic services to people with serious mental illness in both states.  Her current full-time position is at Oregon State Hospital where she is a member of the internship training committee and provides a variety of evaluation services (e.g., diagnostic clarification, violence risk assessment, malingering, treatment recommendations, cognitive testing, fitness to proceed, and criminal responsibility).  She also maintains an active private practice in which she provides individual therapy and forensic assessment services (e.g., fitness to proceed, criminal responsibility, violence risk assessment, sentencing mitigation, etc).  

Email: avila.andrea.n@gmail.com
 

Publications

Spaulding, W.D., Cook, E., & Avila, A.  (2014).  Therapeutic jurisprudence and recovery from severe and disabling mental illness.  In B.H. Bornstein and R.L. Wiener (Eds.), Justice, conflict and wellbeing (124-148).  New York, New York: Springer Publisher. 

Avila, A. (2013). Consideration of rehabilitative factors for sentencing in federal courts: Tapia v. United States, 131 S. Ct. 2382 (2011). Nebraska Law Review, 92(2), 404–430.

Selected Presentations

Bouchard, A., Avila, A., & Spaulding, W.D.  (2015).  Mental health workers’ perceptions of cause and dangerousness: Implications for clinical care.  Poster presented at the 2015 AP-LS Annual Conference, San Diego, CA. 

Bouchard, A., Avila, A., & Spaulding, W.D.  (2014).  What causes mental illness?  Mental health workers’ causal attributions and attitudes toward treatment prognosis. Poster presented at 48th Annual ABCT Convention, Philadelphia, PA. 

Avila. A. (2014).  Did Tapia v. United States end rehabilitation in federal sentencing?  Poster presented at the 2014 AP-LS Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA. 

Avila, A. (2013). Training probation officers to work with probationers with mental illness.Poster presented at 47th Annual ABCT Convention, Nashville, TN.

Davidson, C.A., Avila, A., Gallegos, Y., Bottoms, H. C., Cook, E., Hochheiser, J., & Spaulding, W. (2012). Assessment of cognitive biases in a community mental health center compared to a large undergraduate normative sample. Poster presented at 46th Annual ABCT Convention, National Harbor, MD.

Lee, J., Avila, A., DuPree, S., & Maxon, S.  (2012). Bridging generation gaps in coalition work. Paper presented at CADCA’s 24th National Leadership Conference, National Harbor, MD. 

Avila, A. (2012). Mobilizing the higher education community. Poster presented at CADCA’s 24th National Leadership Conference, National Harbor, MD.  

Colby, S.M., Colby, J.J., Avila, A., Haverinen, L., & Swanton, D. (2007). College students' evaluations of problem drinking behavior: A test of the theory of reasoned action. Paper presented at The International Conference on the Social Sciences, Honolulu, HI.

Colby, J.J., Colby, S.M., Swanton, D., Haverinen, L., & Avila, A. (2007). College students' evaluations of the current and future effects of heavy drinking: The influence of drinker and rater characteristics. Poster presented at The International Conference on the Social Sciences, Honolulu, HI.