LEADERSHIP BOARD

Jessica Marsh was elected to a SOCCPN General Board seat in 2019, as SOCCPN Secretary in 2020 and SOCCPN President in 2024.  Jessica currently serves as the Deputy Director of the Texas Civil Commitment Office, formerly known as the Office of Violent Sex Offender Management.  Jessica has been with the agency since 2014 and previously served as the agency’s General Counsel and Director of Program Operations.  Jessica oversees all programmatic activities of the agency including policy development and implementation; contract management; planning for and development and implementation of sex offender treatment curriculum; and training for staff, vendors, and outside entities.  Finally, Jessica assisted in the drafting of historic Senate Bill 746 which completely revamped the Texas sex offender civil commitment program in 2015 as well as the implementation of the state’s first tiered treatment program.  

Jessica has served as the agency’s representative on Governor’s Commission for Women State Agency Council and the Statewide Behavioral Health Coordinating Council.  Prior to working with the Texas Civil Commitment Office, Jessica worked as an Assistant General Counsel for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and an Assistant Attorney General with the Office of the Attorney General.   Jessica is a graduate of Syracuse University and the University of Texas School of Law.   

Dr. Holly R. Coryell has worked in the field of sex offender treatment and evaluation for over 15 years. She is currently the Chief of Forensic Services at the Special Commitment Center (SCC) in Washington. She was formally the Chief of Resident Treatment at the SCC (from 2010 to 2016) and previously held positions in the program as lead psychologist and senior forensic evaluator.   Dr. Coryell received her doctorate degree from Gallaudet University and consults to programs on issues related to the assessment and treatment of deaf individuals. Dr. Coryell has been a member of SOCCPN for 10 years and is the current Vice President of the SOCCPN Board of Directors. She has also held active membership in the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA) for 15 years and is serving her second term as the President of the Washington State Chapter of ATSA. Dr. Coryell’s professional interests include cultural change initiatives, allyship and bystander intervention as a strategy for prevention of various types of violence within institutions.

Amy Gasser is a licensed clinical social worker in the State of Wisconsin. She is currently the Clinical Coordinator for the Bureau of Community Forensic Services for the State of Wisconsin. In this position, she provides clinical consultation for the Supervised Release program, which oversees community integration for patients from Wisconsin’s Chapter 980 population. In addition, she is a clinical consultant for the Conditional Release program, which manages programs for individuals involved with the criminal justice system with behavioral health concerns. Amy was recently employed at Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center in Wisconsin, where she provided direct treatment for patients who were identified as having high psychopathy. She was also involved in creating and implementing treatment procedures and curriculum that aligned with the Risk Needs Responsivity (RNR) model.

Kara Gougler is the Director of Case Management Services for the Texas Civil Commitment Office and is responsible for the management of all case management staff. Ms. Gougler began her career with the Texas Civil Commitment Office in 2012 as a community Case Manager where she supervised over 25 sexually violent predators living in the community. From 2015-2018, Ms. Gougler was the agency’s Case Analyst where she was responsible for tracking the movement of all clients throughout the civil commitment process. She has been in her current role of Director of Case Management Services since April 2018. In this capacity, she has direct oversight of 16 case managers and administrative staff, as well as working with vendors and treatment providers. She is instrumental in policy and procedure development and program development to ensure effective and efficient functioning of the TCCO and the facility. Ms. Gougler conducts trainings with staff and vendors and works with all to improve the services provided to the clients. She assists the treatment team in determining the best course of treatment and action with regards to the clients and maintains frequent contact with clients in the community.

Jennifer E. Schneider received her Ph.D. from Rutgers University. She is a Research Scientist at the Special Treatment Unit. She served as the Project Coordinator on a federally funded sex offender reentry study that provided counseling and case management to sex offenders released from incarceration in collaboration with the Department of Corrections and State Parole Board. In addition, she worked as a Program Development Specialist for the New Jersey Department of Corrections. She has published and presented at conferences and trainings on the topics of sex offender treatment programs in correctional facilities, assessment of treatment progress, and the management of sex offenders through the assessment of dynamic risk factors. Dr. Schneider is a member of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers and is Past President of the NJ Chapter of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers. She is also President of the Sex Offender Civil Commitment Programs Network and serves on the Research Committee and Conference Planning Committee.

Dr. Deirdre D'Orazio is a clinical and forensic psychologist in state service and private practice. She is employed by the California Department of State Hospitals where she has held positions over the past twenty-four years servicing forensically committed individuals, including Director of the sexual offense treatment program and evaluation services, civil commitment Evaluator, and currently as Assistant Chief Psychologist with the SVP Conditional Release Program.  She is president of the California Association for Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse (CalATSA) and sits on the leadership boards for the California Sex Offender Management Board and the Sexual Offense Civil Commitment Network. She served on the board of directors of the ATSA, the California Juvenile Justice Advisory Board, and the CA Coalition on Sexual Offending. Dr. D’Orazio is a recipient of the Fay Honey Knopp award by the California Coalition on Sexual Offending for positive and sustained contributions to the field of sexual offense intervention, and she is an ATSA fellow. Dr. D'Orazio has publications, professional trainings, interviews, and research in the areas of sexual offense risk assessment, paraphilic disorders, sexual abuse disclosures, abuse prevention, best practices in sexual offense specific treatment, professional ethics, and supervision.  Dr. D’Orazio has provided program evaluation and development consultancy internationally and evaluations, expert witness testimony, and direct treatment services for more than 2,000 individuals that have perpetrated or been harmed by violent or sexual crimes. She holds psychologist licenses in California, Minnesota, Washington and North Dakota. She is a certified trainer for multiple risk assessment tools.

Scott Halvorson is currently the Reintegration Director at the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) as their Reintegration Director, where he has been in this position for almost 10-years.  As their MSOP Reintegration Director, he

oversees the management and supervision program provided for MSOP clients granted a court-ordered provisional discharge and placed into the community.  Mr. Halvorson has been working in the community supervision field of sexual

abusers for over 20-years, and has been actively involved in SOCCPN, the Association for Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA), and the Minnesota Association of Sexual Abusers (MnATSA) as a board member, annual MnATSA conference co-chair, conference presenter, and conference planning committee member. 

Lauren Herbert, Psy.D., L.P., is the Forensic Evaluation Department Director for the Department of Human Services, Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP). In this capacity, Dr. Herbert provides leadership and oversees specialized testing and sexual violence risk assessment services. She also works as an evaluator and provides expert witness testimony in a variety of capacities. Additionally, Dr. Herbert currently serves as the Chief Doctoral Internship Training Director and oversees such programming. Her training is in clinical and forensic psychology and her clinical work experience involves providing treatment; completing assessments; as well as forensic psychological consultation to both sworn and civilian police department employees, with specialized consultation to the sex crimes detail. Her assessment experiences include risk assessment and evaluation, neuropsychological assessment, and assessment with those who were referred for evaluation of competency and mental status at the time of offense. Dr. Herbert has published papers, completed research projects, and provided professional presentations in the area of neuropsychology, general criminality, threat management, serial murders, death penalty, sexual offending behavior, sexual violence risk assessment, paraphilia diagnosis, and self-care and staff development.

Dr. Courtney Jones is a licensed Clinical Psychologist with a diverse background in the field, specializing in forensic psychology, severe mental illness, and sex offender-specific treatment. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at East Carolina University before pursuing advanced studies at Nova Southeastern University, where she earned both her Master's and Doctoral degrees in Clinical Psychology. Driven by a passion for understanding and addressing long-term and severe mental illnesses and forensic psychology, she concentrated her doctoral studies in these areas. She completed her academic journey in 2019 and began her postdoctoral residency at the Florida Civil Commitment Center, where dedicated her training to sex-offender specific treatment and assessment. She has served in multiple roles throughout her employment with the FCCC, to include facilitating sex-offender specific group therapy, conducting psychological assessments and evaluations, and providing clinical supervision as a Team Leader. Dr. Jones accepted the Clinical Director position at the FCCC in 2021, where she continues to supervise and oversee the facility’s treatment and programmatic services. Dr. Jones has been a member of SOCCPN since 2021 and is committed to the network’s mission, the provision of effective, evidence-based services, and the impact of our work on community safety.

Lee Ann McVay, Psy.D. received her  degree from the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology.  Dr. McVay currently works as an evaluator.  She has previously worked as an administrator and treatment provider, with both civilly and non-civilly committed sexual offenders.  Her research and experience have led Dr. McVay to delivering presentations on sexual offenders with intellectual disabilities and how to utilize Dialectical Behavioral Therapy with sexual offenders. Dr. McVay is a member of the Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse.

Brenda Todd-Bense, MSW, is the Clinical Director of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) St. Peter, a role she has held since 2018. During her career at MSOP over the last 13 years, Brenda has served in a variety of roles including as a Clinical Supervisor and Associate Clinical Director. Brenda’s areas of specialty include meeting the needs of individuals with compromised executive functioning and borderline personality disorders. Brenda has worked with individuals who engaged in sexually abusive behaviors for over 30 years. Brenda has presented at two SOCCPN conferences, facilitated multiple round table discussions and has also facilitated meetings for members to connect about meeting the needs of the gender diverse population.