Angela Torres, PhD, ABPP
Senior Director of Forensic Services
Angela Torres, PhD, ABPP is the Senior Director of Forensic Services at the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. In this role, she manages forensic services at the state hospitals, the DBHDS portion of the sexually violent predator program, juvenile justice and behavioral health initiatives, the juvenile competence restoration program, the forensic evaluation oversight system, jail diversion programming, and other state-wide initiatives at the intersection of behavioral health and justice. Dr. Torres is board certified in forensic psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology. Prior to her current position, Dr. Torres was the Chief Forensic Coordinator at Central State Hospital, the Region IV Jail Team Supervisor, and the DBHDS Forensic Evaluation Oversight Manager. She has experience completing various forensic evaluations in Texas, Virginia, and the Federal system. She is involved in legislation and policy development at the regional and state levels regarding mental health and criminal justice. Dr. Torres lectures on behalf of DBHDS and the ILPPP, routinely collaborating on research projects addressing Virginia’s forensic services and the practice of forensic evaluations. She may be reached at Angela.Torres@dbhds.virginia.gov.
Elizabeth (Betsy) Hunt, PhD, ABPP
Forensic Evaluation Manager
Elizabeth (Betsy) Hunt, PhD, ABPP is the Forensic Evaluation Manager for the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services for Virginia, which involves oversight of all court appointed pretrial forensic evaluations conducted in Virginia and management of the oversight program. The goal of the program is to continue to improve the overall quality of pretrial evaluations in Virginia through peer review, training, and supervision. Dr. Hunt also has oversight over the newly established Central Office Forensic Evaluation Team, which conducts forensic evaluations across the entire state of Virginia. Dr. Hunt is board certified in forensic psychology through the American Board of Professional Psychology. Dr. Hunt previously served as the Pretrial Forensic Coordinator at Eastern State Hospital, as well as the Training Director for the postdoctoral fellowship there, facilitating didactics and providing supervision over the course of the training year. Dr. Hunt has experience conducting pretrial evaluations and post-adjudication risk assessments in Virginia and Massachusetts, has provided facility level and statewide trainings in Virginia, and has published in a number of areas as well as presented at national conference on various topics. Dr. Hunt collaborates with the ILPPP on trainings and research focused on forensic evaluations.
Kristen Hudacek, PsyD, ABPP
Regional (Eastern) Forensic Coordinator
Dr. Kristen Hudacek is the Regional (Eastern) Forensic Coordinator for the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. She is currently working on special projects for the Office of Forensic Services as the Behavioral Health and Criminal Justice Collaborator in which she functions as a “boundary spanner” among the courts, jails, community service boards, and state facilities. In her role, she creates opportunities to inform and bring stakeholders together from the behavioral health and criminal justice systems to identify alternatives to incarceration for persons with mental illness charged with low-level offenses.
Dr. Hudacek is a licensed clinical psychologist and trained forensic evaluator in Florida and Virginia. She is a Certified Sex Offender Treatment Provider in Virginia, focusing on the treatment of female offenders. In Florida, she has worked in governmental and academic agencies, including the Department of Mental Health Law & Policy at the Louis de la Parte Mental Health Institute at the University of South Florida, community based mental health centers, served as the practicum training director at the Florida School of Professional Psychology, and worked at the Office of the State’s Attorney as a victim-witness advocate. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at Northeast Florida State Hospital and her post-doctoral training at the Florida Department of Corrections. In Virginia, she was the Director of Psychology and Forensic Services at Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg, Virginia, and prior to that she directed a jail-based diversion and competency restoration program. Dr. Hudacek served as the President of the Richmond Academy of Clinical Psychologists, and as a committee member for the Professional Development of Women in the American Psychology and Law Society.
Dr. Hudacek is a cross systems mapping facilitator and consultant for Policy Research Associates, Inc. Additionally, she consults on the development of competency restoration programming in jails, and the management of forensic waitlists though alternative programming and utilization management in state hospitals.
She collaborates with the ILPPP on competency restoration treatment and jail-based programming, as well as alternatives to incarceration for persons found incompetent to stand trial.
Jeffrey Aaron, PhD
Juvenile Justice & Behavioral Health Program Manager
Dr. Aaron is the Juvenile Justice & Behavioral Health Program Manager for the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, where he provides oversight and guidance related to young people with intersecting justice and behavioral health system involvement and needs. Previously at DBHDS, Dr. Aaron previously spent almost 18 years at the Commonwealth Center for Children and Adolescents, Virginia’s only public psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents both in clinical roles and as the hospital’s director. In his current position at DBHDS, he provides education and support for clinicians, forensic evaluators, and legal professionals related to development, psychopathology, and forensic evaluation of adolescents and young adults, and conducts forensic evaluations. Dr. Aaron is actively involved in training law enforcement personnel to better understand and more effectively respond to youth, and he provides consultation and forensic evaluation of juveniles and adults outside of his work at DBHDS. He is on the faculty at the University of Virginia Medical School, and, at the ILPPP, lectures in the trainings addressing forensic evaluation of juveniles and assessment of violence risk among juveniles. He also consults on developmental issues, and collaborates on a variety of research, addressing juveniles and forensic evaluation in particular.