Meet the Team
UTHealth Houston is home to one of the largest teams of funded elder mistreatment researchers in existence. Roybal Center for Elder Mistreatment Intervention Research investigators have nearly 90 years of combined experience and have led or been key personnel on 63 different elder mistreatment projects totaling over $46 million.
Our Team
Carolyn Pickering, PhD, RN
Director, Administrative Core
Dr. Pickering is a noted expert in dementia family caregiving, director of the Cizik Nursing Research Institute, the Isla Carroll Turner Chair in Gerontological Nursing, and a professor at Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston. She is widely published on related topics, serves as a reviewer on several journals, and is a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Gerontological Nursing. She is currently principal investigator on four grants from the National Institute on Aging, including a $5.263 million award from the Edward R. Roybal Centers for Translational Research in the Behavioral and Social Sciences of Aging, which funds the Roybal Center for Elder Mistreatment Intervention Research. View her profile page and learn more about her funded projects.
Brad Cannell, PhD, MPH
Co-director, Behavioral Intervention Development Core
Dr. Cannell is an associate professor with appointments at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health’s Department of Management Policy & Community Health and the Joan and Stanford Alexander Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston. He created the Detection of Elder Abuse Through Emergency Care Technicians (DETECT) screening tool, and he serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect. See Dr. Cannell’s faculty profile.
Ronald Acierno, PhD
Co-director, Behavioral Intervention Development Core
Dr. Acierno is a professor and vice chair of veteran affairs in the Louis A. Faillace, MD, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at McGovern Medical School and executive director of the UTHealth Houston Trauma and Resilience Center. Acierno was lead author on what is considered the seminal national elder mistreatment prevalence study published in 2010 in the American Journal of Public Health. He has served as principal investigator on several federally funded grants and is widely published on the topics of epidemiological studies of elder mistreatment and treatment outcomes, focusing on victims of trauma, disaster, combat, or loss. See Dr. Acierno’s faculty profile.
Aanand Naik
Activity Lead, Program Sustainability
Dr. Naik is executive director of the UTHealth Houston Institute on Aging. He is a professor at the Joan and Stanford Alexander Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at McGovern Medical School and chair of the Department of Management, Policy, and Community Health at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health. He holds the Nancy P. and Vincent F. Guinee, MD, Distinguished Chair and the Uzi and Micki Halevy and Carmel Dyer, MD, Interprofessional Research Fellowship. See Dr. Naik’s School of Public Health faculty page.
Jason Burnett, PhD
Activity Lead, Human Subjects Safety Review
Dr. Jason Burnett is an associate professor in the Department of Geriatric and Palliative Care Medicine at McGovern Medical School. He serves as the co-director of the Texas Elder Abuse and Mistreatment Institute (TEAM). The TEAM-Forensic Assessment Center Network utilizes web-based and telehealth modalities to link Adult Protective Services and Texas Health and Human Services clients anywhere in Texas to geriatric and elder mistreatment experts in Houston for assessment, evaluation, and protective service planning. See Dr. Burnett’s faculty profile.
Melba Hernandez-Tejada, PhD, DHA
Activity Lead, Participant Reported Outcomes Review
Dr. Hernandez-Tejada is an associate professor at the UTHealth Trauma and Resilience Center in the Faillace Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at McGovern Medical School, and a Research Scientist at the Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Charleston, SC. She is researching the benefits of social connection and support on mental health, while leveraging technology to address barriers to care, particularly among vulnerable groups. She has applied this work to two primary populations: veterans suffering from PTSD and older adults confronted with issues that affect their ability to age in place. See Dr. Hernandez-Tejada’s faculty profile.
Executive Committee
- Bijal Balasubramanian, PhD, MBBS, professor, regional dean of UTHealth Houston School of Public Health in Dallas, and The Rockwell Distinguished Chair in Society and Health
- Rafael Samper-Ternent, MD, PhD, associate professor at the School of Public Health
- Samiran Ghosh, PhD, professor and vice chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Data Science at the School of Public Health