Lisa Callahan, PhD

Dr. Lisa Callahan is a senior research associate at Policy Research Associates (PRA), where she is engaged in research, technical assistance, and training on behavioral health and the justice system. She also delivers trauma training to justice professionals across the county. Dr. Callahan’s research topics include both adult and juvenile treatment courts, the competence to stand trial process, and the impact of Medicaid expansion on jail recidivism. She first started working at PRA when it was founded in 1988 to 1990 and returned in 2008. Prior to her joining PRA, she worked in the research bureau for the New York State Office of Mental Health. Dr. Callahan is professor emerita from The Sage Colleges, where for 18 years she taught courses in criminal justice and mental health and developed the MA Forensic Mental Health Program. Dr. Callahan has a Ph.D. in sociology from The Ohio State University, and she completed an NIMH post-doctoral program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Sociology and Psychiatry.