Lab Director
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Tess M.S. Neal, Ph.D. is a Dean's Associate Professor of Psychology in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Iowa State University. She is a scientist, a licensed psychologist (State of Iowa # 121491, State of Arizona #4630, State of Nebraska #844 [voluntary inactive status in NE]), and a parent of two young children.
Her research has been funded by multiple grants from the National Science Foundation, and she has published one edited book and nearly 60 peer-reviewed publications in such journals as Nature Reviews Psychology; Psychological Science in the Public Interest; American Psychologist; PLOS ONE; Psychology, Public Policy, and Law; Law and Human Behavior; and Criminal Justice and Behavior. She serves as Editor-in-Chief for Psychology, Public Policy, and Law. She served from 2021-2023 as one of the three inaugural Open Science Advisors for Clinical Psychological Science and was an associate editor at two different journals for several years. She was selected as a Fulbright Scholar to work with Kristy Martire and others at UNSW Sydney in 2022, and is a Fellow of both the Association for Psychological Science (2022) and American Psychological Association (2021). She was awarded ASU's Outstanding Mentor Award in 2020 and the 2021 Outstanding Teaching & Mentoring Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (Div. 9 of APA). She received a mid-career award from the American Psychology-Law Society (APA Div 41) in 2025 and previously received early career awards for excellence in research from the American Psychology-Law Society (Div. 41 of APA) / American Academy of Forensic Psychology, as well as from the Society for Personality Assessment. Prior to moving to ISU in fall 2023, she was a tenured associate professor at Arizona State University, where she was the founding director of ASU's Future of Forensic Science Initiative and a co-founder of ASU's Law and Behavioral Science Initiative, which won the 2020 President's Award for Innovation. Her CV is here. |
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PhD Students
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Maya is a fourth-year psychology doctoral student at ISU. Her interests exist at the intersection of basic research, clinical practice, and the equitable translation and implementation of research findings in a legal context. She has conducted research on how sociocultural environments shape people, including work on the neuropsychology of forensic psychopathy and the link between adverse childhood experiences and biopsychosocial outcomes in adulthood. Her current work seeks to build understanding of clinical judgment in forensically-relevant settings, and in particular, how clinicians navigate complex differential diagnoses and the mechanisms that underlie those processes.
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Undergraduate Research Assistants
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Marlee Curtis
I am a Psychology and Criminal Justice double major. After graduation, I plan to attend graduate school and obtain a master's degree in counseling psychology or social work. Later, I hope to work in a drug rehabilitation center. By working in the lab, I want to get real-world research experience, instruction under established researchers and psychologists, and participate in something I find greatly interesting.
Veronica Herrera
I am a double major in Education in Mathematics & Psychology at ISU. I'm planning to apply to graduate school for clinical or Neuropsychology. I strive to one day conduct research regarding how physiological and environmental factors influence experiences that could lead to risks for psychopathology or abnormal behaviors. I also have an interest in studying mental disorders, and identifying potential factors with a specialization of different racial & ethnic groups.
Indya Kenney
I'm a senior in the psychology program at Iowa State University. I'm really looking forward to learning more about the intersect between psychology and law and how the use of psychology in the legal system can be improved to better represent and help those involved. After I finish undergrad, I plan on continuing to involve myself in research and to further my education by pursuing a graduate degree in clinical psychology.
Tavien Bragg The reason I decided to join the research team is because as a young aspiring clinical psychologist I want to gain experience and knowledge in research so that when I do my own psychological research in the future. I can then take my findings and help make my community a better place as proficiently as possible.
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Collaborators Who Are Part of the Lab
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Kristy Martire, PhD
Dr. Martire is a Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia. Her research aims to better understand the development of expertise, processes of evidence evaluation in criminal trials, and to improve the communication between experts and lay decision-makers in forensic settings. She works closely with Dr. Neal and the CLJ Lab through the PLuS Alliance and also hosted Dr. Neal at UNSW during her Fulbright scholarship in Spring 2022. Drs. Neal and Martire were retained by the Mass Casualty Commission to summarize best practices in forensic psychological assessment and apply that framework to a particular psychological autopsy in a major Canadian case.
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CLJ Lab, Spring 2025. From left: Maya Irvin-Vitela, Tavien Bragg, Tess Neal, Marlee Curtis, Indya Kenney.
CLJ Lab, Fall 2024. From left: Tess Neal, Veronica Herrera, Marlee Curtis, Indya Kenney, Maya Irvin-Vitela.
Iowa State University psychology-law faculty members, Summer 2023. From left: Zlatan Krizan, Christian Meissner, Miko Wilford, Gary Wells, Jason Chan, Andrew Smith, Tess Neal.
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Tenured & Promoted, May 12, 2021!
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