Our Team
Philip Held, PhD
Principal Investigator, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
(he/him)
Dr. Held is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Rush University Medical Center. He also serves as Research Director of the Road Home Program: National Center of Excellence for Veterans and Their Families at Rush, where he oversees a large number of clinically-focused research projects that aim to innovate and improve existing treatments for traumatic stress.
Before joining Rush University Medical Center, Dr. Held obtained his PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Tennessee where he was part of the Military Health and Stress research group. Dr. Held went on to complete a postdoctoral fellowship specializing in Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) at the Center for Trauma Recovery in St. Louis, MO.
Dr. Held’s research aims to personalize and enhance care for PTSD and other trauma-related disorders. Specifically, his research focuses on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of existing evidence-based interventions, and making treatments more accessible. Dr. Held is particularly passionate about using advanced analytics to identify key predictors of treatment success and moderators that impact clinical outcomes.
Sarah Pridgen, MA, LCPC
Research Manager
(she/her)
Sarah has a BA in Special Education from the University of North Carolina Wilmington and is a former special education teacher. She received her MA in Clinical Psychology from Roosevelt University. Sarah has experience providing individual and group therapy with at-risk populations experiencing highly acute symptomology including psychotic symptoms, suicide ideation, homicide ideation, and aggression. She also has experience combining her training as a special education teacher with her clinical work by providing specialized therapy to individuals with intellectual and/or physical disabilities. Her research interests include exploring neural mechanisms that support intensive treatments, especially as they relate to cognition. She is also interested in the utilization of machine learning to aid in the advancement of clinical care by using data to predict which individuals will most benefit from intensive treatment formats.
Daniel Szoke, PhD
Study Therapist
(he/him)
Dr. Szoke is a Postdoctroal Fellow who studies therapy services for suvivors of trauma, with a specific interest in mindfullness-based interventions. Daniel obtained his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno under the mentorship of Dr. Holly Hazlett-Stevens. Daniel’s clinical internship was at VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System where he completed rotations with the Addictive Disorders Treatment Program and PTSD Clinical Team. During graduate school, Daniel provided trauma-focused therapy for Spanish-speaking survivors of domestic violence and published on cultural adaptations for trauma-focused treatments. Daniel also examined mindfulness as a protective factor for secondary traumatic stress in rape crisis center staff. He is interested in exploring the mechanisms of change within mindfulness-based interventions for survivors of trauma and continuing to improve the effectiveness of trauma interventions. In his spare time, Daniel enjoys reading, visiting new coffee shops, and going to the beach.
Erin Walker, PsyD
Study Therapist
(she/her)
Dr. Walker is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow who studies assessment and therapy services for trauma survivors. Erin obtained her PsyD in clinical psychology from Adler University and completed her clinical internship at Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center, including a rotation in the Trauma Recovery Program. During her graduate training, she completed her dissertation project on resilience within a clinical sample of asylum-seekers who survived torture. She also provided trauma-focused individual and group therapy to individuals who experienced various types of traumas, including sexual assault, torture, combat, and natural disasters. Her research interests include resilience after trauma, diversity and cultural factors that impact treatment, building culturally sensitive assessment measures, and improving the efficacy of trauma-based treatment. In her personal life, Erin enjoys reading, comic books, Dungeons & Dragons, and exploring new restaurants in the city.
Charles Small, LCSW
Study Therapist
(he/him)
Charles graduated from Loyola University of Chicago with a BA in Religious Studies and a Master of Social Work. The clinical focus for much of his career has been working with veterans of the US Armed Forces, particularly around issues of combat-related PTSD, Military Sexual Trauma, and moral injury. He has had the privilege of serving veterans as a clinician within the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as the Road Home Program: Center for Veterans and their Families at Rush University Medical Center. Charles is a lecturer at Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy & Practice at the University of Chicago where he teaches courses on Social Work with Veterans, as well as Evidence-Based Therapies for Treating Trauma in Adults. From 2018-2022, Charles saw clients in private practice. In October 2022, Charles joined the TREAT Lab at Rush University Medical Center as a research therapist developing and improving the delivery of intensive evidence-based therapies to treat PTSD.
Ryan Schubert
Clinical Data Scientist
(he/him)
Ryan received his BS in Biology and Bionformatics and his MS in Applied Statistics from Loyola University Chicago. Ryan previously worked as a Bionformatician in a computational human genetics lab. There he gained an interest in how statistics could be applied to deepen our understanding of human health. His research interests include the ethics and application of algorithms in healthcare.
Angie Parmar
Research Assistant
(she/her)
Angie has a BA in psychology from Vanderbilt University where she worked in the Emotion and Anxiety Research Lab and the Qualitative Research Core. She previously worked as a Clinical Trials Associate at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. After graduating, she completed a qualitative research project on barriers to continuous glucose monitor use in teenagers with type 1 diabetes. Her research interests include understanding the role of family and social support in PTSD recovery and treatment efficacy.
Marley Warren
Research Assistant
(he/him)
Marley received a BA in psychology from the University of Michigan after studying sexual- and gender-minoritized individuals’ mental health at the Stigma Psychopathology and Assessment (SPLAT) Lab. His research interests include emotion regulation, trauma spectrums, the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology, and borderline personality disorder.
Ashby Boland
Research Assistant
(she/her)
Before working at Rush, Ashby received her BS in psychology at Georgia State University. There she worked in a cognitive learning lab studying prospective memory by analyzing mouse and eye-tracking data. Her research interests include the effect of trauma on neural mechanisms of the brain and how this alters cognitive performance.
Anusha Limdi
Research Assistant
(she/her)
Anusha attained her BS in Psychology and BA in Philosophy from Loyola University Chicago in 2023. Throughout her undergraduate years, she actively contributed to the Resilience, Intersectionality, Stigma, and Engagement (RISE) Lab and the Davidson Autism Lab. Additionally, she devoted her time as a Rape Crisis Counselor, providing legal and medical advocacy to sexual assault survivors in the Chicago area. Anusha’s research interests include PTSD and sexual trauma, with a particular interest in developing effective treatments for intersectional and minority populations. Moreover, she seeks to explore the fascinating intersection between philosophy and psychology.
Michelle Ptak
Reseach Assistant
(she/her)
Michelle graduated with a BA in psychology and a minor in Crime and Justice from the University of Michigan in 2023. While there, she worked at the Sen Lab where she wrote an honors thesis on differences in PTSD prevalence and residency program factors in medical interns training before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also volunteered as a Crisis Counselor for the Trevor Project, using her skills in active listening and harm reduction to help provide suicide prevention support to LGBTQ+ youth. Her research interests include trauma, resilience, and innovative treatments for PTSD.