Adjunct Teaching Faculty
Eric Devine, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Boston University School of Medicine. Primarily he works at the Clinical Studies Unit at Boston University on clinical trails evaluating the effectiveness of new medications for the treatment of alcohol and drug abuse. He is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) and he provides workshops, seminars, and coursework in addiction counseling. He has been teaching the Addictions course in the MHBM Program since 2005.
Brandon Erdos, M.D., graduated as a neuroscience major from Amherst College in 1996. He then completed medical school at the BU School of Medicine, graduating in 2000 and completed a 4-year residency in psychiatry at Boston University, serving as Chief Resident during his 4th year of training. After residency training he completed a one year fellowship in Psychosomatic Medicine at Boston University. Dr. Erdos is currently the Assistant Director of the medical-psychiatry service at the West Roxbury Veteran’s Hospital and also has a private practice in Chestnut Hill. He began teaching the MHBM Program Psychopharmacology course during his medical residency and has been with us since that time.
Todd Kates, Ph.D., has served as the Executive Director of United Cerebral Palsy of MetroBoston since 1997 having worked for UCP in a variety of roles since 1983. He served as the chairperson of DMR’s Human Rights Advisory Committee and as a Board Member for the Association of Developmental Disability Providers. He has been active as a CARF Surveyor for ten years and has sat on two CARF National Advisory Committees. For several years he volunteered with AIDS Action Committee running the first support group for family members of persons with AIDS. Dr. Kates is an adjunct faculty member at Northeastern University and Boston University School of Medicine in the Counseling Psychology Departments. He has been active on local boards of directors of 2 theater companies and volunteers with a summer hosting program for Russian orphans. He has taught several of the MHBM Program courses, including Group Dynamics, Family Therapy, and Social and Cultural Foundations and Human Sexuality.
Hyman Kempler, PhD., received his BA & MA from Brooklyn College, and PhD in Clinical psychology from Purdue University. He was a USPHS fellow at the Judge Baker Guidance Center; Chief Psychologist at the South Shore Mental Health Center; Mental Health Staff Harvard Community Health Plan. He has had a long time private practice and is a Diplomate in Clinical psychology from ABEPP. He joined our program in 2008 and teaches our Counseling Theories course.
Marina Livshits, Psy.D., has worked in community mental health for the past thirteen years. She received her M.A. in psychology from Boston University and completed her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology in 2000. Dr. Livshits has special expertise with children and adults affected by domestic violence. She was the Clinical Coordinator for Kol Isha, a Jewish Domestic Violence Program at Jewish Family and Children’s Service (JF&CS) in Waltham, Massachusetts and was a member of the Governor’s Commission on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. Dr. Livshits is on the board of Matahari: Eye of the Day, a multi-services nonprofit organization serving the needs of different immigrant communities in Massachusetts. Most recently, she was the Director of Mental Health Services at JF&CS, and currently provides clinical service and consultation through her private practice. Dr. Livshits has been an adjunct instructor in the MHBM Program since 2006 and currently teaches our Clinical Assessment course.
Tara Moore, Ph.D., received her doctorate in Anatomy and Neurobiology from BUMC in 2000 and remained with at the medical school for her post-doctoral training. She is currently a co-investigator in the Laboratory of Cognitive Neurobiology with Drs. Moss, Rosene and Killiany where her research focuses on two main areas: 1) the assessment of the cognitive processes of the prefrontal cortices in non-human primates and the changes in these processes that occur with aging and age-related disease; and 2) the assessment of the recovery of motor function and cortical reorganization following ischemic damage in a non-human primate model of stroke. As a co-investigator on a program project from the National Institute of Aging to study the Neural Substrates of Cognitive Decline in Aging, she is involved in the assessment of cognitive function in young adult, middle aged and old rhesus monkeys. Most recently, a newly funded R21 grant from the National Institute of Aging will use a non-human primate model of stroke to assess the recovery of motor function and cortical reorganization following ischemic damage. The model will also be used to assess the efficacy of occupational and pharmaceutical interventions for enhancing recovery and cortical re-organization observed after ischemic events. Dr. Moore is the Director of the new graduate program, an M.S. in Forensic Anthropology and is also a member of the department of Neurology where she administers clinical neuropsychological assessments to a variety of patient populations. She is a Co-Instructor for the Neuroscience for Mental Health Professionals course.
Ilana Tal, Ph.D., graduated from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, in clinical psychology. She joined the social construction efforts of the Israeli government through “Project Renewal” where she took part in the planning of social and community services in low socio economic neighborhoods in Israel. This and other sociopolitical activities led to her last position in Israel as the Israeli director of the New Israel Fund, an American Israeli foundation supporting the democracy and humans rights in Israel through the support of grassroots organizations. She emigrated with her family to the United States in 1986, focusing her clinical work on victims of violence. She returned to school in 1995 to pursue her doctorate at Fielding University in Santa Barbara, CA, where she was mentored by Anne Alonso, the first woman professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School, among others. Dr. Tal completed her post-doctoral training at the Two Brattle Center in Cambridge, and a two-year fellowship at the Center for psychoanalytic Studies at MGH, Harvard Medical School, where she is currently on the faculty, teaching and supervising psychiatry residents and other clinician fellows. She also has a full-time practice in Cambridge, MA. Dr. Tal currently teaches our Social and Cultural Foundations course.
