Vickey Cornelison Grant, Senior Executive Assistant to the Vice Chair for Research and Research Administration, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina

Vickey Cornelison Grant has been involved in the crime victim field for over 25 years. Professionally, Vickey has worked at the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center (NCVC) at the Medical University of South Carolina since the beginning of her involvement in the victimization field in 1986. She has served in many capacities at the NCVC over the years. She has served as a research assistant on a variety of projects, and in that role she interviewed numerous crime victims, criminal justice, and public policy officials. She was the Editorial Assistant for the peer reviewed Journal of Traumatic Stress which is published by the International Society on Traumatic Stress Studies. She has been an event planner for countless trainings, including the early National Victim Assistance Academies that were hosted in Charleston, as well as three state victim assistance academies where she was listed as a faculty member. Most recently she serves as the Business Manager and Grants and Contracts Coordinator for the NCVC. The NCVC has a strong reputation for contributing to the scientific body of knowledge in trauma, and also for bringing research to practice as evidenced by her varied assignments during her tenure with the NCVC. For many years, she served sexual assault victims in her community as an advocate for People Against Rape (PAR), South Carolina’s first rape crisis center. Most recently she was elected to their Board of Directors and now serves as their Treasurer. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the American Society of Victimology.  Her knowledge and interest in the field of victimization has been acquired from her personal and professional experiences. Currently, Vickey divides her duties between managing the NCVC and serving as the Senior Executive Assistant to the Vice Chair of Research and Research Administration in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina.  She has two grown children, and two adorable twin grandsons.  She and her husband live on James Island with their two pampered dogs, Finlay and Bear.

Dean G. Kilpatrick, Ph.D. is a Distinguished University Professor of Clinical Psychology at the Medical University of South Carolina who has achieved international recognition for his work in the area of traumatic stress with particular emphasis on victims of sexual assault, other violent crimes, disasters, and terrorism.  He and his colleagues at the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center have conducted several extramurally-funded national studies of exposure to potentially traumatic events  including sexual assault among U.S. adolescents and adults with particular emphasis on how such events increase risk of PTSD and related disorders.  Kilpatrick has received several national awards for his work including the 1990 President’s Award for Outstanding Contribution to Victims of Crime, the 2007 U.S. Congressional Victim’s Rights Caucus Allied Professional Award for Promoting Crime Victims’ Rights, Services and Needs in the Mental Health Field, the 2007 American Psychological Association Division of Trauma Psychology Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award, and the 2008 International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies Lifetime Achievement Award.  He is Director of the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center and serves as the Vice-Chair for Research and Research Administration within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.  Kilpatrick consulted with BJS in its 1992 re-design of methodology for measuring sexual assault in the National Crime Victimization Survey.  He has provided invited testimony to several committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate about a variety of issues including sexual assault.  He was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Traumatic Stressfrom 1997-2005 and has served on two Institute of Medicine Committees of the National Academy of Sciences.  He also served on the CDC Sexual Violence Surveillance: Uniform Definitions and Recommended Data Elements panels in 2002 and 2010.  He has over 200 peer reviewed publications in the scientific literature as well as numerous other book chapters and technical reports.  He was a founding member of People Against Rape, South Carolina’s first rape crisis center and of the South Carolina Victim Assistance Network, and he has served since 1982 as a gubernatorial appointee to the South Carolina Crime Victim Compensation Board.