Research Staff

 

Kira Joined the Warriors Research Institute (WRI) team in June of 2022. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Health Education and Promotion and a Master of Public Health degree from Utah State University. Her professional background includes work as an Advanced-EMT, volunteer firefighter, graduate teaching assistant and education advocate. Her public health experience includes community-based opioid overdose prevention and harm reduction services, child nutrition, dementia caregiver health and wellness, first responder and military mental health, policy development and advocacy, research, and mental health service management.

Dr. Victoria A. Torres currently serves as a research post-doctoral fellow at the Warriors Research Institute. She is passionate about improving accessibility to high quality mental healthcare for underserved groups. Clinically, Dr. Torres enjoys using evidence-based approaches to support people from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences.

Completion of her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at Baylor University laid a strong foundation for her work as a WRI research assistant from 2014 to 2016. At the WRI, Dr. Torres became PI on her first mentored grant award “Identifying Frequency of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) in Firefighters.” Under the supervision of Dean Lee M. Cohen, PhD at the University of Mississippi, she completed her dissertation focused on developing profiles of e-cigarette use outcome expectancies among young adults. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, TX. During internship, Dr. Torres engaged patients in mental health services through rotations at the Transitional Care Clinic (TCC) and San Antonio State Hospital (SASH).

For fun, Dr. Torres enjoys painting, playing with her dogs, and cooking/baking.

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Jalisa Jackson joined the Warriors Research Institute team in June 2023. She graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and African & African American Studies in May 2021. Before joining our team, Jalisa studied access to and interventions for mental health resources amongst college students and previously worked as a research assistant at the Duke Center for Eating Disorders investigating treatments for children and families impacted by avoidant and restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID).

Jalisa plans to pursue graduate school in the future. Her research interests are centered around improving access to evidence-based and community-centered treatment and resources for those impacted by various trauma. For fun, she enjoys attending comedy shows or concerts and spending time with her family!

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Ian joined the Warriors Research Institute (WRI) team in December 2023 as a Clinical Research Assistant. He graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, double major in Child Learning and Development and minor in Criminology. He later graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2023 with a Master of Science in Psychological Sciences. Before joining the WRI, Ian worked as a research assistant in the Close Relationships and Health Lab at the University of Texas at Dallas, studying topics including the associations between sleep health and personality traits in couples, social factors contributing to health in Hispanic/Latino families, and the associations between stress, social support, and physical activity in couples.

Ian plans to pursue a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. His research interests include relationships, stress, social support and coping processes, and behavioral medicine. Ian is a native of Dallas. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his friends, family, and girlfriend, lifting weights, reading, playing videogames, and watching hockey.