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Leadership Team
Liza Barros-Lane, Ph.D., LMSW
Executive Director
Dr. Liza Barros-Lane is an assistant professor of social work at the University of Houston-Downtown. She brings her background as a young widow, therapist, and researcher to her examination of the hidden experiences of fellow young widows. She desires to bring social awareness to this population who are hidden in plain sight.
Felicia L. Harris, Ph.D.
Director of Communications
Dr. Felicia L. Harris is a formally trained journalist and associate professor of communication at the University of Houston-Downtown. Her research and writing practice aim to make complex experiences, such as young widowhood, accessible for any audience, particularly ones related to health, culture, technology, identity, and social justice.
Sarah Vollmann, MPS, ATR-BC, LICSW
Associate Director
Sarah Vollmann specializes in grief and traumatic loss as an art therapist, clinical social worker, and researcher. Her research focuses on how grief is held in the family, and she has authored multiple peer reviewed articles as well as a book on the topic. She is faculty at Portland Institute for Loss and Transition and is completing her doctoral work at Tulane University. As Associate Director, she aims to shed light on premature widowhood.
Research Fellows
Dr. Shahnaz Savani is a Fulbright US Scholar, whose research interests include mental health and suicide prevention in low and middle-income countries; closing the treatment gap for mental illness by scaling up mental health treatment and engagement through evidence-based
psychosocial interventions. Dr. Savani will examine young widows' experiences of surviving their partner's death by suicide.
With previous experience working in school social work, medical social work, child welfare and adoption, and community outreach, Dr. Andrea Germany brings diverse experience to her work. Andrea's research focuses on equity in education, child welfare, mental health, suicide prevention, and grief and loss. Specifically, she will be examining the experiences of widowed survivors of suicide loss and
Pearl Bryant, LCSW experience includes working in residential treatment facilities, a level one trauma emergency room, psychiatric facilities, the non-profit sector, private practice and higher education. Pearl’s area of research includes widowhood in the African American community and its impact on widows' mental and social health.
Dr. Jordan Harrold is a LCSW who completed her doctorate in clinical social work and leadership from the University of Tennessee. She owns Harrold Counseling and Wellness in North Carolina. She is a repartnered widow and mom who unexpectedly became a widow in March of 2018. Jordan coauthored Widowhood and Mental Health: Social Predictors of Mental Health Disorders among Widows.
Dr. Austin Allen is a History professor who is an expert on the nineteenth-century United States. He specializes in social, economic, and legal change in the U.S. South between 1830s and 1880. He examines widowhood from a historical perspective through archival research. He is also part of the research team examining widowhood sexuality.
Dr. Kevin Buckler is a Criminal Justice professor whose research interests include Supreme Court criminal procedure case outcomes, media coverage of criminal justice issues, public opinion on crime and justice issues, and perceptions of people involved in the criminal justice system. He is examining the experience of sexuality during early widowhood.
Dr. Tyrian Stovall, MSW, DSW received her bachelor’s and master’s degree in Social Work from Southern University in New Orleans. She is o completed her Doctorate of Social Work degree from Tulane University. Dr. Stovall's research examined the intersection of the young widowhood experience with personal, interpersonal, community-, and policy-level factors.
Kelley Hunter Ellis, LCSW, is a doctoral student whose research interests include grief, loss, and bereavement. Kelley’s interest in studying grieving parents and grieving children stems from her own loss as a child. Kelley will research the changes in the relationship between the surviving parent and child (children) after the loss of a parent.
Dr. Patricia Smith, LMSW, completed her doctoral studies at Tulane School of Social Work. Her stepfather passed away from a pancreatic attack when she was 19, leaving her mother a widow at the age of 38. She watched her mother navigate young widowhood and desires to contribute to this population through her research. Dr. Smith’s research interest is in the socio-ecological context of young widows
Dr. Bree is the Founder and Director of Magnolia Harbor Carefarm, a 501(c)3 with a dual focus of being both a therapeutic program for traumatically bereaved humans and an animal sanctuary to rescue animals. She is an LCSW and contributing faculty at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Her research focuses on the human-animal connection intherapeutic spaces with traumatic grief and loss.
Dr. Vivian Elaine Cornelius, LMSW, earned her DSW from Tulane University in 2024. Dr. Cornelius was widowed at the age of 51, so she has firsthand knowledge of the misinterpretation of widowhood and the disenfranchisement of grief. Dr. Cornelius' research explores the disenfranchisement of grief and other hidden experiences of young widows.
Dr. Vanessa Alvarez Rodriguez, LCSW, DSW is a bilingual Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 9 years of experience in the field. She received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Southern California followed by her Master’s in Social Work from California State University, Dominguez Hills. Dr. Alvarez-Rodriguez completed her Doctorate in Social Work at Tulane University and is focusing h
Leslie Sirrianni earned her MSSW degree from UT Austin and is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW-S). She coordinates and delivers MI training, coaching, coding, and supervision to clinicians, human service providers, and program staff from diverse work settings. She is an experienced qualitative researcher who is focused on understanding the hidden experiences of young widows, particularly su
Lucas Sanchez, LCSW is a mental health practitioner and clinical professor at NMSU. During his doctoral training at Tulane, he discovered his interest in young widowhood research. This newfound interest inspires him to enhance treatments for grief. Remaining active in research and practice will help with this goal. Current research interests include sexuality and yearning, social support of widows
Dr. Emily George Tilley, LCSW-BACS, LAC, is a behavioral health administrator who specializes in residential substance abuse treatment. While completing her doctoral studies at Tulane University, she expressed an interest in the young widowhood research while experiencing her own prolonged grief following the loss of her parents. Her research interests include unhelpful support of young widows, re
Amber is currently a BSW student at the University of Houston Downtown, driven by passion for serving individuals impacted by grief and trauma. Her goal is to become a licensed clinical social worker specializing in grief and trauma. She has the unique opportunity to blend her academic pursuits with her personal experience. A survivor of childhood parental loss herself, she brings a deeply persona
Tiffany Kasper, LCSW, is a therapist, and a doctoral student at Tulane University. Tiffany previously worked as a hospice social worker and bereavement coordinator, helping patients and families cope with the challenges related to their illness and the grief surrounding their loved one’s diagnosis and death. Her research interests include well-being in social workers,and grief and loss. Tiffany w