Assistant Professor
Chief, UF Forensic Institute
After completing medical school at American University of the Caribbean, Dr. Werner trained as a psychiatrist at Yale University and as a forensic psychiatrist at the University of Florida. Since completing her training Dr. Werner worked as Director of Adult Inpatient Services in the Department of Psychiatry, Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Alachua General Hospital and served as a forensic expert. Currently, Dr. Werner is the Director of the UF Forensic Institute and Chief of the Division of Forensic Psychiatry. In this capacity, she is responsible for the education and training of medical students, residents and fellows in Forensic Psychiatry and providing mentorship to faculty in her division.
Dr. Werner provides civil expertise in several states in addition to Florida in areas including malpractice, personal injury and wrongful death for both plaintiffs and defendants. She is also frequently requested by the court to provide third party evaluations in criminal cases when competency or sanity is in dispute.
Jason Demery, Ph.D.Assistant Professor
Licensed Psychologist & Neuropsychologist
After completing graduate school at the University of Florida, Dr. Demery completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Departments of Clinical and Health Psychology and Neuroscience at the McKnight Brain Institute at UF. He then served as Assistant Professor in the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology providing neuropsychological services to the UF/Shands Hospital Neurotrauma Unit. In 2007, Dr. Demery joined the staff of the Gainesville VA Medical Center as a neuropsychologist on the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Team and worked with veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and blast-related neurotrauma. As a Licensed Psychologist and Neuropsychologist, Dr. Demery serves as the Assistant Director of Forensic Psychology at the UF Forensic Institute. He has over 15-years of clinical experience in evaluating and treating individuals with traumatic brain injury, stroke, and other acquired neurological and psychological conditions. He has published several scientific articles about TBI and his present area of research is in the clinical validation of blood-based biomarkers in detecting brain injury presence and magnitude. Dr. Demery provides forensic expertise in civil and criminal litigation for plaintiff and defense council including personal injury, IME, diminished capacity, competence, sanity and psychological and cognitive malingering.
Associate Professor
Dr. Martha Brown attended medical school, and completed her residency and fellowship at the Medical University of South Carolina. After graduation, Dr. Brown moved to New Orleans where she was an Assistant Professor at the LSU Medical School and became Louisiana State Physician Health Program Director. After leading this program for impaired health professionals, developing prevention and treatment for patients from physicians to professional athletes, she was recruited to the University of South Florida (USF) Medical School. At USF she became an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Division of Addiction Psychiatry. In 2006, in addition to this position, she became Associate Dean for Faculty Development in the USF College of Medicine.
Dr. Brown also has a long history of being asked to be an expert by State and Federal governmental agencies. She has a number of scholarly and research interests in addiction psychiatry.
Assistant Professor
After completing his medical training at St. Louis University School of Medicine, Dr. Cooke trained as a psychiatrist at University of Maryland/Sheppard Pratt where he was chief resident. After completion of his residency Dr. Cooke completed a forensic fellowship at Yale University. Currently, Dr. Cooke is an attending physician at the Shands at Vista hospital as well as an active medical school and residency instructor and supervisor. Dr. Cooke has provided forensic expertise in sanity, competency, violence and risk, recidivism and mitigation.
Dr. Herkov is an Associate Professor in the University of Florida College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Herkov received his Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Auburn University graduating Magna Cum Laude and completed an internship at Eastern Virginia Medical Center. His Postdoctoral education included the Forensic Psychiatry Training Program at the University of Florida and Neuropsychological Assessment Training at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Gainesville, Florida with both Neurology, Neuropsychology, and Psychiatry mentors.
Dr. Herkov has been practicing forensic psychology since 1994. He has a national reputation as a forensic expert, testifying in state and federal criminal and civil courts in Florida, the Southeast and Puerto Rico. He specializes in clinical psychological and neuropsychological assessment, treatment and forensic evaluation of a variety of adult and adolescent populations, and testifies in both civil and criminal cases.
In the civil arena Dr. Herkov testifies in all matters except child custody. The areas of expert testimony include traumatic brain injury, psychological injury, malpractice, testamentary capacity, PTSD, employment issues such as sexual harassment, death and grief, sexual offenders, etc. This includes evaluations for both the plaintiff and the defense. In criminal court, he testifies on issues of competency to proceed, sanity at the time of the alleged offense, diminished capacity (although Florida calls this specific intent crimes) and mitigation issues.
Assistant Professor
After receiving his medical degree from the George Washington University School of Medicine, Dr. Reisfield completed an anesthesiology residency at the University of Florida and a pain medicine fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard University. Dr. Reisfield subsequently served as a hospice medical director and a pain and palliative medicine division chief at the University of Florida in Jacksonville. As a part of his transition to the University of Florida in Gainesville, Dr. Reisfield completed an addiction medicine fellowship in the department of psychiatry. Dr. Reisfield is board certified in anesthesiology and pain medicine and is board eligible in addiction medicine and palliative medicine. He is a clinician-researcher and has authored more than fifty articles and book chapters. He currently serves as the Chief of Pain Management Services, Division of Addiction Medicine, Department of Psychiatry at the University of Florida, as well as a forensic expert in the UF Forensic Institute.
Dr. Reisfield’s forensic expertise includes pain management, substance use disorders, diminished capacity due to intoxication and other impairment issues.
Director of Trial Practice Programs
Jennifer Zedalis is the Director of Trial Practice for the University of Florida Levin College of Law. She is a Senior Legal Skills Professor and also an active member of the Florida Bar.
Ms. Zedalis has a juris doctorate from the University of Florida, and a bachelor’s degree in English from Duke. She teaches trial practice and litigation, and has also taught in the criminal clinic as a defense clinician.
Prior to accepting a position with the College of Law, Ms. Zedalis practiced criminal defense as a public defender and also in private practice in North Central Florida. She has handled all types of criminal trials, and has also handled cases in the Innocence Network. Ms. Zedalis is on the executive council for the criminal law section of the Florida Bar, and is a co-director of the Gerald Bennett Prosecutor/Public Defender Trial Training Program.
The Department of Psychiatry at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville, Florida, is a large multi-faceted program centered in a major academic medical center. The Department of Psychiatry focuses on the three central missions of clinical care, research and education to govern its department of psychiatry divisions. Nationally recognized for ground-breaking research projects in Autism, Brain Stimulation (ECT, TMS, DBS) , Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, the Department of Psychiatry provides state-of-the-art research, inpatient and outpatient evaluation & treatment locations in Gainesville, Central Florida and Indian River County. The Department has over 60 full-time Faculty researchers and treatment experts . The University of Florida College of Medicine is proud to offer evidenced-based treatment programs for Impaired Health Professionals, depression, children and adolescents, eating disorders, obesity, pain, alcoholism, bipolar illness, geriatric psychiatry, drug abuse, Schizophrenia , and other psychiatric and psychological problems. Keep up with the latest community and psychiatry news with our Addiction & Psychiatry Newsletter. Find UF a psychiatrist or psychologist or forensic expert or Faculty of the University of Florida’s College of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry.