About me
Jeffrey Aaron, Ph.D. is a clinical and forensic psychologist. Currently the Juvenile Justice & Behavioral Health Program Manager for the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Services, he previously spent almost 18 years at the Commonwealth Center for Children and Adolescents, Virginia’s only public psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents, in clinical roles and as the hospital’s director. Dr. Aaron is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry & Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia Medical School and associate faculty at UVA’s Institute of Law, Psychiatry & Public Policy. He also has a private practice in which he conducts forensic psychological evaluations of adolescents and adults, with areas of specialization that include evaluation of confessions, mitigation, posttraumatic stress, and juvenile justice. Dr. Aaron has provided invited testimony before the Virginia House and Senate and has presented across the country on topics including forensic psychological evaluation, adolescent development and legal decision-making, the impact of trauma, and clinical assessment of children and adolescents. Dr. Aaron was a member of the Mental Health Workgroup of the Governor’s Task Force on School and Campus Safety, the Charlottesville/Albemarle gang intervention project known as Gang Reduction through Active Community Engagement (GRACE), and Virginia Interagency Task Force charged with making recommendations to the Virginia General Assembly regarding the transformation of Virginia’s juvenile justice system. He is actively involved in developing systems to train public safety officers to have better understanding of and interactions with youth, and is a sworn law enforcement officer, serving as a reserve sheriff’s deputy.
