Our Team

The Road Home Program Research team has years of experience researching and working with those with PTSD. We are passionate about innovating and improving care for those living with PTSD through research. We hope to develop and test ways to make treatments briefer, more accessible, and more beneficial.

Philip Held, PhD

Research Director, Licensed Clinical Psychologist (He/Him)

Philip Held, PhD, is a health services researcher who is passionate about innovating mental health care treatments, especially as it relates to PTSD and other trauma-related disorders.

Dr. Held is a licensed clinical psychologist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Rush University Medical Center. Dr. Held is also the Research Director of the Road Home Program: Center for Veterans and Their Families at Rush and the Director of the TREAT (Treatment Response, Efficacy, Access, and Timing) Lab at Rush.

Dr. Held has had continuous grant funding since 2015 and a number of active research projects, including several randomized clinical trials. Dr. Held’s research focuses on examining the efficiency and effectiveness of evidence-based treatments for PTSD and other trauma related disorders such as substance use, mood, and anxiety disorders. Additionally, Dr. Held’s research aims to and identify ways to help those who do not respond to existing treatments. Dr. Held’s research combines treatment with advanced statistics and analytics, such as machine learning, with the goal of being able to further tailor treatments and match individuals with the type and length of treatment in which they are most likely to succeed given their background and experiences.

Merdijana Kovacevic, PhD

Clinical Psychologist (She/Her)

Dr. Kovacevic is an Assistant Professor who has specialized training in providing assessment and therapy services for trauma survivors.

Merdijana obtained her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Tulsa and completed her clinical internship at the Cincinnati VA Medical Center, including a rotation at the Trauma Recovery Center. During her graduate training, she was a research assistant in a lab exploring the effectiveness of trauma-informed programming for substance-using, justice-involved women. She also provided trauma-focused individual and group therapy to individuals who experienced various types of traumas, including sexual assault. Her research interests include improving the effectiveness or efficacy of trauma-based care. In her personal life, Merdijana likes to thrift, paint, and go hiking!

Sarah Pridgen, MA, LCP

Manager of Research Operations (She/Her)

Sarah has a BA in Special Education from the University of North Carolina Wilmington and is a former special education teacher. She received her MA in Clinical Psychology from Roosevelt University.

Sarah has experience providing individual and group therapy with at-risk populations experiencing highly acute symptomology including psychotic symptoms, suicide ideation, homicide ideation, and aggression. She also has experience combining her training as a special education teacher with her clinical work by providing specialized therapy to individuals with intellectual and/or physical disabilities. Her research interests include exploring neural mechanisms that support intensive treatments, especially as they relate to cognition. She is also interested in the utilization of machine learning to aid in the advancement of clinical care by using data to predict which individuals will most benefit from intensive treatment formats. When not in the research lab, Sarah likes to hang out with her cats, Clark and Foster, read, and explore Chicago’s dining scene.

Uddy Banerjee, PhD

Senior Clinical Analyst (He/Him)

Uddy earned his PhD from The Ohio State University’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. His dissertation research focused on transfusions and modeling targeted delivery of therapeutic gasses to tissues.

Prior to joining the Road Home program, Uddy worked as a healthcare data economist within Option Care Enterprises – a leading provider of infusion therapies. In his role as a Sr. Clinical Analyst at Rush, Uddy’s research interests include precision medicine, analytics around mental health therapy delivery, and harnessing analytic information from free-flow text using Natural Language Processing techniques.

Ryan Schubert, MS

Clinical Data Scientist (He/Him)

Ryan received his BS in Biology and Bionformatics and his MS in Applied Statistics from Loyola University Chicago. Ryan previously worked as a Bionformatician in a computational human genetics lab.

Enya Meade, BA

Clinical Research Assistant (She/Her)

Enya received her BA in psychology from Franklin & Marshall College. At F&M, Enya worked in several labs related to child development and PTSD.

After graduating, Enya worked at the University of Chicago before becoming a research assistant at RHP. Broadly speaking, Enya’s research interests include the development and maintenance of PTSD symptoms particularly within BIPOC populations. Enya hopes to obtain her PhD in clinical psychology and work on improving access and outcomes of PTSD treatment for individuals in marginalized populations. When she is not working at RHP, Enya enjoys baking for her family, reading, and binge-watching bad Netflix romcoms.

Rhea Mundle, BS

Clinical Research Assistant (She/Her)

Rhea graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Molecular and Cellular Biology. At UIUC, Rhea was a research assistant for a lab studying human memory and cognition.

Emily Patton, BA

Epi Research Assistant (She/Her)

Emily graduated from DePaul University in 2020 with a bachelor's in Psychology and a minor in Public Health Studies. She previously worked as a Research Study Coordinator at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. She is interested in methods to improve service seeking and in the prevention of trauma.

Cailan Splaine, BS, BA

Clinical Research Assistant (She/Her)

Cailan has a BS in Psychology and a BA in Sociology from the University of Washington, where she worked in the UW Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress as an undergraduate research assistant.

Her research interests include PTSD following sexual and interpersonal traumas, resilience trajectories following trauma, contributors to treatment nonresponse, and characteristics of PTSD symptom sub clusters. She hopes to earn a PhD in clinical psychology with a continued focus on PTSD treatment and prevention in sexual assault survivors. In her free time, Cailan enjoys reading and trying out new restaurants and coffee shops.

Jessica Tharaud, BA

Clinical Research Assistant (She/Her)

Jessica graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Spanish from Bryn Mawr College.

Where Are They Now?

Former Research Assistants

Kelsey Petrey is currently a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at The University of Central Florida, where she works with Dr. David Rozek.

Jenna Bagely is currently a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at Case Western Reserve University, where she works with Dr. Norah Feeny.

Victoria Stiegerwald is currently a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at The University of Central Florida, where she works with Dr. David Rozek.

Former Postdoctoral Fellows

Merdijiana Kovacevic, Ph.D. (2020-2021) is now an Associate Professor at Rush University Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry.

Jarrett Lewis, Ph.D. (2020-2021) is now an Assistant Professor in the Counseling Psychology Division of the Department of Education Psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Michelle Miller, Ph.D. (2018-2020) is now an Assistant Professor at Indiana University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry.

Join Us

Individuals seeking employment or volunteer research opportunities, please email a copy of your CV to Sarah Pridgen. (Sarah_Pridgen@rush.edu).

Support Our Research

We are able to provide free treatment to our research participants as a part of our research thanks to generous donors who are passionate about improving the lives of those living with PTSD.

If you would like to support our mission of innovating and improving treatments for those with PTSD, consider doing so by donating to our research.

DONATE NOW