If you are interested in consulting with CVT for your research, please email research [at] cvt [dot] org. Below are biographies of CVT research staff and links to a torture rehabilitaiton and research bioblography.

Torture Rehabilitation and Research Bibliography (PDF)
The bibliography includes information on existing studies on torture and refugee trauma interventions, research methods, program evaluation methods, symptoms and consequences of torture, rehabilitation of torture survivors and working with war traumatized and refugee populations.

The bibliography is made possible through the financial support of the United States Agency for International Development and the American people’s support.

Jon Hubbard, Ph.D, LP
Director of Research
Dr. Hubbard received his Ph.D. in Developmental and Clinical Psychology from the University of Minnesota where his focus of study was resilience under conditions of extreme stress. He has now been exploring the consequences of exposure to torture and massive trauma in cross-cultural populations for over 20 years. 

Over the past decade Jon has spent much of his time working internationally, helping the Center for Victims of Torture develop intervention programs for torture survivors in refugee camps and communities in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Jordan. In addition, he has provided consultations on program development, counseling skills and program evaluation for existing torture treatment organizations in many other countries around the world. His contributions include developing measures and methodologies for studying the impact of torture and war trauma on survivors with a particular focus on how these traumatic events affect functional adaptation (e.g., spiritual, social, academic or job functioning). He has developed methodologies for creating clinical assessment and program evaluation tools that have utility across diverse cultures and contexts, integrate both qualitative and quantitative methods and that can be implemented by program or local staff who may not have research training or experience.

Greg Vinson, PhD, MA
Senior Research and Evaluation Manager
Dr. Vinson received his PhD in Psychology from the University of Minnesota, with an emphasis in statistics and measurement.  He plans and oversees evaluation, measurement, and research efforts for domestic and international CVT programs, consults and collaborates with universities, governments and other NGOs, and conducts and presents evaluation and research findings to local, national, and international audiences.  In addition to working in human rights, his professional interests include cross-cultural measurement, outcome evaluation in resource-limited environments, mixed qualitative and quantitative research methods, and applied psychology.

Craig Higson-Smith, MA.
Monitoring and Evaluation Advisory, Partners in Trauma Healing
Mr. Higson-Smith works to strengthen the capacity of PATH partner centers to evaluate the effectiveness of their clinical interventions. He brings to the position over 20 years of experience in the torture treatment field including previous work with CVT. In 2005, Mr. Higson-Smith began his partnership with CVT as the International Capacity-Building African Regional Consultant. More recently, he has served as the clinical consultant to the Trauma Healing Initiative-Africa, where he has been key in providing close monitoring and tailored technical assistance to the project’s African partner centers during regular site visits and clinical workshops. He is a founding member of the Sinani Program for Survivors of Violence and the South African Institute for Traumatic Stress. During his career he has taught at several universities, worked as a senior Research Specialist for the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa, and authored many articles and books on trauma and torture treatment. Mr. Higson-Smith is a research psychologist with an MA (cum laude) from the University of Natal in South Africa and is currently finishing his PhD exploring contextually appropriate torture counseling models for Sub-Saharan Africa. He works from his home in Johannesburg, South Africa.