Graduate School: Vanderbilt University
Internship: Sharp HealthCare
Clinical Interests: Psychosis, Early Psychosis, Prodromal Psychosis, Serious Mental Illness, Psychosis Recovery, CBT, ACT.
Dr. Haley Potts is a licensed clinical psychologist who joined the faculty in 2024 as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Her work focuses on psychological assessment in the criminal and civil legal systems. She is a member of the Vanderbilt Forensic Evaluation Team, where she conducts forensic evaluations for the Davidson County court systems. She also welcomes private referrals for all types of forensic mental health evaluations and is particularly interested in evaluating potential psychological injuries in civil cases.
Dr. Potts earned her undergraduate degree at Sewanee: The University of the South (YSR!). She completed a master's degree in forensic psychology from the University of Denver, where she gained experience in the treatment and evaluation of sexual offenders. Dr. Potts continued her education at the University of Alabama, where she earned a Ph.D. and a second master's degree in clinical psychology with a focus on psychology and law and worked extensively in Alabama’s state psychiatric hospitals. In 2022, she matched with Vanderbilt’s Forensic Psychiatry Clinic as their first-ever doctoral intern and was hired the following year to stay on as Vanderbilt’s inaugural postdoctoral fellow in forensic psychology. In addition to her clinical and research duties, Dr. Potts serves as the program director of the American Psychological Association’s continuing education sponsorship of Vanderbilt.
Dr. Potts’s research interests include the treatment of psychosis in restoring competency to stand trial, the role of criminal defense attorneys in the forensic mental health system(s), as well as the causes/effects of public mental health policy amid the United States’s “competency crisis.”
Dr. Alexandra Moussa-Tooks is a licensed clinical psychologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at VUMC. She received a dual PhD in Clinical Psychology and Neuroscience from Indiana University Bloomington (2021) and completed her pre-doctoral internship (2021) and postdoctoral fellowship (2022) in Psychotic Disorders at the VUMC Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences.
Dr. Moussa-Tooks’ research program is focused on identifying cognitive mechanisms of psychotic experiences through behavioral, self-report, and neuroimaging approaches. Her work to date has focused on neural contributions of the cerebellum to cognitive deficits observed in psychotic disorders and associated risk factors for abnormal cerebellar development, including early life insults and endogenous cannabinoid dysregulation.
Dr. Moussa-Tooks is currently building a research program aimed at understanding how cerebellar processes, namely psychomotor functions like motor learning, contribute to disorganized behavior in psychosis. She hopes to translate her research into effective treatments and optimized assessment tools for disorganized behavior.
Representative Publications
* indicates mentee
Clarifying the Role of the Cerebellum in Psychosis
Moussa-Tooks, A., Huang, A., Rogers, B., Sheffield, J., Heckers, S., & Woodward, N. Cognitive Ability and Cerebellar Volume in Psychosis. Biological Psychiatry. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2022.03.013; PMID:
Moussa-Tooks, A., Kim, D., *Bartolomeo, L., Purcell, J., Bolbecker, A., Newman, S., O’Donnell, B., & Hetrick, W. (2019) Impaired effective connectivity in schizophrenia during continuation of cerebellar-mediated sensorimotor synchronization. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 45(3), 531-541. doi:10.1093/schbul/sby064; PMID: 29800417
Moussa-Tooks, A., Hetrick, W., Green, J. (2020) Differential Effects of Two Early Life Stress Paradigms on Cerebellar-Dependent Delay Eyeblink Conditioning. Neurobiology of Stress, 13. doi:10.1016/j.ynstr.2020.100242; PMID: 33344698
Moussa-Tooks, A., *Larson, E., *Gimeno, A., Leishman, E., *Bartolomeo, L., Bradshaw, H., O’Donnell, B., Mackie, K., Hetrick, W. (2020) Long-Term Aberrations to Cerebellar Endocannabinoids Induced by Early Life Stress. Scientific Reports, 10(1). doi:10.1038/s41598-020-64075-4; PMID: 32350298
Assessment and Modulation of Psychomotor and Motor Integration Processes
Lundin, N., Kim, D. J., Tullar, R., Moussa-Tooks, A., Kent, J., Newman, S., Purcell, J., Bolbecker, A., O’Donnell, B., Hetrick W. Cerebellar Activation Deficits During Delay Eyeblink Conditioning in Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin Open, 2(1). doi:10.1093/schizbullopen/sgab040; PMID: 34541537
*Mitroi, J., *Burroughs, L., Moussa-Tooks, A., Bolbecker, A., Lundin, N., O’Donnell, B., & Hetrick, W. (2020) Dose and Polarity Independent Modulation of Cerebellar Timing Using Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation. The Cerebellum. doi:10.1007/s12311-020-01114-w; PMID: 32036562
Kim, D. J., Moussa-Tooks, A., Bolbecker, A., Apthorp, D., Newman, S., O’Donnell, B., Hetrick W. (2020) Cerebellar-Cortical Dysconnectivity in Resting-State Associated with Sensorimotor Tasks in Schizophrenia. Human Brain Mapping. doi:10.1002/hbm.25002; PMID: 32250008
Assessment and Constructs
Moussa-Tooks, A., Bailey, A., Bolbecker, A., Viken, R., O’Donnell, B., & Hetrick, W. (2020) Bifactor Structure of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire Across the Schizotypy Spectrum. Journal of Personality Disorders, 34, 466-491. doi:10.1521/pedi_2020_34_466; PMID: 32039649
Wolny, J., Moussa-Tooks, A., Bailey, A., & Hetrick, W. Race and Self-Reported Paranoia: Increased Item Endorsement on Subscales of the SPQ. Schizophrenia Research: Psychotic Disorders and Race (Special Issue). doi:10.1016/j.schres.2021.11.034; PMID: 34895794
Bailey, A., Moussa-Tooks, A., Klein, S., Sponheim, S., & Hetrick, W. (2021) The Sensory Gating Inventory-Brief. Schizophrenia Bulletin Open, 2(1). doi:10.1093/schizbullopen/sgab019; PMID: 34414372
*Chen, J., Purcell, J., Moussa-Tooks, A., & Hetrick. W. (2020) Psychometric Evaluation of the Pinocchio Illusion Questionnaire. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics. doi:10.3758/s13414-020-02011-4; PMID: 32185641
Dr. Moussa-Tooks specializes in individual psychotherapy for individuals with psychosis, using cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBTp) and Metacognitive approaches. She also serves as a member of the NAVIGATE first episode team, which offers coordinated specialty care to individuals within the first two years of a psychotic disorder. For more information on services, visit https://www.vumc.org/early-psychosis-program/services
Other areas of interest for Dr. Moussa-Tooks include treating sleep disorders like insomnia with behavioral and cognitive approaches (CBT for insomnia), inpatient assessment and brief interventions, and culturally-informed adaptations to existing psychotherapy interventions.
Graduate School: University of Houston-Clear Lake
Internship: Vanderbilt University Medical Center Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Clinical Interests: Assessment, differential diagnosis of complex cases, systems level assessment and intervention, dissemination science, social-emotional learning skills, universal screening, trauma-informed treatment, attachment relationships, and evidence-based interventions for children, youth, and families.
Graduate School:
Internship: Vanderbilt University Medical Center Autism and Lifespan Development Track
Clinical Interests:
My research is focused on identifying how changes to the hippocampal network contribute to progression of psychopathology and cognitive impairments in psychotic disorders. I use systems and cognitive neuroscience approaches to study the brain and brain networks, as well as multiple levels of analysis, including neuroimaging (structural, activation, connectivity) and behavioral assessment (memory, attention, eye movement).
Currently, we are conducting a study to examine how hippocampal microstructural integrity is altered in schizophrenia and how these alterations relate to individual differences in memory and functional outcomes. Through this work we aim to identify new ways to track and predict the progression of memory impairments in psychosis and their impact on clinical symptoms and function in daily life.
Avery, Suzanne N, Kristan Armstrong, Maureen McHugo, Simon Vandekar, Jennifer Urbano Blackford, Neil D Woodward, and Stephan Heckers. “Relational Memory in the Early Stage of Psychosis: A 2-Year Follow-up Study.” Schizophrenia Bulletin 47, no. 1 (July 13, 2020): 75–86. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa081.
Avery, Suzanne N., Baxter P. Rogers, Maureen McHugo, Kristan Armstrong, Jennifer Urbano Blackford, Simon N. Vandekar, Neil D. Woodward, and Stephan Heckers. “Hippocampal Network Dysfunction in Early Psychosis: A 2-Year Longitudinal Study.” Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science 3, no. 4 (October 26, 2022): 979–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsgos.2022.10.002.
Avery, Suzanne N., Maureen McHugo, Kristan Armstrong, Jennifer U. Blackford, Simon Vandekar, Neil D. Woodward, and Stephan Heckers. “Habituation during Encoding: A New Approach to the Evaluation of Memory Deficits in Schizophrenia.” Schizophrenia Research 223 (September 2020): 179–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2020.07.007.
Avery, Suzanne N., Maureen McHugo, Kristan Armstrong, Jennifer Urbano Blackford, Neil D. Woodward, and Stephan Heckers. “Stable Habituation Deficits in the Early Stage of Psychosis: A 2-Year Follow-up Study.” Translational Psychiatry 11, no. 1 (2021): 20. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-020-01167-9.
Avery, Suzanne N., Anna S. Huang, Julia M. Sheffield, Baxter P. Rogers, Simon Vandekar, Alan Anticevic, and Neil D. Woodward. “Development of Thalamocortical Structural Connectivity in Typically Developing and Psychosis Spectrum Youths.” Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging 7, no. 8 (October 14, 2022): 782–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2021.09.009.
Dr. Amanda Bitting joined the faculty in 2020. Dr. Bitting obtained her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Eastern Kentucky University. She went on to complete her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Sam Houston State University where she gained experience and training with criminal forensic evaluations. She completed a predoctoral internship at Utah State Hospital and a postdoctoral fellowship in forensic psychology at Minnesota State-Operated Forensic Services. Dr. Bitting’s clinical experience and interests are primarily criminal forensic evaluations, including criminal competencies, mental state at the time of the alleged offense, and violence/sexual risk assessment. Her research interests include the psychometric properties of forensic assessment instruments and bias in forensic decision-making.