Symposium #7

Dr. Christian Meissner is Professor of Psychology at Iowa State University. He holds a Ph.D. in Cognitive & Behavioral Science from Florida State University (2001) and conducts research on the psychological processes underlying investigative interviews, including issues surrounding the elicitation of memories, securing cooperation and engaging influence in the interrogation room, and assessing credibility. He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and edited volumes, and has offered training on evidence-based approaches to U.S. military, intelligence, and federal law enforcement communities. Dr. Meissner’s research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Intelligence Community. He has received numerous national and international awards for his contributions to research in this area.

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Dr. Coral Dando is a Professor of Psychology, an HCPC registered Forensic Psychologist, and a Chartered Scientist. She was awarded my PhD in Forensic Cognitive Psychology in 2008 after returning to academia following 12 years as a London police officer. Her primary research interests are centered on applying contemporary cognitive theories to investigate and understand cognition in goal directed settings, such as during face-to-face interviews, and when communicating in synthetic environments and via a computer. Dr. Dando is currently working on a number of collaborative research projects. For example, a) exploring the efficacy of innovative environmental supports tool for scaffolding older adults’ eyewitness remembering to improve access to justice, b) with funding from the UK government she is using novel mock suspect and persuasion paradigms to develop innovative techniques for detecting indicators of verbal deception in face-to-face and remote interviews, and for gathering information in virtual environments, and c) with several UK agencies she is developing veracity testing interview techniques to improve cooperation and information gain during interviews with suspected and convicted sex offenders.

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Colonel Steven M. Kleinman (U.S. Air Force Ret.) is a career intelligence officer with 30 years of operational and leadership experience in assignments worldwide. He is a recognized subject matter expert in human intelligence, strategic interrogation, intelligence support to special operations, and special survival training. He has the distinction of serving both as the director of the Combat Interrogation Course and as the Department of Defense senior intelligence officer for resistance to interrogation training. Colonel Kleinman is a veteran of three major military campaigns (Operations Just Cause, Desert Shield/Storm, and Iraqi Freedom) where he served as an interrogator, case officer, chief of a joint and combined interrogation team, and as a senior advisor on interrogation operations to a special operations task force. He has been cited as one of the most prolific interrogators during the first Gulf War. He has testified on interrogation and detainee policy before five Congressional intelligence, armed services, and judiciary committees, and served as the senior advisor to the Intelligence Science Board’s 2005-2008 study on strategic interrogation. He has authored many publications in both professional and scholarly journals on issues of elicitation, interrogation, and credibility assessment. He is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in psychology, the National Intelligence University with a Master of Science in strategic intelligence, and the National University in San Diego with a Master of Science in forensic sciences. His professional military education includes the U.S. Air Force Squadron Officer School, Air Command & Staff College, and Air War College.

Erik Phillips is a former Army Special Operations and contract interrogator, and an Arabic linguist. His operational experience spans three combat theaters, and his reporting has proven instrumental in guiding decision-making ranging from tactical-level operations to national-level policy. He is uniquely qualified in exploiting Islamic extremist networks and in countering extremist propaganda and recruitment efforts. Mr. Phillips has earned both a BA and MA in Psychological Science from the University of Colorado at Colorado Spring, graduating with honors and focusing his research and studies on the science of interrogation and deception detection.