WTS Consulting Staff

The professionals of WTS Inc. present strong credentials in the assessment of violence risk. We are recognized for our effective application of this clinical specialty in workplace contexts where ongoing risk management, multi-disciplinary collaboration, and legal considerations are paramount. Our consultants pursue their professional interests in diverse settings, allowing us to benefit from each other's varying perspectives. Their related specialties include forensic and court-related evaluations and expert testimony, police psychology, conflict management and alternate dispute resolution, sexual harassment and sexual deviance, community management of violent offenders, and organizational crisis intervention and trauma reduction.

Stephen G. White, Ph.D., is a psychologist and the President of Work Trauma Services Inc., a consulting group he founded in 1982 to assist employers with serious workplace crises. His extensive work in organizational trauma reduction led to his specializing, since 1989, in the assessment and management of workplace violence risk. He has consulted on over 4,000 threat cases for numerous Fortune 500 companies and private or public organizations of all sizes throughout the United States. He has designed and provided detailed employer threat management team training for responding to a wide range of potential risk scenarios. Dr. White has testified before the California State Legislature on behalf of workplace violence prevention legislation, and has published in the areas of workplace trauma management. He is the co-author of Threat Management of Stalking Cases in The Psychology of Stalking: Clinical and Forensic Perspectives (Academic Press, 1998). Dr. White, along with Dr. Reid Meloy, has developed and recently published The WAVR-21, the first scientifically based structured guide for assessing workplace violence risk. Dr. White was among invited experts of both the FBI’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime and the American Society of Industrial Security to participate in their development of online and published guidelines for the prevention of workplace violence. Since the events of September 11th he has worked with corporate business continuity teams to integrate human resilience planning into disaster recovery efforts. Dr. White is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, where he currently co-facilitates a professional development group for medical students. He is a frequent guest lecturer at local, regional, and national forums for human resource, security, and line managers, employment law attorneys, and employee assistance professionals.

Jolee J. Brunton, Ph.D. is the Vice President for Threat Management Programs at WTS and Director of its conflict management services. She is also the chief psychologist for Focus Psychological Services which she founded in 1984 to provide clinical services to public safety personnel in the San Diego area. She is the chief psychologist for San Diego, El Cajon, and Escondido Police Departments providing clinical services and consultation on issues such as the use of deadly force, intervention with mentally disordered violent offenders, organizational consultation, and conflict management. Dr. Brunton has over 20 years experience in the assessment, management, and treatment of acute psychiatric patients including those at risk for violence as the clinical supervisor for inpatient psychiatric centers. Dr. Brunton has been an invited participant to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's symposia on police psychology and is certified in hostage negotiation through the Administration of Justice, California State University, San Jose. She has extensive experience in workplace crisis and trauma intervention, and alternate dispute resolution. Dr. Brunton has been a WTS consultant since 1991.

Stephen M. Raffle, M. D. is the principal of Stephen M. Raffle, M. D. and Associates. He is a diplomate in psychiatry and forensic psychiatry of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology with 30 years experience in the assessment, treatment, and disposition of violent and potentially violent individuals. Throughout his career Dr. Raffle has consulted to many state and federal agencies, including the US Department of Labor, on employee risk of violence and fitness for duty. He has conducted risk assessments for various private corporations and in addition, consulted with employers on cases of alleged sexual harassment or discrimination, racial discrimination, ADA eligibility, disability, and wrongful termination. He has qualified as an expert witness in numerous jurisdictions regarding such cases. Since 1972 Dr. Raffle has consulted to the United States Attorney General and State of California Attorney General's Office on issues of violence risk of convicted felons and conducted over 200 evaluations for insanity or diminished mental capacity of defendants accused of murder. He has been a Qualified Medical Examiner for the State of California Department of Worker's Compensation, having performed numerous evaluations either as an agreed medical examiner or for insurance companies or attorneys. For 25 years Dr. Raffle was an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, and a faculty member at the Center for Trial and Appellate Advocacy, Hastings College of Law. Since 1993 WTS has engaged Dr. Raffle to conduct and assist with employee risk-of-violence assessments and to serve as a clinical and psychiatric case consultant to employer clients.

Ronald S. Ebert, Ph.D. is a principal of Psychological Services, Inc., a forensic psychological practice in Massachusetts. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology in forensic psychology and a designated forensic psychologist trainer in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Dr. Ebert is the senior forensic psychologist at McLean Hospital, the teaching psychiatric facility for Harvard University and is on the faculty of the psychiatry department of the Harvard Medical School. He is the co-author of the recent second edition of Violence Prediction, published by Charles C. Thomas. Dr. Ebert has extensive training and experience in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of violent individuals and has conducted numerous assessments for courts, prosecutors and defense attorneys in these areas. He has testified as an expert witness in both civil and criminal matters concerning dangerousness, competence to stand trial and criminal responsibility. He has also testified before the United States Congress concerning the USS Iowa disaster. Dr. Ebert conducts fitness for duty evaluations and risk assessments for private businesses and provides training for management in risk reduction. He has consulted to industry through the Levinson Institute concerning issues of executive selection, sexual bias and management development. Dr. Ebert was assistant medical director of the Bridgewater State Hospital, Massachusetts' maximum security facility for the criminally insane. In that capacity he evaluated, treated and testified on hundreds of violence cases. Since 1986, Dr. Ebert has conducted independent evaluations on hundreds of men, women and children who have been accused of violent crimes ranging from murder to sexual assault. He has testified in state and federal courts throughout the East Coast as an expert and has appeared on local and national media to discuss many aspects on the topic of violence. Dr. Ebert provides WTS clients with threat assessments, threat management training, and case consultation.

Paul M. Isenstadt, LCSW has specialized in correctional mental health evaluation, treatment, and program administration since 1965. Since 1988 he has served as the Director of Programming at ComCor, a community corrections program in Colorado Springs. Mr. Isenstadt maintains an active private practice specializing in forensic evaluations of adults and adolescents with an emphasis on sexual offenders, and in addition, conducts evaluations and consultations on workplace threats of violence. He is a published author and his specialty has allowed him to be an active lecturer, consultant, and expert witness at a local, state, and national level. He is the former Deputy Director of the Pikes Peak Mental Health Center, overseeing a staff in excess of 200 clinicians and employees. As a Senior Duty Officer in the US Army, he administered a mental health clinic in the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Levenworth, Kansas. For four years he served as Senior Research Administrator at the National Assessment Study for Juvenile Corrections and was the Chief Social Worker at the Michigan Department of Mental Health Center for Forensic Psychiatry, a program for mentally ill offenders. In addition to providing risk assessments for our clients as a WTS consultant, Mr. Isenstadt serves as a consultant and trainer on sex offender issues in the workplace.

JoAnn Lippert, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist specializing in forensic evaluations and consultations in criminal and civil actions involving violence, threats of violence and allegations of harassment and hostile work environments. Dr. Lippert has been in clinical practice since 1978 and a consultant to municipal, county, and federal law enforcement agencies and schools in Nevada and California since 1985. She has also been a frequent consultant and faculty member in U.S. Department of Justice training and research programs. Currently Dr. Lippert serves as a consultant on the Department's Criminal Crisis Response Initiative, a project providing training to multi-disciplinary community response teams on responding to mass criminal victimization and terrorism. In 1999 she completed a five-year research and development grant for the Department of Justice on child abduction and family trauma response. Since 1989 she has assisted a number of major corporations and state agencies across the United States in assessing and responding to workplace threats of violence and harassment. Dr. Lippert has served on the Nevada Attorney General's Task Force on Sex Crimes, and the California Task Force on Abduction. She was previously an Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of Nevada School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and maintains a private practice in Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada. For WTS clients Dr. Lippert provides risk assessments, case management consultation and training.

Sandy Ryan, B.A. is the Business Manager of WTS Inc. She holds a Batchelor of Arts degree with honors from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and has completed a Multimedia Studies program at the California State University at San Francisco Extension. Ms. Ryan has extensive training in computer applications and programming environments. With sixteen years experience in business support positions, she has worked to develop accounting systems and computer networks for several Bay Area companies. She has been a member of WTS since 1997 where she manages business functions and supports WTS consultants and clients.