Dr. D. Elaine Pressman
Elaine Pressman is the initiator and original developer of the VERA-2R (and prior versions). She is a visiting professor, founder, and scientific director, of the Institute for the Prevention of Conflict and Violent Extremism at Saint Paul University which is in federation with the University of Ottowa.
She is a distinguished senior fellow and scientific expert at the NIFP, ministry of Justice and Security, the Netherlands. She has been a fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism the Hague, a senior research fellow at the Norman Paterson school of International Affairs, Carleton university, Ottawa, Canada and an affiliate professor at the Department of Information Policy & Governance of the university of Malta.
She has advised senior government officials in countries on over four continents about risk assessment and security, and has been an expert for the Council of Europe, the EU, the OSCE, the UNODC and other international agencies.
She is a recognized expert in the development, training and implementation of risk analysis and assessment approaches to counter-terrorism and is the author and supervisor-trainer of the VERA-2R.
She has been appointed to ministerial advisory boards, served on national expert task forces, has been designated an official delegate to international ministerial level meetings and has been a representative at international political fora.
She has been honoured with a Knighthood in the Order of the Netherlands Lion, which is the highest civilian award in the Netherlands.
Most trainings outside Europe will be provided by Elaine Pressman or her delegate.
Maarten van Leyenhorst
Maarten van Leyenhorst is the European representative of the VERA-2R and the supervising trainer for the European Union. Maarten has been part of the development team of the VERA-2R since 2015.
He recently initiated and codeveloped the user guidelines of the VERA-2R. Maarten develops all available trainings for the European Union and coordinates the trainers team.
Maarten has published multiple peer-reviewed studies about terrorism and risk assessment and is frequently invited speaker for international conferences on these matters.
In addition to his work related to the VERA-2R, he is a senior advisor on terrorism and extremism within the Dutch custodial institutions agency. In this capacity, Maarten has instigated the policy ‘VERA-2R at the end of detention’ where VERA-2R profiles are established for prisoners that are up for parole, release or internal prison-replacements.
Maarten has masters in both Forensic Criminology (specialization Offender Profiling) and in International Crimes and Criminology (specialization Terrorism).