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).
Hanne Jansen
Hanne is a forensic psychologist working for the Belgian Prison Service.
She worked for 15 years in the Psychosocial Service of a local prison, where her main task was to give advice regarding conditional release.
Hanne attended several trainings in psychopathology and risk assessment.
In 2019, she was appointed to a supervision position at the Central Psychosocial Service Extremism; one of her responsibilities is to follow up/supervise the advice given by our local staff in all cases of radicalized detainees in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium.
Alexander Seiser
Since 2015, Alexander has been working in the Austrian prison system as a clinical psychologist specializing in risk assessment.
During the first three years of my employment, I worked in a federal assessment unit for violent and sexual offenders, where I received extensive training in the application of risk assessment procedures and the preparation of risk reports.
From 2018 to 2022, I worked as a case manager responsible for risk management of inmates in a special facility for psychiatrically admitted high-risk offenders. Finally, at the beginning of 2022, I moved to the Austrian Federal Ministry of Justice, where I helped set up a department for the prevention of terrorism and extremism. My current tasks include the preparation of risk reports for courts and national police on extremist offenders as well as the further development of risk assessment concepts. For us, VERA-2R is an essential part of every risk assessment.
In 2024, I completed my training as a VERA-2R trainer. I am happy to be able to share my experience in the field of risk assessment and look forward to new opportunities to meet colleagues from all over Europe.
Kim Stalbovs
Kim is a psychologist with a PhD in cognitive sciences and has been a VERA-2R trainer since 2018.
Prior to his change to a law enforcement agency, he worked in the prison system of the German Bundesland of Hessen for over a decade.
Between 2017 to 2023, he was part of the Network for Deradicalization in Corrections (NeDiC) in the Hessian Ministry of Justice, a task force responsible for all Hessian prisoners associated with violent extremism/terrorism and organized crime.
In 2024, he served as one of two psychologists at the Mobile Diagnostic Unit at Weiterstadt Prison, which is responsible for writing in-depth forensic reports and intervention recommendations for all newly convicted terrorist and violent extremist prisoners in Hessen with a sentence of 2 years or longer.
He is currently working in a risk assessment unit for (potential) terrorist offenders in a German police agency.
Carl Beckers
Carl is coordinator Radicalization Flemish Probation Service. He is working as a policy officer on violent extremism and radicalization since the very start of it for the Flemish Probation Service in 2015. He is responsible for the implementation and use of the VERA-2R in Flemish probation work (including supervision).
Since May 2024, Carl is the head of a team of experts that are following up all violent extremism cases in Flanders and that are using the VERA-2R as a supportive tool for their risk management.
Carl is a VERA-2R-trainer since March 2023.
Nico Braspenning
Nico graduated as a master in clinical psychology and started working within the Psychosocial Service of a local prison, where his main job was giving advices concerning conditional release and earlier steps in the process of the execution of sentences.
Then Nico was appointed in a supervision function at the Central Psychosocial Service.
Following the Action Plan Radicalization of the Minister of Justice in 2015, he was appointed as a member of the Central Psychosocial Service Extremism, in which function
Nico is responsible for the supervision of the follow-up and advices given by our local staff in all files of radicalized inmates in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium.
Nico was trained in the use of the VERA-2R by Elaine Pressman in 2015 and became a trainer in 2022.
Priscilla Bigalli
Priscilla Bigalli is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalytic psychotherapist by training.
She worked for many years in Belgian prisons as a forensic psychologist.
Since 2015, when France and Belgium were heavily impacted, she specialized in the phenomenon of radicalization and joined the extremism unit of the central prison administration.
She now works as an analyst for the Belgian federal agency on threat assessment. She is a trainer for VERA-2R.