Danielle Berke

Danielle Berke received a graduate certificate in Women's Studies and a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Georgia. She completed her doctoral internship in the National Center for PTSD of the VA Boston Healthcare System, where she developed a clinical specialization in the assessment and treatment of PTSD and women's mental health . Dr. Berke also served on the VA Boston Healthcare System's Interdisciplinary Transgender Treatment Team providing affirming gender evaluation and psychotherapy services for transgender veterans.  She completed a postdoctoral research fellowship, affiliated with the Boston University School of Medicine and the VA Boston Healthcare System, focused on interpersonal violence, trauma, and treatment outcome research. Dr. Berke also served VA Boston as a Research Psychologist from 2017-2018.

Dr. Berke's research applies a culturally-informed, empirical lens to the study of interpersonal violence under the heading gender-based violence-a general term used to capture violence resulting from normative gender role expectations and unequal power relationships between men and women within the context of a specific society. As a clinical scientist, her research seeks to understand how gender ideologies may lead to violent victimization and psychological impairment, particularly among women and sexual and gender minorities. A fundamental end goal of this research program is to identify risk and protective factors to inform interventions to prevent violence and treat its consequences. Dr. Berke's research is both  laboratory and community-based. In these settings, she applies principles and theories from clinical psychology, social psychology, and public health to generate solutions to gender-based social inequalities.