Mary Elizabeth Wood, Ph.D., ABPP

Dr. Wood is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Sam Houston State University, where is director of the Psycho-Legal Assessment and Intellectual Disability (PLAID) Lab. She completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a concentration in Psychology and the Law from the University of Alabama, and she subsequently completed her predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship in Forensic Psychology at Patton State Hospital. From 2017-2024, Dr. Wood was faculty in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). While there, Dr. Wood was a member of the Vanderbilt Forensic Evaluation Team and primary faculty in the Vanderbilt Forensic Psychiatry Clinic. She was also a supervisor in the Forensic Psychology Internship Program, and she was the director of the Forensic Psychology Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr. Wood maintains a voluntary faculty appointment in the VUMC Psychiatry Department, where she continues to be the primary research supervisor for the forensic training program. Dr. Wood is licensed as a psychologist in Tennessee, Texas, and through PSYPACT. She is also board certified in Forensic Psychology through the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP), and she is currently on the examination faculty and Board of Directors for the American Board of Forensic Psychology (ABFP). In 2025, Dr. Wood was selected as one of the recipients of the Saleem Shah Early Career Development Award, given jointly by the American Academy of Forensic Psychology (AAFP) and the American Psychology-Law Society (AP-LS). She has conducted over 1,500 forensic evaluations for a myriad of issues including adjudicative competence, conservatorship, capacity to waive Miranda, mental state at the time of the alleged offense, sentencing mitigation, Atkins, etc., and she has testified numerous times in juvenile, criminal, and federal courts. Dr. Wood’s primary clinical and research interests fall at the interface of psychology and the law, with a particular emphasis on the appropriate identification, assessment, and treatment of individuals with Intellectual Disability (ID) in forensic settings.