SMA employs Board Certified Police and Public Safety Psychologists, some of whom are also POST certified peace officers. Our specialization in public safety ensures that we have the skills to help you select the best candidates, maintain stability among your personnel, and develop operations that produce results relevant to your agency.
Our staff are active members of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police, National Sheriff’s Association, National Internal Affairs Investigator’s Association, Georgia Internal Affairs Investigator’s Association, and other Police and Public Safety professional organizations to maintain proficiency and ensure that our practices are consistent with the most current laws, ethics, and regulations related to this highly specialized field.
You can be assured that a psychologist with extensive education, training, and experience in police psychology is serving your department. All psychologists undergo extensive training and supervision by a board certified psychologist and are required to undergo specific training related to law enforcement culture. Our reports provide a detailed and customized analysis of each candidate’s psychological suitability and stability. We also provide quality control checks by employing a second psychologist who reviews findings, ensuring consistency between staff suitability determinations. We conduct ongoing adverse impact research of our staff and our processes to ensure that no adverse impact exists when considering race/ethnicity, gender, etc.
Psychologists
Heather McElroy, Ph.D., ABPP, Managing Partner
Dr. McElroy, the Vice President and managing partner of SMA, is a Board-Certified Police and Public
Safety Psychologist. She has been a member of the professional staff for more than ten years and a
partner of the firm since January 2010. She has been a sworn Reserve Officer since 2011 and is currently
a member of the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Smyrna Police Department. Dr. McElroy is an active
member of the major national organizations of Police Psychologists and has written articles for Police
Chief Magazine and other publications, has presented at various professional meetings and is the past
chair of the International Association of Chiefs of Police Psychological Services Section
Dr. Anthony Stone, Ph.D., M.P.H., President
Dr. Stone, President of SMA, is a Board-Certified Police and Public Safety Psychologist and has been engaged in providing psychological services to Law Enforcement for more than thirty years. He has given and received training at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, has written and lectured widely, and has provided expert testimony and consultation in many aspects of Public Safety Psychology. He is a nationally recognized expert in the field and in 2000 authored the first book addressing law enforcement fitness for duty evaluation, Fit for Duty.
Kimberly Adams, Ph.D.
Dr. Adams is a clinical psychologist who has been conducting psycholo0gical and neuropsychological evaluations since her first year of graduate school at the University of Maryland at College Park. She completed her predoctoral internship at the Atlanta VA Medical Center, where she obtained therapy experience and additional evaluation experience with veterans experiencing problems related to trauma, substance use, chronic pain, and brain functioning. Her postdoctoral internship at a private practice focused on evaluations; here, she expanded her already extensive experience to include the assessment of cognitive ability, achievement level, emotional and mental health, behavior, personality, and neuropsychological functioning. In the 9 years following her licensure, Dr. Adams has worked as an independent contractor for a variety of private practices, state, and CORE agencies. Dr. Adams joined Stone, McElroy & Associates in 2018 and has been providing pre-employment evaluations under the supervision of Dr. Heather McElroy.
Contract Psychologists
Rachel Rosenblatt, Psy.D., ABPP – Board Certified Police and Public Safety Psychologist
Dr. Rosenblatt is a Board-Certified Police and Public Safety contract psychologist with Stone, McElroy & Associates. She conducts pre-employment screening, post critical incident management, training and fitness for duty evaluations, particularly those requiring neuropsychological assessment. Dr. Rosenblatt is also an active member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police Psychological Services Section. Following completion of her undergraduate training at Florida State University, Dr. Rosenblatt completed a psychology doctoral program at Florida Institute of Technology followed by clinical internship at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. She subsequently completed a postdoctoral program in forensic and child psychology prior to joining our firm in 2009, and since that time has been exclusively involved in providing risk-management psychological evaluations. Upon joining the firm, Dr. Rosenblatt underwent an extensive training program in public safety psychological assessment supplemented by training offered by the national organizations of police psychologists.
Richard Wihera, Psy.D., ABPP- Board Certified Police and Public Safety Psychologist
Dr. Wihera is a Board Certified Police and Public Safety contract psychologist with Stone, McElroy & Associates. He brings over 35 years’ experience working with law enforce3ment to the firm and during this time, he has worked with over 150 public safety agencies throughout the country. Dr. Wihera is an active member of the Police Psychological Services Section (PPSS) of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), and in 2014, Dr. Wihera was Chair of the IACP-PPSS committee to revise the Pre-Employment Psychological Evaluation Guidelines. He completed a POST-certified academy and worked on patrol as a sworn, armed, uniformed Reserve Police Office with the San Jose, CA Police Department in the mid-1980’s. All three of Dr. Wihera’s children serve in blue; his sons are Police Officers in Colorado and his daughter is on active duty in the Navy, serving as a Lieutenant onboard an aircraft carrier in the Atlantic.
SMA Staff
Kate Sullivan- Director of Operations
Kate joined our team as Business Manager in 2017 and brings over 15 years of Customer Service, Human Resources and Business Management experience to the firm. Her operational expertise stems from years of managing high-end retail establishments and staffing/training her individual and regional teams. Aside from managing SMA, Kate is a mom to two young boys and has lived in Atlanta for 13 years. She is currently developing a new version of our premier practice management software, PsiWare©, and is the client liaison for agencies who wish to begin a working relationship with SMA.
Jessica Reagin- Office Manager
Jessica joined the SMA Team in 2014 and has been an integral part of growing our firm and assisting clients and addressing their needs for over three years. She is our testing expert, assisting candidate’s and client’s consistently throughout the evaluation process. She is an avid member of the Cobb County Community and you might see her running, and winning, races around town! Her dedication and loyalty to the firm has made her a client favorite among our agencies during her tenure with SMA.