About Us

Background
FPA began as a solo practice in 1994 and has grown to three psychologists and two full time support staff in 2010, plus a large outpatient office.  Our reputation is for high quality, honest, and timely evaluations and treatment.  We accept court orders for many types of evaluations and can be privately retained as well.  Our services are diverse, ranging from evaluations for criminal matters and sex offenders through to custody issues, testamentary capacity, guardianship, conservatorship, fitness for duty, and risk assessment.

Our Licensed Clinical Psychologists

Evan S. Nelson, Ph.D., ABPP, CSOTP

Dr. Evan Nelson earned his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and after his predoctoral internship at the Indiana University Medical School (IUPUI), Dr. Nelson went on to a post-doctoral residency at the Forensic Unit of Central State Hospital.  After three years as a Psychologist Senior at the hospital he left and became the founding member of FPA.  Dr. Nelson earned a Diplomate in Forensic Psychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP), and is a Certified Sex Offender Treatment Provider (CSOTP).  In addition, he is clinical faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at the Virginia Commonwealth University / Medical College of Virginia.  He specializes in evaluations for criminal matters and has been an expert in nationally recognized cases such as those of Lorena Bobbitt, Daryl Atkins, and Lee Boyd Malvo.  Dr. Nelson's areas of expertise include competency to stand trial, legal insanity, mitigation and rebuttal, capital sentencing assessments, death penalty litigation, and sex offender evaluation and treatment.  He has qualified as an expert witness for both the defense and prosecution in numerous jurisdictions in Virginia and provided training to professional organizations such as: the Commonwealth's Attorneys' Services Council; the Public Defenders of Virginia; conferences for judges, probation officers, victim-witness advocates, and local bar associations; and the Institute for Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy.  Dr. Nelson runs the psychosexual evaluation lab at FPA which includes the MONARCH 21 Penile Plethysmograph (PPG), ABEL Assessment of Sexual Interest - 2 (AASI-2 and ABID), and Affinity 2.5.

Michele Killough Nelson, Ph.D.

Dr. Michele Killough Nelson earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Purdue University.  She completed her pre-doctoral internship and her post-doctoral fellowship at the Virginia Commonwealth University / Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, and then stayed on as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry.  She left her full-time faculty position in 1996 to become a partner in FPA and continues to be clinical faculty at the university.  Dr. Nelson specializes in juvenile and family law issues, having conducted hundreds of child custody evaluations and psychological evaluations of parents and thousands of evaluations of juvenile criminal defendants.  Also, because of her health psychology and geropsychology backgrounds she is uniquely qualified to consult on guardianship, conservatorship, testamentary capacity, and health psychology issues related to psycholegal questions.  Dr. Nelson has extensive training in forensic evaluations and has been a lecturer for numerous bar associations, judicial conferences, the Institute for Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy, and the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association (VTLA).

Jennifer E.M. Rasmussen, Psy.D.

Dr. Jennifer Rasmussen joined FPA in September 2009.  She earned her Bachelor's degree, with a focus in psychology, from The Evergreen State College in Washington State.  She subsequently earned her Master's and Doctoral degrees in Clinical Psychology from the Pacific University, in Oregon, where she earned a Dean’s award for her research.  Dr. Rasmussen completed her post-doctoral residency in Forensic Clinical Psychology at the Forensic Unit of Dorothea Dix Hospital in August 2009.  Her training has included risk assessments, evaluations of competency to stand trial and providing restoration treatment, sanity evaluations, and parental fitness assessments.  Dr. Rasmussen is currently accepting referrals for competency, sanity, and other court related evaluations.

Our Support Staff
Lisa Fitzhugh has been answering the phones and booking appointments at FPA since 1997.  She can answer most of the questions about the process of an evaluation and recordkeeping.  Our billing specialist is Bobbie Harvey, who has been with FPA since 2006.  We accept checks, cash, VISA, Mastercard, and Discover.