Megan Wagstaff

Megan completed her M.A. at Carleton in 2020, under the supervision of Dr. Shelley Brown. Her MA thesis examined gender differences in how risks and strengths cluster to form profiles of justice-involved youth, through the use of the Youth Assessment Screening Instrument (YASI). She also completed her B.A. with high honours at Carleton University in the forensic research stream under Dr. Brown. Her honours thesis examined the predictive validity of the YASI, and was honoured for the Canadian Psychological Association’s Certificate of Academic Excellence Award. Megan also won the Nicolas P. Spanos Memorial Award for Exceptional Research Achievement in both 2018 and 2019, and was nominated for both the EDC and Department of Psychology’s Outstanding TA Awards.

Research: Megan’s research interests involve examining gender differences in both risk and strength factors in justice-involved populations. She also engages in research that examines the validity of existing risk assessment tools used to assist practitioners in deciding the nature and intensity of correctional interventions.

Future Goals: She currently works for Public Safety as a research analyst in the Corrections Research Unit, and is also completing her M.A. in Counselling Psychology at Yorkville University. She plans to register as a psychotherapist with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO) upon completion of this degree, and continue her research trajectory in forensic psychology.