Our Team

Jessica Burke has been in the field of social work for almost 20 years; specifically, serving various adult protection service agencies. Jessica is a subject matter expert in all areas of APS practice, which includes investigations, policy, assessment, developing curriculum, training, and building APS organizations. Jessica has also worked as the Assistant Director of Workforce Development at Sacramento State University College of Continuing Education in which she created a new social worker induction program serving 28 of California’s Northern Counties. With Jessica’s extensive knowledge and dedication to supporting elder abuse training programs, her main focus now is assisting states across the nation in a full scope of organizational development practices and services to create and develop state specific elder abuse training programs. With the current aging climate, Jessica believes that ongoing education and trainings are essential to excellent social worker skills and practice. Additionally, Jessica is a professional speaker and has presented at events and conferences across the nation.

Andrew Capehart is Director of the APS TARC. Andrew has over 20 years of experience in the vulnerable adult abuse field at the local, state and national levels. He has held investigatory, supervisory and administrative positions in Columbus, Ohio and Washington, DC and was a staff member at the National Center on Elder Abuse and the National Adult Protective Services Association, where he served as Assistant Director for over six years. He has had numerous appointments to aging related boards and commissions and has chaired both state and national elder abuse conferences. Andrew has worked and consulted with a wide variety of adult protective services programs across the United States.

André Feijóo, MPA, CSPO, is a Senior Research Associate/Subject Matter Expert at the APS TARC and a member of the team since the Center’s inception. Mr. Feijóo is the NAMRS liaison of 12 states including the 5 major U.S. territories and provides technical assistance, training, and guidance of their NAMRS data submission. Mr. Feijóo brings more than thirteen years of progressively responsible experience with programs and services for the protection of vulnerable populations working within the federal and community-based organization sectors. 

Nicole B. Fettig, PhD is a Research Manager, Subject Matter Expert with the APS TARC. She is an applied developmental psychologist with more than 10 years of experience studying child development, child and adolescent mental health, and the experience of maltreatment across the lifespan. Specifically, her work applies a broad range of rigorous research and evaluation methodologies to better understand the incidence and prevalence of different types of maltreatment across the lifespan; risk factors associated with maltreatment; perpetrator characteristics; outcomes related to maltreatment; and prevention and interventions for individuals and their families. Dr. Fettig is also an experienced science communicator, serving as an adjunct faculty at two Universities in the DC metropolitan area, publishing in peer reviewed journals, and disseminating research findings to a wide variety of audiences including professional conference presentations and reports to Congress. Dr. Fettig’s recent research for the APS TARC has led ACL’s Predicting Risk of Adult Maltreatment project aimed to leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other tools to investigate patterns of risk and protective factors across multiple data sources to identify associations with reported incidence of adult maltreatment. 

Gila R. Shusterman, PhD is a social scientist with 25 years of experience in evaluation and applied research in the areas of child welfare, disabilities, education, and adult protective services. Her background includes evaluation design and implementation in small nonprofit organizations as well as large national initiatives. With her background in management and analysis of large databases for use in program evaluation and policymaking, she serves as lead analyst and methodologist for the multi-component National APS Evaluation. Dr. Shusterman has expertise in research design, performance measurement, data collection, statistical analysis, reporting, and data visualization. Dr. Shusterman received her Ph.D. in psychology from Brandeis University. 

Jennifer Kirchen is a Senior Research Associate/Subject Matter Expert at the APS TARC. As a member of the APS TARC team, she provides technical assistance support to state APS programs and federal grant recipients. Jennifer is an knowledgeable program director with over 20 years of APS experience at the county, state and national levels. She began her career as an APS investigator which gives her tremendous insight into the needs of APS field investigators. She has a unique perspective having directed APS programs in both Minnesota and Arizona. Her national experience comes by way of the National Adult Protective Services Association (NAPSA) both as a member and previous Western Regional Representative.

Leslie McGee is Senior Research Associate/Subject Matter Expert with the APS TARC. She is a member of the APS TARC team, providing support and technical assistance to state APS programs and federal grant recipients. Leslie has more than 32 years of service in the protective services field, working in both child protective services (CPS) and APS. Her background includes direct service casework and supervision at the county level, as well as program administration at the state level.  Leslie retired from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services after serving for almost 20 years as the state program administrator for child and adult protective services. In that capacity, Leslie was responsible for the development and advancement of practice, policy and programming for both the CPS and APS systems. 

Jennifer Spoeri has 18 years of Adult Protective Services (APS) experience in Philadelphia, most recently as the Director of APS. In Philadelphia she managed a staff of 70 and an annual operating budget of over $5 million. Jennifer’s program in Philadelphia was awarded one of the first VOCA grants designated for APS. Jennifer holds degrees from the University of Kentucky (BA in Psychology) and the Notre Dame of Maryland University (MA in Gerontology with a concentration in Health Care Administration.) 

Karl Urban is a Senior Research Manager with the APS TARC, and is the Team Lead for the National Adult Maltreatment Reporting System, and leads or supports the Adult Protective Services Technical Assistance Resource Center technical assistance and evaluation projects. Before joining WRMA, Mr. Urban had a 25-year career in Texas state government, culminating in serving as a Director and Assistant Commissioner in the Adult Protective Services program. Prior to APS, Mr. Urban worked on aging and disability issues, including serving as Manager of Policy Analysis and Support at the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services, Deputy Director at the Texas Department on Aging and as a member of the Texas Council on Developmental Disabilities, Statewide Health Coordinating Council, and Governor's Advisory Council on Physical Fitness. He has BA degree in Government from Abilene Christian University and a MA in Public Affairs from the LBJ School at The University of Texas at Austin.