Dr. BreAnne A. Danzi

Dr. Danzi is a licensed clinical psychologist, an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of South Dakota, and the director of the CAST Lab. She is also a faculty member in the Disaster Mental Health Institute and the Center for Brain and Behavior Research at USD. 

Originally from North Carolina, Dr. Danzi received her undergraduate training in Psychology and English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She completed her graduate training at the University of Miami in Clinical Child Psychology. She did her clinical internship at the University of California Los Angeles in the Stress, Trauma, and Resilience track in Clinical Child Psychology.

Dr. Danzi’s research broadly focuses on stress and trauma in children and families. Her research focuses on understanding children’s responses to traumatic stress, improving the assessment of PTSD in children, and identifying biopsychosocial factors that contribute to risk and resilience trajectories following trauma exposure.

A major aim of Dr. Danzi’s research is to improve diagnostic conceptualizations of child reactions to traumatic stress, for the purpose of identifying children most in need of services. Prior work has largely focused on community-wide traumatic experiences, such as disasters and terrorism, which involve large numbers of children being exposed to potentially traumatic events. Accurate identification of children at greatest risk for adverse outcomes is crucial for triaging mental health resources. The goal of this research is to improve the feasibility of identifying children in need of intervention in resource-limited contexts, such as the chaotic aftermath of large-scale traumas or communities lacking mental health resources. In line with this aim, disaster research has been a key focus of the lab, with many projects investigating the aftermath of natural disaster and mass violence incidents.

The lab also works towards identifying risk and resilience factors associated with child and family mental health outcomes, with the goal of improving clinical services for children and families. This aim has generated many projects investigating different stressful experiences, including medical traumatic stress, birth trauma, peer victimization, foster care, the COVID-19 pandemic, and critical incidents faced by first responder families

Dr. Danzi is a licensed psychologist in South Dakota and Iowa. Dr. Danzi serves as a Clinical Supervisor in the USD Psychological Services Center and works at Siouxland Mental Health Center. Clinically, Dr. Danzi has experience with assessing and treating a variety of childhood psychological disorders, and particularly enjoys working with families. Her clinical interests include disruptive behavior problems, anxiety, PTSD, OCD, and parenting skills. She also has interests in the area of childhood maltreatment, and has experience with forensic assessment of maltreatment and working with foster/adoptive families. Dr. Danzi employs a range of child-focused interventions, including Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, the Unified Protocol, Prolonged Exposure, and Families OverComing Under Stress.

Dr. Danzi teaches at the undergraduate and graduate level. In all her classes, she strives to bridge course content to clear, real-world applications for students’ lives and careers. Her undergraduate courses include Children and Trauma (PSYC 258), Psychology of Parenting (PSYC 205), Abnormal Psychology (PSYC 451), Introduction to Psychology (PSYC 101). At the graduate level, she provides clinical supervision and teaches Child and Family Psychotherapy (PSYC 781), Vertical Clinical Team (PSYC 749), and Peer Supervision Practicum (PSYC 765).

Dr. Danzi is particularly committed to training in professional development, promoting awareness of career paths in psychology, and supporting students in identifying and achieving their professional goals. For undergraduates, she serves as the faculty advisor for Psychology Club and Psi Chi. Many students, both undergraduate and graduate, receive professional development through the CAST Lab. Dr. Danzi takes graduate mentorship very seriously and employs many systematic, goal-driven strategies to help students meet their goals.