About Us
Meet the Doctors
Bay Forensic Psychology currently employs three psychologists. Dr. Elizabeth M.A. Wheeler and Dr. Maria Sverdlova are located in offices in Richmond, Virginia, and Dr. Robert P Archer is primarily located in Norfolk, Virginia. The mission of Bay Forensic Psychology is to provide high-quality forensic psychological evaluations to address a variety of forensic issues.
Elizabeth M. A. Wheeler Ph.D.
Elizabeth M. A. Wheeler Ph.D. earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University and completed her internship training at the Charleston Consortium Psychology Internship Training Program. Dr. Wheeler initially worked in an outpatient practice in Virginia conducting forensic evaluations prior to moving to Central State Hospital (CSH) as a member of the Forensic Evaluation Team. In 2018, she left state employment to focus on Bay Forensic Psychology. She has experience conducting a wide variety of forensic assessments including competency and sanity evaluations, custody and parenting evaluations, fitness for duty evaluations, FAA evaluations, pre sentencing sex offender evaluations, independent medical evaluations, and immigration evaluations. Dr. Wheeler has been qualified as an expert in various jurisdictions in Virginia.
Maria Sverdlova Psy.D.
Maria Sverdlova, PsyD earned her Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology degree from Florida Institute of Technology. She completed her internship training with Summit Psychological Associates, a busy forensic private practice in Ohio, where she gained extensive experience with a wide range of court-ordered evaluative and treatment services for both adults and juveniles. She completed her post-doctoral residency at Treasure Coast Forensic Treatment Center (TCFTC), one of Florida’s maximum security forensic mental health hospitals. Following her residency year, she remained at TCFTC as a staff forensic psychologist, serving on a multidisciplinary treatment team and continuing to conduct criminal forensic evaluations. She went on to assume additional duties as Director of Internship and Post-Doctoral Programs, overseeing TCFTC’s forensic psychology training programs. Dr. Sverdlova later relocated to Virginia and joined Central State Hospital (CSH) staff as a forensic evaluator, eventually becoming the team supervisor and the training director for the forensic psychology post-doctoral fellowship program. She has been appointed by the Commissioner to serve on the Forensic Evaluation Oversight Review Panel, providing review and quality assurance of competency to stand trial and sanity evaluations in the Commonwealth of Virginia. She has experience conducting a variety of forensic evaluations, including juvenile and adult competency to stand trial, mental state at the time of offense, psychosexual risk and sex offender pre-sentencing, pre-employment, capacity to parent, guardianship, ID waiver, and federal probation evaluations. She has been qualified as an expert in various jurisdictions. Dr. Sverdlova joined Bay Forensic Psychology in 2021.
Robert P. Archer Ph.D
In Loving Memory 1949 to 2023
Robert P. Archer Ph.D. joined Bay Forensic Psychology in 2016 following a long and distinguished career in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia. Dr. Archer is the author of over 200 articles and book chapters on psychological assessment issues. He is also author of the texts: Assessing Adolescent Psychopathology: MMPI-A/MMPI-A-RF(4th edition) (Routledge, 1987; 2005, 2016), and coauthor of the MMPI-A Casebook (PAR, 1994) and Essentials of MMPI-A Assessment (Wiley, 2002). Dr. Archer recently edited the second edition of the text, Forensic Uses of Clinical Assessment Instruments (Routledge 2006, 2013) and is a past-President of the Assessment Section (IX) of the Clinical Psychology Division (12) of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Archer served on the advisory committee to the University of Minnesota Press for the development of the MMPI-A and MMPI-A-RF and is coauthor of the MMPI-A and MMPI-A-RF Manuals. Dr. Archer is the Founding Editor of Assessment, a quarterly journal that began publication in March 1994 and served as the Associate Editor for the Journal of Personality Assessment from 1991 through 2002. Dr. Archer recently completed a nine year project as senior author of the MMPI-A-RF, released in May, 2016, and is President Elect of the Society of Personality Assessment. Dr. Archer has extensive experience in forensic evaluations including, but not limited to, custody and parenting evaluations, fitness for duty evaluations, evaluating the credibility of testimony, sex offender assessments, SVP civil commitment assessments, CST and MSO evaluations, personal injury evaluations, independent medical evaluations, and FAA evaluations. He has testified in numerous jurisdictions across Virginia, in Federal District courts, and before the Armed Services Committee of the U.S. Congress.