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Ann Burgess has analyzed the minds of some of the world鈥檚 most infamous murderers, from Kansas serial killer Dennis Rader, known as BTK, to Ed Kemper, whose first crimes were killing his grandparents as a teen. For nearly six decades, she鈥檚 educated practitioners and students to understand crime victims鈥攁nd perpetrators鈥攂eyond their violent circumstances.
Karen Pounds focuses on the therapeutic relationship between psychiatric patients, nurses, and interpreters, which she says 鈥渋s the basis of healing and the work of psychiatric nursing.鈥�
Julie Dunne emphasizes the humanity in all workers, understanding that nobody is impervious to mental illness, including health care providers. She helps them take care of their own mental health through a combination of medication and mindfulness strategies.
These three faculty members at the Connell School of Nursing (CSON) share their expertise and their commitment to prioritizing the voiceless. They do this through their clinical practice and in the classroom, educating graduate nursing students pursuing the psychiatric/mental health (P/MH) specialty. Their dedication and experience are especially needed now as the faculty prepare the newest generation of students to face growing public health crises in the U.S., including increased suicide rates, a climbing number of deaths from excessive alcohol use, and a daunting shortage of mental health professionals.
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CONFRONTING THE TOUGHEST MENTAL HEALTH CASES
Professor Ann Burgess pioneered a deeply human approach to mental health by providing the context necessary to understand and make predictions about the behavior of violent offenders. She teaches popular courses in forensic mental health, forensic science, and victimology鈥攁ll grounded in her intense personal experience.
In the early 1970s, Burgess co-founded one of the first hospital-based crisis counseling programs in the world at Boston City Hospital with Boston College sociologist Lynda Lytle Holmstrom, interviewing 146 victims of sexual assault ranging in age from 3 to 73. Their resulting American Journal of Nursing article, 鈥淭he Rape Victim in the Emergency Ward,鈥� was a multidimensional portrait of these victims that outlined their emotions, from anxiety to humiliation to self-blame.
Based on Burgess鈥� victimology work, the FBI asked her to consult on behavioral patterns among rapists and serial killers. Lawyers began to consider her a key part of their teams, too, bringing her into the fold as an expert witness on high-stakes cases. In 2016, she was named a Living Legend by the American Academy of Nursing.
Burgess described her most notorious cases in听 (Hachette, 2021) with CSON鈥檚 Steven Matthew Constantine. Another collaboration about appealed cases will debut in 2025.
In July 2024, Hulu introduced , a three-part series chronicling Burgess鈥檚 FBI profiling. She still collaborates with law enforcement, weighing in on cases such as abuse in nursing homes and the recent assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
While Burgess untangles deep inhumanity, her instincts are profoundly humane: she wants to understand what makes people, even criminals, tick. Nobody is inherently evil, she says. Instead, many criminals experience trauma without proper intervention. A grudge develops; without what she calls a 鈥渘eutralization鈥� of that grudge, anger can fester and explode into violence.
鈥淭houghts drive behavior. If you鈥檙e looking at someone who鈥檚 committed a horrendous behavior, you鈥檝e got to get back inside the thought鈥攚hat is prompting it, what is driving it? You have to deal with it, and try to neutralize it, so it doesn鈥檛 become a driving force within the individual,鈥� Burgess says.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e looking at someone who鈥檚 committed a horrendous behavior, you鈥檝e got to get back inside the thought鈥攚hat is prompting it, what is driving it? You have to deal with it, and try to neutralize it, so it doesn鈥檛 become a driving force within the individual.鈥�
鈥擯rofessor Ann Burgess
In the Menendez case, for instance, Burgess testified about the brothers鈥� domineering, abusive father, Jos茅. Eric had hoped to go to UC Berkeley, but his father wanted him closer to home, at UCLA. When Eric realized he wouldn鈥檛 be getting away to a dorm, Burgess says, he panicked: 鈥淭hat was one of the turning points. He had a fear of his parents. I remember looking at this case and saying, 鈥楾his is not a case of money. They have all the money. It鈥檚 got to be the family.鈥欌��
Burgess also lends her forensic expertise to cases closer to home. She鈥檚 enthusiastic about her work with CSON鈥檚 new Center for Police Training in Crisis Intervention, directed by Assistant Professor Victor Petreca, which studies evidence-based approaches for improving first responders鈥� interactions with people experiencing behavioral health issues.