Stephanie McKinney, Ph.D
Dr. Stephanie Barone McKenny is a police psychologist with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and provides consultation to South Bureau in addition to several elite units including SWAT, Air Support Division, and undercover agents. She has worked with law enforcement personnel at the international, national, state, county, local, and university levels. She designed LAPD’s Mother of All Suicide Prevention Campaigns, the Substance Abuse Task Force (SATF), the 1st annual Heart of LAPD Walk (to prevent suicide), the first grief and loss groups in the department, and she helped design the Resilience Task Force (RTF). She teaches peak performance and pathogen exposure at the police academies.
Dr. McKenny has provided leadership to the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) regarding officer suicide surveillance data. She has been identified by IACP as a Subject Matter Expert on Officer Wellness & Safety, and Families of Law Enforcement. She has worked on the IACP Corruption Prevention Task Force and the OIS Policy Committee. She currently serves on the IACP Police Professional Standards Ethics and Image Committee (PPSEI), the IACP Research Advisory Committee (RAC), and the IACP Police Psychological Services Diversity Committee. She is a regular presenter at IACP as well as the Society for Police and Criminal Psychology (SPCP).
Dr. McKenny is a Diplomate in Sports Psychology, a Nationally Certified Sports Psychologist, a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, and she is Certified in Integrative Medicine. She has worked with Olympic, Division I, and other elite athletes and coaches.
Dr. McKenny has worked with specialized units across the nation, particularly air support units, on mental toughness skills, fatigue, psychological fitness for duty, and probable causes of accidents. She has served as a Safety Instructor for an international law enforcement aviation association. And as the spouse of a Navy Captain and the sister of retired SF Lt. Colonel, she understands at a very personal level the sacrifices that our uniformed personnel make every day, but also the daily sacrifices of their spouses, children, and extended family. She places high value on law enforcement and military marriages and acknowledges the often unrecognized role that faith plays in maintaining the strength of such marriages.
Dr. McKenny earned the Police Meritorious Service Medal for her work in officer suicide prevention. She has been nominated for the Medal of Valor for action taken while serving on the LAPD SWAT team as a hostage negotiator, and she has been nominated for the Anti-Defamation League’s Sherwood Prize for proactively combatting hate and bigotry.