Scientific Advisors

Leonard Bickman, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and Public Policy. He is director of the Center for Evaluation and Program Improvement and Associate Dean for Research at Peabody College. He earned his Ph.D. in psychology (social) from the City University of New York, his master's degree in experimental psychopathology from Columbia University and his bachelor's from the City College of New York. Professor Bickman is a nationally recognized leader in program evaluation and mental healthservices research on children and adolescents. He has published more than 15 books and monographs and 180 articles and chapters and has been principal investigator on over 25 major grants from several agencies. He is co-editor of the Applied Research Methods Series published by Sage Publications since 1980. He is also co-editor of the Handbook of Applied Social Research and is collaborating on a new International Handbook of Social Research. He is the co-author of the very popular book Applied Research Design: A Practical Guide.

Dr. Hoagwood is a pre-eminent researcher of children's mental health services.  She studies optimal methods for ensuring that children obtain the best care, including a randomized trial of the effectiveness of a parent-empowerment and activation, as well as a 9-site study of optimal treatments for child trauma treatment after 9/11.  In her NY state role, Dr. Hoagwood directs the Bureau on Youth Services Research for the State of New York’s Office of Mental Health, and is responsible for all of the research and evaluation programs on youth and family services, with a particular focus on the implementation of evidence-based practices for children, youth and families for NY State.

Barbara J. Burns, Ph.D., is Professor of Medical Psychology and Director of the Services Effectiveness Research Program in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University, School of Medicine. Dr. Burns is a nationally recognized mental health services researcher. She has co-authored over 250 publications and was the lead author for the review of effective treatment for mental disorders in children and adolescents for the 1999 U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health. She also has had a key role in the SAMHSA Implementing Evidence-Based Practices Project.

James Jaccard, Ph.D., serves as a distinguished Professor at New York University. He has conducted research on applications of theoretical psychology to the alleviation of social problems in the United States. Dr. Jaccard has studied fundamental processes underlying how people make decisions and how their attitudes and knowledge influence their decision-making behavior. He has applied basic persuasion theory to the design of social interventions. One research program is aimed at the influencing adolescent behavior and preventing pregnancy by increasing communication between parents and adolescents. Dr. Jaccard has conducted studies that show that parents can have a major impact on their teens’ behavior. He is developing education programs to help parents communicate better with their teens’ about the important problems they face as they make the transition to adulthood. Current research interests include developing an add-on component for school-based health programs; examining social/developmental models of binge drinking behavior; and parent-based interventions for reducing binge drinking.

Kelly Kelleher, M.D., is a Professor in the Division of Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics in the College of Medicine and Public Health at Ohio State University. He is director of the Office of Clinical Services at the Columbus Children's Research Institute. He also is an investigator at the Center for Biobehavioral Health and at the Center for Injury Research and Policy, both of which are part of the Columbus Children's Research Institute. He earned his M.D. in 1984 from the Ohio State University, completed his pediatric residency at Northwestern University in 1987, and obtained an M.P.H. in epidemiology from the John Hopkins University in Bethesda, MD, in 1988.

Ronald C. Kessler, PhD, is a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School. In 2008 he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Kessler’s research interests are wide. He is the principal investigator of the National Comorbidity Survey, the first nationally representative survey of the prevalence and correlates of psychiatric disorders in the United States. The NCS was carried out in 1991and 1992.

Dr. John Landsverk is Director of the NIMH funded Child and Adolescent Services Research Center and Professor Emeritus in the School of Social Work at San Diego State University. He has a doctorate in sociology and has extensive and internationally known research experience in the areas of child maltreatment, children's mental health in mental health services, as well as in the implementation and evaluation of innovative early interventions for families at risk for child abuse and neglect. He is the PI on the NIMH funded Child and Adolescent Interdisciplinary Welfare (CAIRN) grant that has developed a well functioning national network of researchers involved in research on the implementation and maintenance of evidence based, parent mediated interventions in child welfare settings for the treatment of disruptive disorders and externalizing behavior problems in children and adolescents.

Dr. Mary McKay is a prominent researcher nationally and internationally. She has received substantial federal funding for her research focused on meeting the mental health and prevention needs of inner-city youth and families. Currently, she is a Professor of Psychiatry and Community Medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. She has held professorships at Columbia University and University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. McKay has developed a substantial body of research findings around engagement practices to improve engagement with mental health services in urban areas. She has worked closely with New York State Office of Mental Health, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and the National Institute of Mental Health to create evidence-based engagement interventions and to test models of dissemination and training for mental health professionals in engagement best practices.