ABCT

Glenace Edwall, Ph.D., Psy.D., M.P.P., Director of Children's Mental Health, Minnesota Department of Human Services (retired)

Dr. Edwall has worked tirelessly to evolve the division of Children's Mental Health toward an expanded role in the healthcare system, through the introduction of evidence-based treatment and related quality initiatives. Dr. Edwall was instrumental in implementing an expansion of Medicaid benefits through new programing and championed a vision of available research-informed interventions for all children needing them.

T. Lindsey Burrell, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Clinician and Supervisor, Feeding Program at the Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta

Dr. Burrell provides clinical treatment to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, including supervision and mentorship of trainees. She trains and supervises practicum students and interns in evidence-based interventions and actively works to improve existing interventions. For example, she is working on enhancing a feeding treatment for children with developmental and other disabilities. Her work includes revising protocols and developing a phone-based app and website to make the treatment easier to disseminate and more palatable for parents. She is involved in numerous projects to promote innovation and increase the impact of family-based interventions.

Lanalle Darden, MS.Ed., LMSW, Children, Adolescents and Families (CAF) Services Director, Santee-Wateree Community Mental Health Center

Ms. Darden has spearheaded a number of evidence-based practice initiatives at the Santee-Wateree Community Mental Health Center. Ms. Darden has a demonstrated history of advocacy and support, as well as active engagement with prominent researchers. She has gone above and beyond agreed-upon research involvement to problem solve implementation challenges, participate in trainings, use evidence generated from research to inform her decision making around changes in her own clinic. Her influence on providers and supervisors is clear in the caliber of their work, and their capacity to both adopt and implement new evidence-based practices.

Patricia Nygaard, Ph.D., Immediate Past Quality & Performance Manger, Children's Mental Health, Minnesota Department of Human Services

Dr. Nygaard has served the Minnesota Department of Human Services in various roles for more than 15 years. During this time she has promoted the implementation of multiple evidence-based services across diverse levels of care ranging from school-based settings to residential services. She has been a strong and enduring advocate of measurement-based care and the use of evidence to improve the quality of children's mental health service.

Joshua A. Gordon, M.D., Ph.D., Director of NIMH

Dr. Gordon's own neuroscience research focuses on neural analysis and directly translates to furthering our understanding of schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety disorders. He also oversees a research portfolio at NIMH that seeks to promote preventions, recovery, and cure of mental health disorders.

David Chambers, DPhil, Deputy Director for Implementation Science, Office of the Director in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Dr. Chambers has been an integral part of advancing the field of implementation science by fostering dissemination and implementation research within the NIH portfolio, funding opportunity announcements, training programs, research activities, dissemination platforms, and enhancement of partnerships and networks to integrate research, practice and policy. He has also published several seminal papers advancing the field of implementation science to enhance translation of research to practice.

Arthur Evans, Jr., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice President

Dr. Evans served as the commissioner of Philadelphia's Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Service for 12 years. In this role, he served as a champion of implementation and dissemination of evidence-based psychotherapies throughout the city of Philadelphia and improved health outcomes and increased the efficiency of the Philadelphia system.

Rep. Joseph Kennedy, III, J.D. (D, MA)

Congressman Kennedy has a record of working towards bipartisan, comprehensive mental health reform. He has been an advocate for systemic reform of the mental health system, proposing the Fair Care for Kids Act to facilitate mental health treatment for children on Medicaid (signed into law in 2016), and introducing the Behavioral Health Coverage Transparency Act of 2015, to hold insurers accountable for providing adequate mental health benefits and increase transparency for consumers.

Sarah Hollingsworth Lisanby, M.D., Director, Division of Translational Research NIMH

Dr. Lisanby is one of the leading researchers in the area of neuromodulatory interventions for treating major depression. She has been an outstanding mentor to numerous investigators and as Director for the Division of Translational Research at NIMH, Dr. Lisanby has a major impact on the national research approach to mental illness.

Denise (Denny) Pintello, Ph.D., Chief of the Child and Adolescent Research Program, NIMH

Dr. Pintello previously oversaw the implementation of innovative scientific initiatives and special research dissemination projects, and currently supports implementation science research efforts within the NIMH portfolio. Prior to her time at NIH, she worked as a social worker and focused on child welfare, mental health, and substance abuse.

Jonathan Purtle, DrPH and MPH, Assistant Professor, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University

Dr. Purtle is a leader in the field of dissemination research, and has developed strategies to effectively disseminate mental health evidence to state policymakers, as well as identifying ways to reduce health inequities in US cities.

Joel Sherrill, Chief of the Psychosocial Treatment Research Program at the NIMH, Director of the Division of Services and Intervention Research at NIMH

Dr. Sherrill works to advance psychological research by identifying research priorities within intervention and services research. He regularly attends ABCT and consistently advises clinical researchers and supports investigator-initiated projects with targeted initiatives directed at specific populations or clinical practice questions to advance research on enhancing mental health care.

Pia Escudero, Director of the Los Angeles Unified School District School Mental Health

Ms. Escudero oversees more than 300 professionals (psychiatric social workers, psychiatrists, and clinical psychologists) and provides local and national leadership to assist in the development, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination of trauma-informed and trauma-specific services for children and families in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) School Mental Health. Ms. Escudero has also participated in the development of the California Mental Health Services Act and represented LAUSD, students, and school stakeholders in several local and state workgroups. She has also served as a champion for evidence-based mental health treatments in routine care in the Los Angeles community.

Bruce Cuthbert, Ph.D., Directors, RDoC Unit, National Institute of Mental Health

Dr. Cuthbert previously served as the Chief of NIMH's Adult Psychopathology and Prevention Research branch, as the Director of the Division of Adult Translational Research and Treatment Development, and the acting director of NIMH. He has also spearheaded the Research Domain Criteria project (RDoC) which has had a major impact on the national research agenda. The primary goal of RDoC is to gain a better understanding of mental disorders by providing a new classification system that incorporates many levels of information (from genomics to self-report).

Beverly Pringle, Ph.D., Chief of the Global Mental Health Research Program at the National Institute of Mental Health

Dr. Pringle oversees scientific leadership for the institute's global research activities, monitors NIMH's international grants and activities, and provides consultation to the global mental health research community. Her work has supported expansion of mental health services to the global community.

David I. Sommers, Ph.D., ABPP, Scientific Review Officer, National Institute of Mental Health

Dr. Sommers has been a tireless champion for interventions research as a Scientific Review Officer for NIMH for more than 18 years. He is deeply committed to facilitating the development, testing, and dissemination of evidence-based psychosocial interventions, thereby serving an instrumental role in improving mental health outcomes. Dr. Sommers is also a practicing clinical psychologist, delivering evidence-based care to those with mood and anxiety disorders.

Kim Griffin Esperon, LCSW, Field Coordinator, Los Angeles Unified School District's School Mental Health Department

Ms. Griffin Esperon provides administrative oversight to the LA Unified School District's 15 mental health clinics and wellness centers, playing a critical role in strategic and operational management of implementation quality of student mental health services. Her 20 years of collaboration, leadership, and service have led to successful and efficient implementation of evidence-based interventions, affecting tens of thousands of students' lives in one of the largest school districts in the country.

Mark Chavez, Ph.D., Division of Translational Research, NIMH

For nearly two decades, Dr. Chavez has been committed to the training and career development of clinician-scientists at the graduate, postgraduate, and early-career levels at the National Institute of Mental Health. Through his diverse portfolio, he has played an integral role in the research funding, promotion, and success of many of the emerging leaders in psychology and psychiatry in the country. In addition, he conducts an intramural program of research on the etiology, core features, longitudinal course, and assessment of eating disorders.