Elizabeth Connors, PhD

Dr. Connors received her Ph.D. in Clinical Child and Community Psychology from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. She is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry (Psychology) and in the Child Study Center at the Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Connors directs School Mental Health Implementation Consultation and Research at The Consultation Center at Yale, which seeks to promote equitable access to high quality mental health promotion, prevention, early intervention, and treatment services and supports in K-12 schools. Dr. Connors and her team apply participatory research methods and principles of implementation science to improve the quality of mental health services for underserved and minoritized children, adolescents and their families in schools, community clinics and primary care settings. Dr. Connors' current research includes developing and testing 1) a culturally-modified version of measurement-based care for racial and ethnic minoritized youth with depression and 2) a multi-level implementation strategy called FOCUSS to increase the use of measurement-based care among school mental health clinicians. She also leads and collaborates on other implementation projects in school mental health related to student social and emotional wellbeing and resilience to adversity, stress and trauma. Dr. Connors has expertise with a wide range of implementation strategies including learning collaboratives, training, coaching, consultation and technical assistance for teachers, clinicians, other school staff, mental health organizations, local and state education health and mental health agency leaders. Dr. Connors is also a core faculty member at the University of Maryland School of Medicine where she collaborates with the National Center for School Mental Health to advance research, practice, policy and training about comprehensive school mental health system quality and sustainability nationwide. Dr. Connors is a co-developer of The SHAPE System (www.theshapesystem.com) and national school mental health performance measures including the School Mental Health Quality Assessment. She is also a co-founder of the Yale Measurement Based Care Collaborative.