Jacob Tebes, PhD, BS

Jacob Kraemer Tebes is Professor of Psychiatry (Psychology) and in the Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, and Professor of Epidemiology (Social and Behavioral Sciences), Yale School of Public Health. He is Director of the Division of Prevention and Community Research in the Department of Psychiatry, Executive Director of The Consultation Center, and Chief Psychologist at the Connecticut Mental Health Center. Through a partnership with the City of New Haven, Continuum of Care, Inc., and Yale, he also currently serves as the first Director of Elm City COMPASS (Compassionate Allies Serving our Streets), a comprehensive initiative to complement and support the work of New Haven first responders (police, fire, emergency medical) to assist people experiencing mental health or substance use crises.

Dr. Tebes received his B.S. in Psychology from Georgetown University and his Ph.D. in Clinical/Community Psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo. After completing a doctoral fellowship at Yale focused on developing partnerships with community stakeholders, he joined the faculty in the Department of Psychiatry. His professional activities include research, service, teaching, and administration, much of it centered on issues related to enhancing equity and social justice, reducing systemic oppression, and promoting resilience. His research focuses on the promotion of resilience in at risk populations recovering from trauma or crises, usually through community-wide or school-based trauma-informed interventions, and on the prevention of adolescent substance use. His scholarly work also has focused on incorporating equity, social justice, and anti-oppressive principles into research; community research methods; program evaluation; philosophy of science; and team science. He has received funding for his research and community-based evaluations from NIH, SAMHSA, ACF, state and municipal agencies, and private foundations. Dr. Tebes also consults to public agencies, healthcare and community-based organizations, and schools on the development, implementation, and evaluation of programs and services, and on the use of data to inform practice and policy. He teaches or has taught a variety of seminars to postdoctoral and doctoral fellows in community and clinical psychology and in prevention science on the following topics: community-based interventions, prevention, human diversity and multiculturalism, community research methods, clinical methods of child intervention, and professional development. He is Program Director of a NIDA T32 postdoctoral research training program in substance abuse prevention, and has served on leadership teams of Yale training programs in interdisciplinary team science. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he led a tri-state, system-wide initiative to support healthcare workers and their families through interactive Stress and Resilience Town Halls. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Community Psychology.