Leadership

Jessica Barber, Ph.D. is the Associate Director of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) national Measurement Based Care in Mental Health Initiative. Drawing from her many years’ experience in training psychologists and medical professionals, her current area of particular focus in the Initiative is on developing educational tools and resources to facilitate implementation of MBC across the VHA enterprise. A licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Barber’s specialty is Clinical Health Psychology. She is an Assistant Clinical Professor at Yale University, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, and remains actively involved in training at Yale University and VA Connecticut Healthcare System. She received her Ph.D. 2008 in Clinical Psychology, Clinical Health Psychology Emphasis from Yeshiva University, the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology.

Dr. Amber W. Childs is a licensed clinical psychologist and assistant professor of psychiatry in the Yale School of Medicine. She is the Director of Training for the Yale Doctoral Internship in Clinical and Community Psychology in the School of Medicine and Co-Director of the Division of Quality and Innovation within Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital (YNHPH) where she is a member of the medical staff. Additionally, Childs is the co-founder and director of the Getting Racism Out of our Work (GROW) Initiative, co-founder of the Yale Measurement-Based Care Collaborative and founder of M-Select, a comprehensive digital mental health solution for youth at YSM. Childs is deeply involved in antiracism and DEI efforts within the Psychiatry Department. She served as the Co-Chair of the Doctoral Internship Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, from 2020-2023, of which she has been a member since 2016 . She served as the invited co-chair of the Education Subcommittee of the Yale Department of Psychiatry Antiracism Task Force (ARTF) from 2020-2023 and remains a member of the ARTF Steering Committee. Childs’ work aims to improve equity, access, and outcomes in psychiatric services and education through data-driven quality improvement and a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). She is dedicated to clinical and educational program innovations that support the implementation of evidence-based practices and diversity, equity, and inclusion concepts to improve clinical and educational practices. Across her roles, Dr. Childs professional activities include: 1) promotion and implementation of evidence-based practices (EBP), such as Measurement-Based Care (MBC), that prioritize person-centered, individualized treatment and improved psychosocial outcomes; 2) improvement of psychiatric treatment among those who experience chronic and acute psychiatric illness, particularly for young people who are marginalized and minoritized; and 3) cultivating a generation of psychology leaders who have a deep and sophisticated understanding of DEI as it relates to clinical service delivery, research, and education. Childs earned her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and completed a doctoral internship and post-doctoral residency at the Institute of Living/Hartford Hospital, where she specialized in child and adolescent services.

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.

Sandy Resnick is Director of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) national Measurement Based Care in Mental Health Initiative. She also conducts program evaluation of VHA specialty care and develops quality improvement strategies to enhance VHA mental health care. An expert in evidence-based practices for individuals with psychiatric disabilities, Dr. Resnick is committed to data literacy and helping others understand how to use data to support and improve patient-centered mental health care at all levels of mental health systems. A licensed clinical psychologist, she is a co-founder of the Yale Measurement-Based Care Collaborative.