Joy Kaufman, PhD, professor of psychiatry, will be appointed director of The Consultation Center (TCC) effective November 1, 2023.
Kaufman will succeed Jacob Tebes, PhD, professor of psychiatry, in the Child Study Center, and of public health, who will continue as chief of psychology at the Connecticut Mental Health Center and director of the Division of Prevention and Community Research in the Yale Department of Psychiatry.
Tebes steps down after 12 years as TCC director to focus on his scholarship, mentorship of faculty and fellows, and leading Elm City COMPASS, a New Haven initiative to build a system of sustainable supports for individuals with mental health and substance use crises.
As TCC director, he expanded the diversity and number of its psychiatry faculty; enhanced the center’s national and international standing for prevention and community-based research, services, and training; expanded postdoctoral research training; and strengthened research and service partnerships with governmental and community organizations.
Kaufman has worked for 10 years as deputy director of TCC, where she also directs Evaluation Research and Program and Service System Evaluation. For almost 20 years, she has also directed quality improvement for the CMHC Community Services Network, and for the past three years has led the evaluation of the department’s Anti-Racism Task Force (ARTF), where she has worked closely with ARTF leadership and subcommittee chairs to develop the evaluation of the department’s anti-racism initiatives.
She is a national leader in service system evaluation and community-based participatory research, with expertise in training public stakeholders to conduct systematic evaluations of the services they receive. Through an integrated program of evaluation research and consultation, Kaufman’s scholarship and practice with governmental and non-profit organizations has had a significant impact on health care access and quality, and the use of data-driven decision making to inform clinical practice and policy.
Throughout her career, Kaufman has had an extensive and diverse portfolio of extramural grant support from federal institutes/centers as well as state and private sources. Notable among these is her leadership of national and state evaluation research projects on the implementation and effectiveness of systems of care and service systems. These have included numerous SAMHSA-funded evaluations of the processes and outcomes of systems of care for children and adolescents with severe emotional disorders and their families, including several such initiatives in Connecticut, and a national, multi-site evaluation of a NIJ Demonstration Initiative to prevent domestic violence homicides.
She has been invited to present her work at the White House, the U.S. House of Representatives, and at meetings sponsored by the NIJ and SAMHSA, and has been recognized for excellence with multiple awards from SAMHSA and the American Evaluation Association.