Aaron Lyon, PhD

Personal Statement

My research focuses on increasing the accessibility, efficiency, and effectiveness of community- and school-based interventions for children, adolescents, and families. I am particularly interested in (1) the identification and implementation of low-cost, high-yield practices – such as the use of measurement-based care – to reduce the gap between typical and optimal practice in schools; (2) development of individual- and organization-level implementation strategies to promote adoption and sustainment of evidence-based psychosocial interventions within a multi-tier systems of support (MTSS) framework; and (3) human-centered design (and redesign) of psychosocial and digital technologies to improve their implementability, accessibility, and effectiveness. I am the founder and Director of the School Mental Health Assessment, Research, and Training (SMART) Center, dually housed in UW’s School of Medicine and College of Education.

Education

PhD: Clinical Psychology, DePaul University, Chicago
Residency: Clinical Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle
Fellowship: Mental Health Services, University of Washington, Seattle

Department Affiliations

Recent Publications

Implementation Science in School Mental Health: A 10-Year Progress Update and Development of a New Research Agenda.
(2024 Dec)
School Ment Health 16(4): 1013-1037
Lyon AR, Connors EH, Lawson GM, Nadeem E, Owens JS

Promoting Partnership and Impact through Implementation Science and Human-Centered Design: A Commentary on the Special Issue.
(2024 Sep)
School Ment Health 16(3): 930-935
Lyon AR

"Going above and beyond" for implementation in the education sector: extension and validation of the School Implementation Citizenship Behavior Scale (SICBS).
(2025 May 26)
Implement Sci Commun 6(1): 64
Corbin CM, Ehrhart MG, Brown EC, Locke J, Cook CR, Aarons GA, Lyon AR

Advancing implementation of single session interventions in schools: a protocol for a qualitative study.
(2025 May 7)
Implement Sci Commun 6(1): 54
Cohen KA, Bruns E, Lyon A, Raviv T, Becker S, Schleider JL

Study protocol for testing the efficacy of the Helping Educational Leaders Mobilize Evidence (HELM) implementation strategy in elementary schools: a hybrid type 3 effectiveness-implementation randomized controlled trial.
(2025 Apr 24)
Implement Sci 20(1): 17
Locke J, Williams NJ, Sridhar A, Ehrhart MG, Dopp A, Thirion M, Espeland C, Riddle B, Schmitz K, Hatch K, Buehler L, Lyon AR

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