I am a clinical psychologist by training and an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. I am also a Health Service Research Scientist at the Seattle-Denver HSR&D Center of Innovation for Veteran-Centered and Value-Driven Care at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System. My research program broadly focuses on bringing a more holistic approach to healthcare (i.e., mind, body, and spirit) and centers around two interconnected areas of investigation: 1) meaning-making and meaning in life among individuals with chronic pain and psychological distress (in particular, PTSD) and 2) developing and testing mind-body interventions that improve physical and emotional health and well-being. I am particularly interested in improving health for those in rural settings. My work has been supported by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
I am a clinical psychologist with board certification in geriatric psychology. I am based in the Geriatrics and Extended Care Service of the VA Puget Sound Healthcare System.
Robert Hilt, MD is a Professor in the UW Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and a psychiatrist at Seattle Children’s Hospital. He is the program director for the Partnership Access Line (PAL), a child mental health consultation service for primary care providers in Washington, Wyoming and Alaska. He is the Program Director for the Medicaid Medication Second Opinion Programs of Wyoming, Washington and Alaska, and Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) Psychiatric Consult Service in Wyoming for children in foster care. He has been involved in several collaborative care projects, in school support projects, and has helped to establish a statewide mental health referral service in Washington. Dr. Hilt’s primary interest is to increase professional collaboration between child psychiatrists and pediatric medical providers, and to increase access to high quality care.
Personal Statement
I am a board certified child and adolescent psychiatrist in the Pediatric Clinic at Harborview, Seattle Children’s Hospital, and Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic in the Division of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine.
In my clinical work, I strive to create active partnerships with my patients and their families to achieve the best possible outcomes regardless of their needs and circumstances. I am lucky to have great behavioral health and primary care partners across the different clinics I work in, who are invaluable collaborators in caring for our patients and families.
I am involved in the child and adolescent training program and supervises trainees at several outpatient clinics. My clinical and research interests include integrating mental healthcare into primary care settings, ADHD, disruptive behaviors, aggression, trauma-related disorders, and improving clinical supervision of child and adolescent psychiatry trainees.
Personal Statement
I am a mixed methods health services researcher and health economist with a PhD in population health and background in community-based participatory research and community-engaged research. I enjoy working with partners in clinic and community settings to develop scalable programs to improve mental health services and community well-being. Such programs may involve a diverse workforce with varying levels of mental health training and experience, including lay health workers. My interest in technology focuses on finding efficiencies and the appropriate balance of technology and face-to-face encounters to support patient care and staff training/support in such programs.
Personal Statement
I am a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and the Director of the Division of Population Health. I am also a Core Investigator at the HSR&D Center for Innovation for Veteran-Centered and Value-Driven Care at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System, and the Director of the VA Virtual Care QUERI Program.
For the last 35 years, my research has focused on access to care. I have published a framework for conceptualizing access to care in the digital age that incorporates virtual care technologies. I have conducted clinical trials to test the effectiveness of virtual care technologies to facilitate the delivery of evidence-based mental health services in rural primary care clinics. I have also conducted implementation trials to test the effectiveness of strategies to promote the uptake of virtual care technologies by primary care patients and providers. My research has been supported by NIMH, NIAAA, PCORI, and VA HSR/QUERI.
Personal Statement
Having always been interested in wholistic care, I completed a Med-Psych residency with board certification in both Internal Medicine and Psychiatry. My career has focused on integrating care to improve access to those who suffer from mental disorders. I have experience in developing, implementing, leading, and evaluating integrated Primary Care Mental Health programs. This work led to the development and national implementation of integrated care known in the VA as Primary Care Mental Health Integration (PCMHI).
At VA Puget Sound, I led a team that implemented and developed the first PCMHI program which has been rated as one of the top 10. It was through this integrated PCMHI work that I realized rural populations lacked access to mental health care and I became interested in how the emerging digital technologies could be leveraged to provide care. With the goal to improve mental health care for this population, I developed, implemented, and led the first Telemental Health Service at VA Puget Sound known as Promoting Access to Telemental Health (PATH). This program focused on implementing digital health into routine mental health care, evaluation of implementation efforts, and digital health curriculum design. PATH has been fully implemented into VA Puget Sound Mental Health Service Line.
As a researcher, I have served as a principal and co-investigator on numerous research projects that focused on the development and implementation PCMHI and Care Manager programs. More recently, my research has focused on evaluation and implementation of telemental health programs. Current work focuses on improving virtual integrated care in rural VA clinics, integrated care curricular design, evaluating mental health service delivery for the national VA Telehealth Clinical Resource Hubs, and supporting the UW Behavioral Health Institute to develop Digital Health Training programs. In addition, I am proud to serve as a Captain in the United States Navy Reserve and I am an Operation Iraqi Freedom Veteran.
Personal Statement
Myra Parker, JD, PhD is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Director of Seven Directions: A Center for Indigenous Public Health, based within the Center for the Study of Health and Risk Behaviors, University of Washington. She received her doctorate in Health Services at UW School of Public Health, and has been a member of the faculty since 2014.
Dr. Parker’s research and clinical interests include: (1) cultural adaptation of alcohol and drug interventions among American Indians and Alaska Natives (with a particular focus on tribal college drinking harm reduction), (2) development and testing of parenting interventions to support early childhood development in American Indian and Alaska Native communities, (3) co-morbidity of substance use with depression, suicide, trauma, and PTSD, (4) research capacity development, including ethical aspects of research, for tribal and urban Indian communities; and, (5) dissemination and translation of evidence-based prevention and intervention approaches at the individual, institutional, and community level, including policy development. She has worked with tribal and urban Indian communities across the United States on these topics.
Personal Statement
I am a national expert on collaborative care and specifically, on training teams to implement and deliver mental health treatment in primary care settings. My passion for translating complex research ideas into practical real-world applications began when I received my MD and PhD in Anatomy and Neurobiology as part of the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of California at Irvine.
I am currently a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington where I have developed additional expertise in suicide prevention training, mental health workforce development, adult learning best practices, and mentorship. I am the Co-Director of the AIMS Center (Advancing Integrated Mental Health Solutions) and Director of the UW Integrated Care Training Program for residents and fellows.
Personal Statement
My work focuses on the integration of mental health services and general medical care and on translating research on evidence-based mental health interventions into effective clinical and public health practice. I have published over 300 scientific papers and I am the recipient of numerous federal and foundation grants and awards for my research on integrated behavioral health care. I work with national and international organizations dedicated to improving behavioral health care for diverse populations. I have served as Senior Scientific Advisor to the World Health Organization and as an advisor to the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health.
