Our dear friend and colleague Nancy Grote, PhD, passed away last month at the age of 78. Nancy was a wise, generous, and open-hearted human being who always put the needs of others ahead of her own. She was adored as much for her warmth and kindness as for her many significant academic contributions. She is survived by her husband, Bob, adult children, Sara and Hobie, and grandchildren. Her family held a small private memorial at St. Marks in Seattle earlier this month and are planning a larger service this spring in St. Louis, MO that will be in-person and live streamed.
Nancy received a BA in philosophy and religion from Smith College, a M.Ed. in elementary education from Tufts University, an MSW from the University of Pittsburgh and a PhD in developmental psychology also from Pittsburgh. She joined the faculty in the School of Social Work at the University of Washington as an Associate Research Professor in 2007.

Nancy’s work focused on developing, testing, and disseminating culturally relevant evidence-based treatments for perinatal depression for socio-economically disadvantaged individuals and families. She received a NIMH-funded K-Award to develop and test culturally-relevant Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) for perinatal depression and in the ensuing two decades, published numerous high impact articles describing her seminal research on the development, testing, and dissemination of culturally relevant evidenced-based treatments for perinatal depression in low-income white and minority women. Among her many contributions, she demonstrated that a culturally-informed engagement session reduced barriers to treatment-seeking in low-income, pregnant women. She collaborated with Wayne Katon, MD, and was the PI of the first large RCT of perinatal collaborative care, (MOMCare), in which she showed that perinatal collaborative care was superior to treatment as usual in socio economically disadvantaged women with perinatal depression and mitigated the risk of postpartum depression among those who experienced adverse birth experiences.

Nancy supervised psychiatry residents in interpersonal therapy, and trained, supervised, and taught numerous students, mentees and colleagues who remember her fondly. She was warm and generous with her time and delighted in helping the next generation of clinicians, social workers, researchers and activists. While Nancy will be truly missed by many in different communities and by many people, her scholarship, friendship and humanity will live on. Read more about Dr. Grote’s life.