Christina has been in the behavioral health field since 1993, primarily serving adults who live with severe mental health issues, substance use, experience chronic homelessness, suffer from poor physical health, trauma and any number of co-occurring issues.
Prior to joining the Northwest MHTTC, she spent 25 years working in and managing numerous clinical programs including: HIV/AIDS housing and health care, school-based mental health, substance use outreach and treatment, homeless mental health outreach, intensive case management, assertive community treatment, crisis respite, integrated care, housing first and other evidence-based practices. She has provided licensure supervision, training and consultation, and have worked on multi-disciplinary teams in a number of settings. She highly value her years of clinical direct service and program management experience.
For the Northwest MHTTC, she helps plan and oversee training for the mental health workforce in HHS Region 10 (AK/ID/OR/WA). Activities include live webinars, research/practice briefs, online self-paced courses, learning communities and intensive cohort-based training. Most of this training is conducted virtually in collaboration with numerous faculty, instructional designers and presenters.
She was the recent Chair of the Building Health Equity and Cultural Responsiveness Work Group for the MHTTC Network. Currently, she humbly serves as Co-Chair for the PBSCI Department’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Staff Committee. She is grateful to all the staff and faculty who choose to work in this field, as it is their collective energy, passion, dedication and commitment to social justice that supports the people we serve and brings real change to our communities. Most importantly, she is honored to work with people who every day, live their experience and share their journey through advocacy as they strive for a world where behavioral health is adequately supported and everyone can thrive equitably.
Dr. Kurtz-Nelson is a research scientist, licensed psychologist, and clinical director of the Research in Autism and the Brain Lab (RAB Lab). Her research and clinical interests center on improving medical and behavioral outcomes for individuals with rare genetic differences associated with autism. Dr. Kurtz-Nelson received her PhD in school psychology and MS in special education from the University of Oregon. She completed her clinical internship at the Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center and her postdoctoral training at the University of Washington.
After graduating from the UW with a Master of Social Work degree in 2000, Jennifer worked for the next 20 years in healthcare environments. While the bulk of her time was spent at Harborview, she left for several years and worked at a different health system. Jennifer has provided social work care in a variety of clinical areas including Inpatient, Emergency, Ambulatory, and Home Hospice, and always with a focus on marginalized populations and meeting the health and mental health needs of those who are most vulnerable.
Her experience includes years of work at the patient bedside, and experience in a variety of leadership roles from supervisor to interim director. Work highlights include helping build a program providing medical care and support to women working in the sex trade, helping design and execute a successful strategy to impact HIV viral suppression in marginalized groups, and serving and running clinical social work operations for the Madison Clinic. She formerly served on the King County HIV Planning Council, was a panelist on the HIV ECHO program at Harborview, and was a member of Harborview’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committee since its inception. Her subcommittee focus on Harborview’s EDI committee was around equity projects and using data to explore possible care disparities with patients.
Currently, Jennifer is Assistant Director, Patient and Family Experience and runs the day- to- day operations of the Psychiatry Consultation Line, the Mental Health CareConnect program, and the Perinatal Telepsychiatry Clinic. She joined the Department in June 2020. When not at work she is a busy mom who loves to cook and travel.
Diane has 30 years’ experience managing a wide range of public health and health services research, evaluation, and implementation projects and programs. She co-founded the AIMS Center in 2004, and currently serves as Co-Director. Prior to joining the University of Washington, Diane managed a large research program focused on diverse behavioral interventions for cancer prevention at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Diane is trained as a behavioral health provider and delivered mental health services in both inpatient and outpatient settings for over eight years. She received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology and English Literature from Gonzaga University, a master’s degree in Psychology from Seattle University, and a master’s degree in Business Administration from University of Washington.
