Binyam received his BA from the University of Washington and has worked in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences for 19 years. In his current role, Binyam oversees the daily operations of the finance team, including purchasing and reimbursements, and manages department funds used for paying research subjects, ensuring sure they are spent in accordance with University policy. In addition, Binyam is the co-chair of the Department’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Staff Committee. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his family, chasing the soccer ball, and playing hide and seek with his two girls.
Jamie serves as the UW Perinatal Mental Health & Substance Use Education, Research & Clinical Consultation Center (PERC Center) manager. The PERC Center aims to transform perinatal mental health and substance use care delivery systems through excellence in clinical consultation, education and health services research. Prior to her work at UW, she evaluated translational science programs and conducted research that informed the development of the Centers for Disease Control’s virtual hepatitis communications campaigns. In her free time she enjoys skiing and sailing.
Hope has been at UW since 2020, where she worked at the Administrative Service Center as the Senior HR Manager. She holds Professional in Human Resources (PHR) and Strategic Human Resources Business Partner (sHRBP) certifications and is a University of Oregon alum, having earned her master’s degree in applied information management. In her free time, she enjoys painting seascapes and abstract art, researching her genealogy, and spending time with her five children, granddaughter, and miniature dachshund, Schnitzel.
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.
Mollie received her MSW at the UW School of Social Work and joined the Department in June 2019. Prior to that, she was part of the Social Work Department at Harborview Medical Center for 19 years, starting on inpatient psychiatry and then as an Associate Director of Social Work for the second half of her career.
As the Director of Patient and Family Experience, Mollie works directly with patients and families who are either currently receiving mental health care at one of our UW Medicine hospitals or clinics or may be looking to do so. She helps patients and families connect with appropriate mental health providers and offers information and resources as well as specialized navigation assistance. Mollie also manages our team of Mental Health Navigators who are part of our provider and patient consultation lines, including PAL for Moms, the Psychiatry Consultation Line and the Mental Health CareConnect programs. When she is not at work, Mollie enjoys live music, travel, gardening and spending time with her husband, Dave, and their dog, Louis.
Heather received her MBA from the University of Washington and has been in the Department for eight years. As Associate Director of Clinical & Education Finance, Heather’s main role is to support the Department’s clinical operations and finances at UWMC, HMC, UWNC, SCCA and SCH as well as through various state and community clinical contracts. She also supports the Department’s education programs’ finances, faculty clinical incentives and process improvement initiatives. In her spare time, Heather, her husband Nate and their dogs Fiddler and Dante enjoy traveling, experiencing various cuisines both locally and abroad, and reading epic fantasy series (she is always open to reading suggestions!).
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.
Alison grew up in China speaking Mandarin and received her BA from the University of Washington. She has been in the department for five years and has been in her current role since June 2019. In her role, Alison supports our diverse research portfolio and works to ensure the successful running of our research operations. She partners closely with the Assistant Director for Research Operations, Pam Collins, as well as the research operations team. She also provides oversight for department pre-award and works closely with UW School of Medicine ABC services. In her free time, she enjoys what the Pacific Northwest has to offer and traveling when and where she can.
Michelle earned both her BA in Business Administration and Master of Public Administration degrees from the University of Washington. She’s been with the University of Washington for over 20 years and joined the Department in March 2023. She’s looking forward to learning about the vast array of education, research, and clinical programs in the Department and working with the staff, faculty, and leadership teams to improve mental health in our community.
Michelle began her UW career in 2000 as a Policy Development Analyst in the Office of Planning and Budgeting and after a decade in various central administration leadership roles moved into the Administrator position in the Department of Medicine/Division of General Internal Medicine. Prior to the UW, she was with Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound where she held several roles including Financial Analyst and Fee Schedule Manager.
In her free time, Michelle enjoys spending time with her geologist daughter, traveling, reading, baking, and attending local music events (including singing with a hyper local women’s a cappella group, the Beaconettes).
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.
Becky received a Master’s in Science Journalism from Boston University and has more than fifteen years’ experience in marketing and communications, public relations, and advancement with particular expertise in the fields of medicine and mental health. She has led our department communication efforts for the past eight years and before that, led communications in the department’s AIMS Center.
In addition to managing the department’s day-to-day, internal and external communication needs, Becky oversees marketing strategies for large, department-wide initiatives. Becky is also the Administrative Director of the UW Medicine Garvey Institute for Brain Health Solutions. Outside of work, Becky enjoys getting outside, spending time with her family and collecting eggs from her chickens.
Rosemary is a UW graduate and has been in the department since February 2012. As the Associate Director of Operations and IT, Rosemary’s role is to provide oversight, direction and leadership of all the administrative operations and information technology resources for the Department. Rosemary provides strategic leadership and management of departmental infrastructure projects to include defining and managing scope of schedules, budgets and status reports. In her free time, Rosemary and her family enjoy vacationing and touring Napa and Sonoma wine country.
Athena was born in China and lived in both Shanghai and Hong Kong. She moved to Seattle in 1988 and fell in love with the city. She graduated from UW and has been working in the department since 1996. As the Associate Director of Education, Athena’s role is to provide oversight, guidance and leadership to our ACGME Fellowships, our Psychiatry Residency Program, our Psychology Internship Program and our Medical Student Clerkship Programs. Athena and her team provide administrative support to the program directors, residents, fellows and teaching faculty as well as assistance to program administrators in Idaho and Montana. In her free time, Athena enjoys spending time with her family, traveling and watching Asian dramas.
