Profile Type: Vice Chairs
Katherine Anne (Kate) Comtois
Personal Statement
My career goal is to give suicidal clients and their clinicians the best chance to succeed. I have been working in the area of health services, treatment development, and clinical trials research to prevent suicide for over 30 years. My graduate training was in community/clinical psychology and focused on achieving clinical ends through prevention and other systemic interventions in socio-culturally diverse populations. I have brought these perspectives into health services research. I have developed or adapted interventions to improve care and clinician willingness to work with suicidal patients including Caring Contacts, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS), and Preventing Addiction Related Suicide (PARS). I have developed an adaptation of DBT Next Steps, a program to assist psychiatrically disabled individuals find and maintain living wage employment. My research has been funded by NIMH, NIDA, the Department of Defense, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the State of Washington.
I am the director of the Center for Suicide Prevention and Recovery (CSPAR) whose mission is to promote the recovery of suicidal individuals and the effectiveness and well-being the clinicians and families who care for them by conducting rigorous and ecologically valid research, developing innovative interventions, improving policies, systems and environments of care, and providing expert training and consultation. CSPAR faculty and staff seek a deep understanding of the cultures and settings in which we work that leads to meaningful and effective interventions ready for implementation.
I also direct the Suicide Care Research Center, an NIMH P50 funded research center focused on using Human Centered Design and MOST optimization methodology to improve the care of adolescents and young adults (age 13-30 years) in outpatient medical settings. We are conducting one fully powered trial, three R34s, and 4 pilot studies within UW Medicine and Seattle Children’s hospital to develop innovative interventions to support primary care, Collaborative Care, and specialty medical clinics care for patients experiencing suicidal thoughts and behavior. The center supports effort of over 20 faculty and 16 staff as well as 11 emerging and advanced collaborating scholars and funds 2 annual pilot grants (each $100,000 over two years).
In addition to clinical research, I founded the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration (SIRC) focused on disseminating and implementing innovative, evidence-based interventions in the systems that need them. Beyond my research, I directed the Harborview Dialectical Behavior Therapy program at Harborview Medical Center 1996-2019, co-lead the UWAnnual Comprehensive DBT Training Program and Suicide Care in Healthcare Systems: We Can Do Better Serving our Patients and Caring for our Clinicians, both of which meet the Washington State requirement for suicide prevention training. I have a long history of training and mentoring junior faculty, post-doctoral scholars, psychiatry residents, pre-doctoral psychology interns, undergraduate students, and post-baccalaureate trainees. I provide psychotherapy and consultation at the UWMC Outpatient Psychiatry Clinic.
Ryan Kimmel
Personal Statement
I am the Psychiatry Chief of Service for both campuses of the University of Washington Medical Center. I also direct our Psychiatric Consultation and Telepsychiatry Program. My clinical focus is on patients who are hospitalized with simultaneous psychiatric and medical issues. Academically, I most often teach psychiatry trainees about psychopharmacology for refractory mood, anxiety, and psychotic disorders.
Michelle Lynch
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).
Anna Ratzliff
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.
