**Now accepting applications for our SMART Center Postdoctoral Research Training Program in School Mental Health. Additional information here.**

Mission

The overarching mission of the School Mental Health Assessment, Research, and Training (SMART) Center is to promote high-quality, culturally-responsive programs, practices, and policies to meet the full range of social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) needs of students in both general and special education contexts. The SMART Center aims to accomplish this mission by using innovative and practical research methods to:

  • Develop contextually-appropriate, low-burden programs that prevent or ameliorate SEB problems;
  • Develop strategies for communities, districts, and schools to increase the use of effective SEB programs, practices, and policies;
  • Support indigenous providers such as teachers and school-based mental health providers in their roles; and
  • Enhance the interconnections across school, home, and community contexts.

The Center represents a transdisciplinary collaboration between faculty in the College of Education (CoE) and the School of Medicine (SoM; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences) at the University of Washington. Through this collaboration, SMART facilitates more equitable, effective, and integrated approaches to research and technical assistance surrounding the design and implementation of evidence-based SEB interventions.

For more information about the SMART Center's research activities and agenda, please see our recent overview article in The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry.

Also, please review this digestible brief on implementation science and practice in schools, a plain language summary that Dr. Lyon (SMART Center Director) wrote to support SAMHSA's Project AWARE grantees.

SMART Center Leadership

Aaron Lyon, PhD, Associate Professor (SoM) – Director

Doug Cheney, PhD, Professor (CoE) – Emeritus

Elizabeth McCauley, PhD, Professor (SoM)

Eric Bruns, PhD, Professor (SoM)

Carol Davis, PhD, Professor (CoE)

Larry Wissow, MD, Professor (SoM)

Janine Jones, PhD, Associate Professor (CoE)

Margaret Sibley, PhD, Associate Professor (SoM)

Michael Pullmann, PhD, Research Associate Professor (SoM)

Jill Locke, PhD, Assistant Professor (College of Arts & Sciences)

Stephanie Brewer, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow (SoM)

Larissa Gaias, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow (SoM)

Affiliates

Clayton Cook, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Minnesota

Ann Vander Stoep, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Washington

Elizabeth Sanders, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Washington

Molly Adrian, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Washington

Mylien Duong, PhD, Senior Research Scientist, Committee for Children

Kelly Whitaker, PhD, Senior Research Associate, ETR