Appointed ambassador for the national center of excellence which provides evidence-based education, resources and technical assistance to support youth mental health within the context of social media use. Primary ambassador work includes serving as subject matter expert to deliver specialty trainings on social media use for youth to caregivers, clinicians. youth and key stakeholders (e.g., departments of education) within the youth care ecosystem. SME-facilitated content creation to optimize dissemination of key evidence-based education and resources to core stakeholder audiences.

Elected member of the APA Advisory Committee for MBC and the Mental and Behavioral Health Registry (MBHR) serving a 4-year term from 2019-2023. The 10-person national Committee is charged with advancing psychology as the leading profession in promoting MBC to drive clinical decision making and determining how to measure high quality mental health care to ensure optimal payment for that care. The MBHR is the APA’s endorsed technology platform for psychologists to participate in the Center for Medicare Services (CMS) Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). MIPS is a program that incentivizes high quality, cost effective care by linking payment for services to measurable outcomes. Co-led and co-authored peer-reviewed publications and presentations to inform and influence the mental health care field about measurement-based care and quality, spearheaded strategic discussions about the dissemination and implementation of MBC, including how to support independent practitioner adoption and uptake of these practices (i.e., APA professional practice guideline recommendations, web materials and resources, scholarly contributions on MBC efficacy). Developed and revised youth-based quality measures submitted for and approved by CMS for use in the MBHR for MIPS.

Former Chief Clinical Officer and consultant. Architected and executed a comprehensive, company-wide clinical vision and strategy for BeMe Health. Provided clinical leadership for multi-million-dollar capital raise including infusion of Yale IP that helped clinch a strategic capital partnership with The National Council. Developed comprehensive clinical roadmap and corresponding operational structure for clinical at BeMe, including articulating clinical product, content, coaching, and research and scholarship obectives and success metrics. Operational leadership to establish distinctive functional departments to enable workflow fluidity, optimize collaborative potential, improve accountability and drive quality output. Formalized research and scholarship arm to enhance scientific credibility, developed clinical research protocols, conceptualized and launched suite of clinical briefs and significantly refined data analytic strategy and advanced to meaningfully integrate clinical metrics, to showcase value, demonstrate scientific credibility and document clinical outcomes with data analytics team. Serving as scientific safeguard, established clinical framework and guidelines for content creation and review of existing materials for clinical relevance and accuracy. Trusted support for customer success functions, including spearheading clinical technical assistance, training, and workflow consultation to optimize implementation of BeMe within various settings. Partnership with current clients to establish framework for ROI metrics and outcomes. Strategic support to business development and marketing to expand existing partnerships and fuel growth. Clear and resonate articulation of value proposition to core and strategic investors, customers and users.

Multi-year collaboration providing strategic leadership, empirical study design, clinical and technical work-flow development consultation, expert-facilitated clinical training and consultation, to successfully enable large-scale implementation of measurement-based care within a VC -backed virtual intensive-outpatient startup for teenagers and young adults. Leadership of peer-reviewed manuscript (Kumar, Childs et al., 2024) documenting implementation and outcomes.

Comprehensive review of best-practices, current implementation and recommendations for strengthening intermediate levels of behavioral health care for youth in Connecticut. Developed comprehensive research summaries and accompanying recommendations, expert consultation and analytic review for state-wide survey on intermediate levels of care practices and staffing, and published materials.  

Published Presentation

Kelly, Childs, & Lang (2024). Intermediate Levels of Care for Children with Behavioral Health Needs. Full Report.

Invited expert member of the Alternative Payment Model and Measurement-Based Care workgroup, formed in June of 2021. This workgroup was tied to the State of Connecticut’s Behavioral Health Plan Implementation Advisory Board and was responsible for reviewing approaches to implement alternative payment models (i.e., value-based payment; VBP) in behavioral health in Connecticut. VBP is a model that incentivizes providers and organizations by providing enhanced or alternative payment based on measured quality and effectiveness of care, as opposed to volume. Served as a content expert on MBC and MBC system-implementation with a workgroup charged with reviewing current and planned state initiatives in VBP, evidence-based treatment performance initiatives (such as use of MBC) and making recommendations regarding these topics to the advisory board. 

Co-founded and served as the director of the GROW (Getting Racism Out of Our Work) initiative in the Department of Psychiatry to support racially and culturally responsive teaching, supervision and clinical practice. Successfully led fundraising efforts across YSM. Major milestones include: 1. Two Curricula- The Flagship Core Program, a 6-month comprehensive program (piloted 2021 & 2022), and GROW Seeds- a digital, self-paced program; 2. A research and evaluation arm, which critically evaluates GROW program data, and produces and sponsors scholarship to drive innovation and crucial conversations in academic teaching and clinical practice regarding culture and diversity; and 3. A GROW mentorship and training program, which provides training opportunities for postgraduate and graduate students. To date, GROW has provided 26 hours of Continuing Medical Education value to nearly 110 Yale affiliated faculty supervisors (YNHH, Community Mental Health Clinic, Department of Veterans Affairs, Yale Health) and Northwestern University Counseling and Psychological Services through the Core Program. GROW has awarded funds to sponsor research and special lectures, and has rostered 6 trainees, from University of New Haven, University of Georgia, Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital, Connecticut Mental Health Center/Yale School of Medicine and New York University.

Multi-year collaboration with world-class experts of the Yale Measurement Based Care Collaborative and venture backed measurement-feedback system startup to provide internationally attended trainings on measurement-based care. Served as Greenspace’s frequently cited subject matter expert and created content used to create and populate MBC knowledge hub and training materials.

Founded and commercialized the IP (at BeMe Health) for a comprehensive digital health solution designed to deploy brief evidence-based e-interventions to depressed youth, while equipping clinical providers with data-driven clinical decision-making support, and caregivers with curated evidence-based guidance. Successfully raised extramural, non-diluted capital from multiple sources including Yale New Haven Health System Innovation Awards, The National Science Foundation, and the Blavatnik Foundation within Yale Ventures.

Provided strategic consultation and clinical expert review to enable implementation of measurement-based care and evidence-based care delivery practices in digital text-based coaching for seed funded startup.

Provided strategic consultation and clinical expert review to enable implementation of measurement-based care and evidence-based care delivery practices in digital text and video-based peer-mentor for seed funded startup.

Provided strategic consultation and clinical expert review to enable design and implementation of a speciality care program to identify, assess and treat conditions associated with neurodiversity for a Series E Venture Backed start-up.

Developed and led highly rated expert clinical training to enable large-scale implementation of measurement-based care within a virtual care and well-being digital mental health startup for higher education.

Co-developed strategic vision and objectives for collaborative. Leader in shaping academic and industry discourse about data-driven clinical practice and measurement-based care via national and international partnerships, clinical trainings and consultation, and peer-reviewed publications.

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Yale New Haven Health System

Identification and integration of novel technologies and innovative strategies to 1) support sustainable implementation of Measurement Based Care (MBC) and other EBPs with the goal increasing treatment access, engagement, retention and outcomes, for psychiatrically high-risk youth within a large-health system. Architected the strategy and led the large-scale implementation of MBC for YNHHS Ambulatory Psychiatry and Behavioral Health Services, across 5 hospital networks. EHR workflow optimization, dashboards and score reporting (EPIC), design of integrated care pathways. Co-led the development and execution of a data-driven re-design of the health-system ambulatory services. Large-scale design and implementation of virtual group-based intensive outpatient psychiatric services with resultant publications supporting State of CT Telehealth policy advocacy.

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