Patrick McGorry

Topic: Early Intervention — A Global Perspective

Prof. Patrick McGorry is an Irish-born Australian psychiatrist known world-wide for his development of early intervention services for youth. He is executive director of Orygen and founding editor of Early Intervention in Psychiatry, published by Wiley on behalf of the IEPA: Early Intervention in Youth Mental Health. Prof. McGorry also led the advocacy which resulted in the establishment by the Australian government in 2005 of the National Youth Mental Health Foundation, which in 2006 became Headspace, and he remains a founding board member of that organisation. In addition to his role as Executive Director, Prof. McGorry is Professor of Youth Mental Health at The University of Melbourne.

Robert Heinssen

Topic: National Momentum in Early Intervention

Robert Heinssen, Ph.D. is Director of the Division of Services and Intervention Research at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). He is recognized internationally as a leader in science-to-practice initiatives in serious mental illness, including translational research in psychosis risk states, effectiveness and implementation studies in first episode psychosis, and suicide prevention research in military and civilian settings. Dr. Heinssen is the principal architect of the rapid and substantial growth in evidence-based early psychosis intervention services in U.S. community treatment settings. He is listed among researchers distinguished for exceptional research performance, with multiple papers that rank in the top 1% by citations in Web of Science.

Vinod Srihari

Topic: Maneuvering Results from an Early Detection Experiment

Vinod Srihari, MD is the Director of the Program for Specialized Treatment Early in Psychosis (STEP) at Yale School of Medicine. STEP is active in a range of research projects, from studies relevant to the etiology and pathophysiology of psychotic illnesses to efforts to improve the clinical treatment and design of systems of care for schizophrenia spectrum disorders. STEP also focuses on workforce development, best practice care, and policy toward an overall mission to improve the capabilities of young adults with psychotic disorders. In his curricular work, Dr. Srihari has led the development and implementation of an Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) approach to enabling psychiatrists in training to ask, access, appraise and apply the best available scientific evidence to their practice and to audit the health of the populations they are responsible for.

Lisa Dixon

Topic: Strategies to Scale CSC For Maximum Benefit

Lisa Dixon, MD, MPH is the Edna L. Edison Professor of Psychiatry at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and New York-Presbyterian where she directs the Division of Behavioral Health Services and Policy Research and the Center for Practice Innovations (CPI) at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Dr. Dixon is an internationally recognized health services researcher with over 25 years of continuous research funding from the National Institute of Mental Health, the VA and foundations. She leads the innovative program, OnTrackNY, a statewide initiative designed to improve outcomes and reduce disability for the population of individuals experiencing their first episode of psychosis.

Dr. Dixon’s grants have focused on improving the quality of care for individuals with serious mental disorders with a particular emphasis on services that include families, reducing the negative impact of co-occurring addictions and medical problems, and improving treatment engagement and adherence.  Dr. Dixon’s work has joined individuals engaged in self-help, outpatient psychiatric care, as well as clinicians and policy makers in collaborative research endeavors. Dr. Dixon assumed the role of editor in chief of the journal, Psychiatric Services in January, 2017. 

Ken Duckworth

Topic: Expanding Reimbursement for FEP Care

Ken Duckworth, MD, is the chief medical officer for NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness. He is double-board certified in adult and child/ adolescent psychiatry and has completed a forensic psychiatry fellowship. Dr. Duckworth’s journey into psychiatry started when he was a boy growing up with a dad who experienced severe bipolar disorder. His father was loving, kind and periodically quite ill, hospitalized for months at a time. Dr. Duckworth became a psychiatrist in part to help his father.

Along with his work at NAMI, Dr. Duckworth also works to improve care at Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts, volunteers and consults at an early psychosis clinic at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, and teaches as an assistant clinical professor at Harvard University Medical School.

Margaret Guyer

Topic: Developing a Strategic Plan in MA

Margaret Guyer, PhD is the Director of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health's Early Psychosis Initiative. She is responsible for the identification, evaluation, and dissemination of evidence based practices within the Department of Mental Health and among community providers. Dr. Guyer is a clinician and researcher who has worked with people with severe mental illness for more than 20 years. 

Dost Öngür

Topic: Clinical-Research Partnerships for Progress

Dost Öngür, MD is currently the William P. and Henry B. Test Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the author of more than 220 articles on research into bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Dr. Öngür has a background in neuroscience and clinical psychiatry, and is the chief of the Psychotic Disorders Division at McLean Hospital. As director of the LEAP Center, his research studies trajectories and treatment response of people experiencing a first episode of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. This approach may help us develop new and targeted treatment approaches to improve outcomes. 

Emily Kline

Topic: Enhancing EIP Care Access & Engagement

Emily Kline, PhD is an assistant professor of psychology in the department of psychiatry at BIDMC and Harvard Medical School. She is a licensed psychologist trained in both child and adult intervention. Her current research focuses on increasing access to high-quality first episode psychosis treatment and on family communication in the context of emerging mental health difficulties.

Michelle Friedman-Yakoobian

Topic: Training an EIP-Ready Workforce in MA

Michelle Friedman-Yakoobian, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist and Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.  She is the Clinical Director of the Center for Early Detection, Assessment and Response to Risk, the first program in MA that provides early intervention to youth who are at clinical high risk for psychotic disorders. Dr. Friedman-Yakoobian’s career has been devoted to the development and implementation of effective psychosocial interventions for individuals experiencing psychosis (or signs of risk) and their families.  In addition to developing the CEDAR Clinic, she developed a family intervention aimed at teaching clients and families about strategies to adapt to cognitive deficits to improve functioning, as well as an adaptation of Cognitive Enhancement Therapy for youth at clinical high risk for psychosis.

Matcheri Keshavan

Topic: Summary & Next Steps

Matcheri Keshavan, MD is a licensed physician and board certified psychiatrist, and is Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center (MMHC), the Public Psychiatry Division of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). Dr. Keshavan has spent the last 20 years investigating the causes and treatments of psychotic disorders, with a focus on neurobiological models of psychotic disorders and the development and implementation of early interventions with biopsychosocial treatment strategies.. His research has resulted in over 600 publications to date, including over 400 peer-reviewed papers, and four books.