No images? Click here From the DirectorRani Elwy, Ph.D. Welcome to our first newsletter as the newly rebranded Brown Research on Implementation and Dissemination to Guide Evidence Use (BRIDGE) Program! We are thrilled for the support from the Division of Biology and Medicine as well as continued support of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, to foster the translation, spread and scale-up of evidence-based practices into routine clinic and community-based care.Several talented people have joined the BRIDGE Program over the last few months, and we are excited to introduce you to them in this newsletter. As always, we are again offering a Zoom-based Fall Implementation Science Seminar Series in collaboration with Advance-CTR, and co-sponsored by the Brown Alcohol Research Center on HIV (ARCH). Please read below to learn more about these seminar topics and how to register for them. We look forward to seeing you (virtually) there! Spotlight On New BRIDGE PersonnelRuben Martinez, PhDRuben G. Martinez is an assistant professor in the BRIDGE program in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior. The primary goal of Dr. Martinez's work is to leverage equitable implementation methods to improve systems of care for youth experiencing health and mental health problems. At BRIDGE, he will engage in consultation, mentorship and training related to implementation science and serves as a site PI and co-investigator on several federally funded grants, including the IMPACT center, an NIMH ALACRITY center focused on optimizing implementation of EBPs for youth mental health problems in low-resource environments through piloting pragmatic, equity-focused implementation methods. He earned his PhD in Clinical Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2020 and completed his predoctoral residency and NIMH T32 postdoctoral fellowship at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. Cara Antonaccio, PhDCara M. Antonaccio, Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Implementation Science in the Brown Research on Implementation and Dissemination to Guide Evidence Use (BRIDGE) program. She received her B.S. in Health Policy and B.A. in African Studies from the Pennsylvania State University, M.S.P.H. from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Ph.D. from Boston College School of Social Work. Dr. Antonaccio’s research is concerned with mental health and psychosocial well-being in families affected by adversity, and she is passionate about increasing access to evidence-based mental health support for conflict- and cancer-affected families. With her mentor, Dr. Alethea Desrosiers, she conducts implementation research in the context of a school-based mental health intervention for youth in Sierra Leone. Margaret Crane, PhDDr. Margaret Crane is a post-doctoral fellow in implementation science in the BRIDGE program. She received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Temple University, and she completed her clinical psychology residency at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Crane’s research examines strategies to disseminate evidence-based practices (EBPs) for youth mental health. She approaches this by considering how to increase the supply of EBPs through the combination of business models to disseminate and policies to fund these programs, as well as how to increase patient demand of EBPs Linda Guzman, PhDLinda E. Guzman, Ph.D., is a post-doctoral fellow in implementation science in the BRIDGE program. She completed her pre-doctoral residency at the Warren Albert Medical School of Brown University in Behavioral Medicine/Health Psychology. She received a Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 2023 from the University of Arkansas. Her work uses community-engaged, implementation science approaches to address minoritized adults' mental health concerns. She serves on the Society of Implementation Research Collaboration board as a co-student representative and on the Brown Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior's DEIB and Anti-Racism Steering Committee's Community Outreach Working Group. Her recent work focused on depression outcome measurement development by incorporating cultural considerations for Spanish speakers served in primary care settings. Emily FuEmily Fu is a pre-doctoral clinical psychology resident at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University on the Health Psychology/Behavioral Medicine Track. She is a 6th-year doctoral candidate at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Her research focuses on the prevention and management of obesity, equitable behavioral health services, and implementation science for behavioral medicine innovations. She has led and contributed to multiple implementation science and behavioral medicine products utilizing various theories, models, and frameworks. She was awarded an NIH NRSA F31 training grant from NHLBI that focused on developing and validating the Observational Assessment Tool for Tailoring (OATT) to quantify fidelity to tailoring in family-based pediatric obesity interventions. For more information about our team, please visit the BRIDGE Program Website. Explore with BRIDGEFall Implementation Science Seminar Series |