Kathleen Ferreira, Ph.D.
Biography
Kathleen Ferreira, Ph.D. is a Research Assistant Professor within the Department of Child and Family Studies and is currently involved in several research, evaluation, and technical assistance projects. She is Principal Investigator of an evaluation for the Trauma Recovery Initiative with Children’s Home Society of Florida, a five-year federally funded project through the SAMHSA National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative Center. Kathleen is also Co-Investigator for a 4-year evaluation of the federally funded Healthy Transitions Initiative, working with ICF International to examine implementation of transition services for youth and young adults dealing with mental health challenges. She also works with ICF International on the Children’s Mental Health Initiative (CMHI) National Evaluation, assisting communities in the development and use of theory-driven logic models to build community capacity for system development. In addition, Kathleen serves as Qualitative Methodologist for Development of an Intervention Model to Improve Educational Outcomes of Youth in Foster Care by Decreasing Runaway Behavior (RUN), a research project funded through the Institute of Educational Sciences (U.S. Department of Education).
Recent research includes the completion of a study examining the structures, processes and relationships that support and impede system level service planning and delivery decisions for families within systems of care—Actualizing Empowerment: Developing a Framework for Partnering with Families in System Level Service Planning and Delivery. Other recent activities include New Communities System Development, a project with the American Institutes for Research to develop materials and facilitate training and technical assistance for system of care communities who are developing service systems for youth with serious emotional disturbance.
In addition to these research and technical assistance projects, Kathleen is co-instructor of MHS 7740, Survey Course in Mental Health Planning, Evaluation, and Accountability, and has served as Education Director for Online Learning in Children’s Mental Health.
Kathleen brings to all of these projects a great deal of experience in conducting qualitative research, and a particular interest in the role of organizational, system, and policy level actions in providing support for successful implementation and sustainability of services at the individual child/youth and family level. Kathleen has extensive hands-on experience in the field of mental health, first as an educator, then a Director of Education and Program Director within a community-based mental health agency prior to joining the Department of Child and Family Studies.
