Danielle Parrish, Ph.D., MSW, has been appointed Associate Director of the Health Behavior Research and Training Institute (HBRT) at The University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin) Steve Hicks School of Social Work (SHS).
Dr. Parrish brings an impressive research and clinical background in substance use disorders and behavioral health to HBRT and SHS, where she earned her doctorate in 2008. Parrish was previously the director of the Baylor IMPACT Lab – Houston and professor at the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work at Baylor University. She is the current editor-in-chief of the Journal of Social Work Education, and co-author of Practical Implementation in Social Work Practice, published by Oxford University Press. She earned her BA and MSW at California State University in Fresno.
Earlier in her career, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at HBRT under the supervision of Drs. Mary Velasquez and Kirk von Sternberg. In addition, Dr. von Sternberg and Dr. Parrish are currently co-principal investigators (PIs) on the National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded study, “CHOICES-TEEN: Efficacy of a Bundled Risk Reduction Intervention for Juvenile Justice Females.” The $3.2 million award tests the efficacy of the CHOICES intervention to reduce risk of alcohol- and marijuana-exposed pregnancy in adolescent women on probation.
In addition to her role as PI on CHOICES-TEEN, Parrish has five other active research grants, totaling more than $5.5 million in funding. And she’s brought along her research team from Baylor to HBRT. Jillian Landers and Flor Avellaneda are continuing in their roles as postdoctoral fellows, while Cherise Williams is joining HBRT as a project coordinator/behavioral health specialist and Emily Lawrence is joining as a research associate/behavioral health specialist.
As associate director of HBRT, Parrish looks forward to collaborating closely with Drs. Velasquez and von Sternberg in conceptualizing new, innovative research that addresses substance use and substance-exposed pregnancy prevention. She is also interested in identifying new prevention approaches informed by the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior of Change, as well as expanding the reach of prevention and health behavior change interventions using technology.
“This invitation to work in a leadership capacity with Drs. Velasquez and von Sternberg is, in short, a dream come true for me,” Parrish said. “I deeply value the intentional interdisciplinary, cross-institution research they do that has had such broad impact on the field…[T]hey have created an institute that not only conducts high-quality intervention research, but that also moves these findings into broad community impact through training, the development of high-quality training resources, and sharing of their knowledge and expertise with frontline practitioners. This approach aligns deeply with my own passion as a social work researcher, which is why I am so thrilled to have this opportunity to join this HBRT leadership team.”