Deborah Ann Cohen, Ph.D.

Research Assistant Professor

Deborah Cohen received her Ph.D. in social work from the University of Kentucky and has more than ten years of experience working in the field of community mental health, with a specific concentration on young adults. Cohen is affiliated with the Steve Hicks School of Social Work’s Texas Institute for Excellence in Mental Health and Dell Medical School’s Center for Youth Mental Health where she works on a number projects related to community mental health services and policy. In her previous position, Cohen supervised all aspects of agency research, evaluation and quality improvement within a mid-sized mental health center, as well as its participation in a well-publicized National Institute of Mental Health’s Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenia Episode (RAISE) project.

Her work aims to improve community mental health systems through applying innovation and utilizing technology to improve access, engagement, and treatment outcomes for individuals with serious mental health conditions. She is specifically focused on the transition to adulthood and developing a new age of effective structures and interventions that retool the current community mental health structure and reform disability policy.

Her current projects focus on collaborations with community mental health centers and state-level policy makers to guide the development and implementation of evidence-informed treatment models to assist in the transition from child to adult mental health services, and to provide proactive services for early serious mental illness.

Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

Professional Interests

Behavioral health services research, transition-aged youth, health information technology, integrated healthcare, care coordination, behavioral health policy, disability policy, implementation science.

Education

• Ph.D., University of Kentucky
• M.S.W, University of Michigan
• B.A., Bowling Green State University

Research

• Stepping up Austin RA1SE: Reducing the duration of psychosis  (2023)
• Addressing developmental and social determinants of mental health in transition-age youth  (2020)
• Heart of Texas System of Care (HOT)  (2020)
• Changing the rates of misdiagnosis in psychiatry  (2020)
• Texas Panhandle-Plains Partnership for Children and Families  (2019)
• Behavioral health information technology enhancement  (2019)
• Bexar Cares System of Care  (2018)