Katie McCormick, Ph.D.

Dr. Katie McCormick is a Research Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin and core faculty member of the Addiction Research Institute at UT Austin. Her research focuses on addiction and recovery science, implementation research, and behavioral health workforce well-being. 

Dr. McCormick’s research examines how organizations, policies, and workplace environments shape the well-begin, effectiveness, and sustainability of the behavioral health workforce, with a particular focus on peer recovery specialists. Through community-engaged and implementation science approaches, she partners with community-based organizations to develop, adapt, implement, and evaluate interventions that strengthen workforce well-being, improve adoption of evidence-based practices, and enhance systems of care for people who use drugs.

Her research spans multiple levels of the behavioral health system. Through her work with the SUSTAIN Center and the Gilead COMPASS Initiative, she has collaborated with HIV service organizations across the U.S. South to evaluate grantmaking and capacity-building initiatives designed to strengthen implementation of evidence-based approaches, including harm reduction and trauma-informed care. This work has demonstrated how learning collaboratives and other implementation strategies can support both workforce development and organizational change in community-based settings. 

Building on this foundation, Dr. McCormick’s current NIH K01 Career Development Award focuses on adapting and pilot testing Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention for substance use peer workers. Her long-term goal is to develop and implement evidence-based strategies that reduce occupational stress and burnout, strengthen workforce retention, and improve recovery-oriented systems of care for people who use drugs.