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Promoting Mental Health Recovery Through Evidence-Based Supported Employment

About the Presenter

Dr. Judith A. Cook is a tenured Professor of Psychiatry in the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Department of Psychiatry, where she directs the Center on Mental Health Services Research and Policy. Dr. Cook has served as PI on a number of federally-funded grants, including an R01 funded by NIMH examining the efficacy of supported employment for people with SMI; 5 five-year Rehabilitation Research and Training Center grants co-funded by SAMHSA/CMHS and USDOE/NIDRR; a Coordinating Center grant for a multi-site RCT of supported employment funded by SAMHSA/CMHS; a multi-site Coordinating Center for a national study of children's mental health services in managed care vs. fee-for-service settings funded by SAMHSA/CSAT; and individual project grants or subcontracts funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (substance abuse, depression, and HIV/AIDS), National Institute on Allergy and Infectious Diseases (depression and HIV disease progression), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (women and children with HIV/AIDS), U.S. Department of Labor (supported employment for people with psychiatric disabilities), and the Social Security Administration (labor force participation of SSI/SSDI beneficiaries with psychiatric disabilities). She served as expert consultant to the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health in the area of "Employment and Income Supports," and as an advisory committee member and reviewer of the Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health. She was a Committee Member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Veteran's Compensation for PTSD; and authored a commissioned report on Consumer-Centered Mental Health Care for the IOM's Committee on Crossing the Quality Chasm: Adaptation to Mental Health and Addictive Disorders.

Dr. Cook has won numerous awards including the Mentor of the Year Award from the UIC Chancellor’s Committee; the William Foote Whyte Award for Distinguished Career Contributions in Applied Sociological Research from the American Sociological Association; the John Beard Award for Lifetime Achievement & Excellence in Psychiatric Rehabilitation from the U.S. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association; the Researcher of the Year Award from the National Alliance for Mental Illness of Greater Chicago; the National Association of Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers Excellence Award from NARRTC; and the Eli Lilly Reintegration Award for Programs in the Employment Category.

Dr. Cook's published research includes over 150 books, edited volumes, and peer-reviewed journal articles in areas such as psychiatric rehabilitation, recovery and self-determination; mental illness in children and youth; post-secondary education for people with SMI, gender issues in psychiatric disability, and coping strategies of families with a mentally ill member, and co-occurring mental illness, substance use disorders and HIV/AIDS infection.

Dr. Cook has considerable experience consulting with multi-ethnic communities in Chicago, including work with mothers on welfare in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, and individuals living with HIV/AIDS served at Cook County Hospital. Her most recent research involved assessment of DSM-IV diagnoses among African American women and Latinas with HIV in six urban communities. She currently consults with the national NAMI STAR Center on development of a tool to enhance cultural sensitivity of peer-run mental health programs as part of a SAMHSA-funded Consumer Technical Assistance Center program. Her program of research has included African American communities in Chicago, Cleveland, Toledo, Los Angeles, Memphis, Nashville, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Washington, DC.

Judith A. Cook, Ph.D.
Professor and Director
Center on Mental Health Services Research and Policy
University of Illinois at Chicago
1601 West Taylor Street, 4th Floor, M/C 912
Chicago, IL 60612
Phone 312-355-3921
Fax 312-355-4189
http://www.psych.uic.edu/mhsrp