Grant Team

Given the size and geographic spread of this grant, there is a large team of personnel, school & community partners, and consultants. Key personnel for the study are below:

Brandon K. Schultz, Ed.D., PI

Dr. Schultz is an Associate Professor of Psychology, a Nationally Certified School Psychologist, and director of the School Behavior Consultation Lab at East Carolina University (ECU). He has experience as a project coordinator and clinical research scientist on two previous NIH grants and is currently PI on an IES development grant (R324A180219) with his partners in Pitt County Public Schools (PCPS). He is an active member of the Pitt County School Behavioral Health Coalition, a group of local school- and community-based professionals that advocates for improved school mental health services. Email: schultzb@ecu.edu

Mark D. Weist, Ph.D., Co-PI

Dr. Weist is a Professor of Clinical-Community and School Psychology, and Director of the School Behavioral Health Team at USC. In his prior appointment at the University of Maryland, he established the federally funded, NCSMH (see schoolmentalhealth.org) and remains a senior advisor to this center. For more than a decade he has been helping to lead national efforts to interconnect PBIS and SMH, and is one of the leaders in the development of the ISF. He has led three prior and three current RCTs focused on improving school mental health. Email: weist@mailbox.sc.edu

Joni Splett, Ph.D., Co-I

Dr. Splett is an Assistant Professor in the School Psychology Program at the University of Florida (UF). Her research focuses on the school-based prevention and intervention of mental health problems, including universal mental health screening; mental health service utilization trends; implementation and fidelity monitoring of the ISF. She is Co-PI/I of two previous and ongoing RCTs of the ISF.

Christy Walcott, Ph.D., Co-I

Dr. Walcott is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at ECU and will help coordinate and oversee activities in Pitt Co Schools and serve as liaison with the local MH provider, Integrated Family Services. Dr. Walcott is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist and is also licensed in NC. Her research examines the effects of health-related conditions on the daily lives of children, particularly as they affect neurocognitive, academic, and social-behavioral outcomes. She is currently a Co-PI on ECU CONVEY, a grant funded through OSERS to train graduate students in interdisciplinary team-based approaches to individualized intervention for children with disabilities.

Colleen Halliday, Ph.D., Co-I

Dr. Halliday is a faculty member of the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) where her research focuses on social ecological and ethnocultural approaches to understanding, preventing, and addressing aggression, antisocial behavior, substance abuse, and violent victimization in youth. Dr. Halliday has received funding both as a PI and Co-I from three agencies in the National Institutes of Health, as well as the National Institute of Justice and William T. Grant Foundation. She is PI of an ongoing trial of ISF enhanced with multileveled interventions to reduce racial/ethnic disparities in aggression and violence funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD, Co-PI Weist, Co-I Splett).

Kelly Perales, MSW, ISFE Facilitator

Ms. Perales is the director of Technical Assistance (TA) and Training for Midwest PBIS, licensed clinical social worker with twenty-three years of experience working in both schools and mental health settings. Ms. Perales is lead facilitator of the ISF in the previous NIJ study and ongoing trial funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD, PI Halliday, Co-PI Weist, Co-I Splett), and is a leader on the National ISF Workgroup (guiding implementation in more than 30 sites).

Alexander M. Schoemann, Ph.D.

Dr. Schoemann is an Associate Professor of Psychology at East Carolina University with a specialization in Quantitative Psychology. He has expertise in the areas of structural equation modeling and multilevel modeling. Dr Schoemann has experience as a statistical consultant on several NIH funded randomized trials and is currently Co-I on an IES development grant (R324A180219) with Dr. Schultz.