Bio
Dr. Heather J. Gotham is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, and member of the Center for Dissemination and Implementation in the Division of Public Mental Health & Population Sciences.
She is PI/Director of the SAMHSA-funded Center for Mental Health Implementation Support (CMHIS), which works through five bi-regional Hubs to provide implementaion support to mental health organizations in how to prepare for, implement, and sustain effective mental health practices.
Dr. Gotham is also Co-Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded Helping End Addiction Long-Term Data 2 Action (HD2A) Research Adoption Support Center (RASC) that aims to improve the dissemination and implementation (D&I) research capacity of a cadre of HD2A Innovation Projects and leverage this work to enhance the impact of D&I in research beyond HD2A. The overarching goal of the HD2A Program is to increase the chances for anyone, anywhere to receive the best possible treatment for addiction and pain-related conditions.
Dr. Gotham led and served on several SAMHSA-funded national and regional mental health and addiction-related technical assistance and training grants, including as Director of the Network Coordinating Office of the national Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC) Network and at a regional center for the Addiction Technology Transfer Center Network. In addition, she served as a consultant on two NIDA-funded projects studying the implementation of substance use disorder screening and treatment approaches in HIV care settings.
In addition, she is a multiple PI on an NIAAA funded hybrid 1 implementation trial to embed screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment in sexual and reproductive health clinics.
Dr. Gotham has served as principal investigator, co-investigator or evaluator on SAMHSA, NIH, HRSA, and CDC grants. Her research focuses on implementation science, including factors affecting implementation, training and education of health care providers, and longitudinal course of implementation. Topics include substance use and mental health treatments for adolescents and adults, co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders, and screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT).
Dr. Gotham assisted in the development of the Dual Diagnosis Capability in Addiction Treatment (DDCAT) index with Mark McGovern, and led the development of the Dual Diagnosis Capability in Mental Health Treatment (DDCMHT) index. She led or evaluated several state-level co-occurring disorders initiatives, and served on national and state-level expert panels.
Paired with her work in assisting providers to implement clinical protocols, Dr. Gotham has significant experience in clinical teaching and training behavioral health and health care students and professionals. This work includes serving as the supervisor of a clinical research rotation in an APA-approved psychology internship, and designing curricula and providing training and technical assistance to behavioral health and health professionals on treatments for adult and adolescent substance use disorders (including opioid use disorder), implementing EBPs into behavioral health settings, co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders and treatment, integrating behavioral and primary health, and SBIRT.
