News & Events

Joint Johns Hopkins ALACRITY Center Research in Progress & Department of Mental Health Wednesday Seminars 

Join the ALACRITY Center and the Department of Mental Health for expert presentations and discussions about mental health issues, research, and interventions. 

January 29th from 12:15 to 1:00 pm - Victoria Green, MHS, will present, "Examining the Impact of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Programs Among Adults with Serious Mental Illness in Maryland: Preliminary Findings."

Ms. Green is a 4^th year PhD candidate in the Department of Mental Health. She is interested in using mixed methods to inform and evaluate behavioral health policies and services. Her specific research interests include evaluation of community-based services for adults with disabilities, behavioral health integration, and substance use policy and services for vulnerable populations, such as those who are pregnant or incarcerated. Victoria previously worked at the Congressional Research Service as a health policy analyst and at the National Institute on Drug Abuse as a tobacco research analyst. She received her MHS in mental health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and her BA in psychology from Gettysburg College.

February 5th from 12:15 to 1:00 pm - Esti Iturralde, PhD will present, "Personalized Diabetes Prevention Care  for Younger Adults with Serious Mental Illness."  People with schizophrenia spectrum and bipolar disorders are at elevated risk for developing type 2 diabetes earlier in life. This study investigates the use of a machine learning model to predict type 2 diabetes incidence from electronic health records and explores how this tool may be used to promote evidence-based diabetes prevention care within this population.    

Dr. Iturralde is a clinical psychologist and a Research Scientist with the Center for Addiction and Mental Health Research at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research. Her research interests include the integration of behavioral health and chronic illness care, prevention of cardiovascular disease for people with serious mental illness, and the use of predictive analytics to personalize care and overcome treatment barriers. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Southern California and completed training in behavioral medicine at Veterans Affairs Northern California Health Care System and the Stanford School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics. Her research uses observational, clinical trial, and mixed quantitative and qualitative methods to inform the implementation of behavioral health interventions in specialty and primary care clinical settings.