• R03 Request for Proposal (Summer 2025 Cycle)

    R03 Request for Proposal (Summer 2025 Cycle)

    The UW ALACRITY Center is an incubator for new research and bold thinking in mental health. If you’re an academic who has a big idea, and you’d like to be considered for funding and support from our team, please fill out and submit a Request for Proposal (RFP). IMPORTANT DATES Indication of Interest Deadline: May… Read More

  • R03 Request for Proposal (Summer 2024 Cycle)

    R03 Request for Proposal (Summer 2024 Cycle)

    The UW ALACRITY Center is an incubator for new research and bold thinking in mental health. If you’re an academic who has a big idea, and you’d like to be considered for funding and support from our team, please fill out and submit a Request for Proposal (RFP). IMPORTANT DATES Indication of Interest Deadline: May… Read More

  • We Are Excited to Announce a Successful Renewal of the ALACRITY Center

    We Are Excited to Announce a Successful Renewal of the ALACRITY Center

    We’re excited to announce that our renewal application was successful and we have received funding from NIH to continue our work for the next 5 years! Together, we will work with local practitioners and stakeholders to address critical problems in implementing evidence-based psychosocial clinical interventions in non-specialty service settings (i.e., primary care clinics and schools) that are… Read More

  • DESIGNING AN INTELLIGENT TUTORING SYSTEM (ITS): A tool to support the training of mental health providers in core psychotherapy competencies

    DESIGNING AN INTELLIGENT TUTORING SYSTEM (ITS): A tool to support the training of mental health providers in core psychotherapy competencies

    Each year, millions of Americans with mental illness struggle to find care. Nearly half of the 60 million adults and children living with mental health conditions in the United States go without any treatment. This short presentation, initially given at the 2021 International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care by Emily Friedman,… Read More

  • INVESTIGATOR SPOTLIGHT: JULIE KIENTZ

    INVESTIGATOR SPOTLIGHT: JULIE KIENTZ

    Julie A. Kientz is a Professor and Chair of the department of Human Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington. She directs the Computing for Healthy Living and Learning Lab, is active in the Design, Use, Build (dub) alliance, and has adjunct appointments in The Information School and Computer Science & Engineering. Dr.… Read More

  • ALACRITY Center’s New Study Aims to Address Social Isolation in Seniors During COVID-19

    ALACRITY Center’s New Study Aims to Address Social Isolation in Seniors During COVID-19

    The ALACRITY Center is taking on a new project in response to COVID-19, “Stay Connected: developing an intervention to promote mental health among isolated senior housing residents”. Leading the project are Patrick Raue, PhD, Patricia Areán, PhD, and Brenna Renn, PhD.  We will work with senior housing residents experiencing social distancing challenges to design a remote program… Read More

  • INVESTIGATOR SPOTLIGHT: AMRITHA BHAT

    INVESTIGATOR SPOTLIGHT: AMRITHA BHAT

    Amritha Bhat, MBBS, MD, MPH, a psychiatrist trained in both India and the United States, is currently an assistant professor in the University of Washington Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She earned her Master of Public Health through the UW School of Public Health. She established the perinatal psychiatry clinic at the University of Washington Medical Center and has… Read More

  • INVESTIGATOR SPOTLIGHT: STEPHANIE BREWER

    INVESTIGATOR SPOTLIGHT: STEPHANIE BREWER

    Stephanie is a postdoctoral research fellow in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Her focus is in developing school-based interventions. Her unique approach to developing interventions is to target barriers related to ease of implementation, contextual relevance, and cultural responsiveness.  Currently Dr. Brewer is working to explore how Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) can be adapted to fit in a school setting. She and her team are conducting interviews with… Read More

  • “How to Design Conversations” Facilitation Lab

    “How to Design Conversations” Facilitation Lab

    Daniel Stillman of The Conversation Factory led UW ALACRITY Center members and the larger Seattle #DesignThinking community in a workshop created to challenge your assumptions of how workshops should be run and hone skills to improve the quality of conversations.  Participants ran through several exercises to practice Daniel’s approach to facilitation and had a lot… Read More

  • Ben Greer Award Will Help Fund Proof-of Concept for Treatment of Depression in Urban and Rural Cancer Centers 

    Gary and Amy, recipients of an R03, have been leading research around depression care in rural and urban cancer centers- applying a human-centered design process to discover contextual constraints and gather requirements for the design and development of a digital platform to support the delivery of Collaborative Care Management (CoCM) for depression. Their work will be part of a… Read More

  • Pre-SIRC Workshop

    Pre-SIRC Workshop

    Prior to the 5th Biennial Society for Implementation Research Conference (SIRC) UWAC sponsored a one day workshop to discuss the intersection of Implementation Science and Human/User Centered Design.  Attendees from both fields came together to hear presentations by Sarah Birken, Madhu Reddy, and Alex Dopp and participate in activities to identify opportunities to integrate implementation science and HCD in order to… Read More

  • UWAC meets with Dartington Service Design Lab

    UWAC meets with Dartington Service Design Lab

    Aaron Lyon recently met with Tim Hobbs and Maria Portugal from the Dartington Service Design Lab and Nick Axford (Plymouth University and Senior Lab Associate) at the European Society for Prevention Research conference in Ghent  #EUSPR19. Dartington Service Design Lab is another great organization working at the intersection of evidence-informed practice and user-centered design across the pond,… Read More

  • The National Institute of Mental Health Highlights ALACRITY Centers

    NIMH shined a spotlight on ALACRITY Centers in their recent Science News, sharing how Mental Health Research Centers Forge Collaborations with ALACRITY. The NIMH Division of Services and Intervention Research sponsored a 2-day meeting mid-July in Bethesda, MD, where eight ALACRITY Center Directors shared research strategies, resources, and know-how on ways their centers are organizing themselves to conduct their research. The… Read More

  • Aaron Lyon will be presenting at the 12th Annual Conference on Science of Dissemination and Implementation

    Aaron Lyon will be presenting at the 12th Annual Conference on Science of Dissemination and Implementation

    Methods Core co-lead with the UW ALACRITY, Aaron Lyon, Ph.D., has been selected to present at the 12th Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation. His abstract is focused on Advancing the science of intervention adaptation: Integrating human-centered design and implementation science in the UW ALACRITY Center. He is scheduled to present in… Read More

  • Gary Hsieh receives Fulbright award to research and teach in Taiwan

    Gary Hsieh receives Fulbright award to research and teach in Taiwan

    Gary Hsieh, Co-P.I. for the ALACRITY pilot “Using Human Centered Design for Technology-Enabled Behavioral Treatment of Depression in Urban and Rural Cancer Centers” recently received a Fulbright Scholar grant. Hsieh will be a visiting professor at the 國立清華大學National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan for the 2019-2020 academic year, where he will collaborate with students and faculty on theory-driven behavior… Read More

  • Julie Kientz receives the University of Washington College of Engineering 2019 award

    Julie Kientz receives the University of Washington College of Engineering 2019 award

    Congratulations Julie Kientz, Co- P.I. of the ALACRITY pilot “Designing and Evaluating an Asynchronous Remote Communication Approach to Behavioral Activation with Clinicians and Adolescents at Risk for Depression”. Julie received the University of Washington College of Engineering 2019 award for teaching as a HCDE Associate Professor. Pictured above at the awards ceremony with Dean Michael Bragg and… Read More