Lauren M. Haack, PhD, is an associate professor and attending psychologist with research and clinical interests focused on 1) cultural influences to mental health conceptualization, assessment, and treatment, 2) accessible and culturally attuned evidence-based services for traditionally underserved youth and families worldwide, and 3) behavioral health provider experience, training, and consultation.
After receiving her PhD at Marquette University and completing a predoctoral internship at UCSF specializing in evidence-based psychosocial services for youth with ADHD, Dr. Haack received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award for Individual Postdoctoral Fellows with a project entitled “Culturally Sensitive School-Home Behavioral Program for Latino Children with ADHD” funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. This mixed-method investigation of the Collaborative Life Skills (CLS) program inspired her subsequent National Institute of Health (NIH) Fogarty Global Health fellowship pilot-testing an adapted version of CLS (CLS-FUERTE) in Culiacan, Mexico. This project represented the first known effort to implement and evaluate a behavioral school-based program to improve youth attention and behavior in Latin America. Dr. Haack currently serves as Principal Investigator on an NIH-FIC/NIMH funded Global Brain R21 focused on converting the Mexican school clinician training and ADHD/ODD intervention program(CLS-FUERTE) for fully-remote delivery in Mexico (CLS-R-FUERTE), in collaboration with researchers at the University of Sinaloa (PI: Haack, R21MH124066).
Since joining the UCSF faculty in 2017, Dr. Haack has been involved in numerous collaborative clinical research projects with an overarching focus on harnessing technology to improve access to and quality of evidence-based mental health care for diverse youth and families. Specifically, she collaborated on an IES/US Department of Education (DOE) funded project called: “Web-Based Professional Development for School Mental Health Providers in Evidence-Based Practices for Attention and Behavior Challenges” to develop a web-based professional development program for school mental health providers learning and implementing a behavioral treatment for youth with attention and impulse-control difficulties, with responsibilities including serving as lead school clinician trainer and providing input for iterative program updates. She also collaborates on an NIMH grant aiming to develop and evaluate a novel and scalable digital health augmentation designed to address parent adherence barriers and improve sustained effects of behavioral interventions for youth with ADHD symptoms and functional impairments(PI: Pfiffner, R34 MH122222), as well as the NIMH ALACRITY InSTEP Center for Team Effectiveness to Accelerate EBP Implementation in Children's Mental Health Servicescore R01 focused on investigating the CLS program with team enhancements (PI: Dr. Lauren Brookman-Frazee; P50MH126231).
Dr. Haack has a passion for community engagement and training. Within the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, she leads the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) FIELD seminar focused on Forensic psychiatry, Inclusive services and Social Justice, Education settings, Literature exploration, and child Development. She was co-investigator on a grant funded by the University of California Innovative Learning Technology Initiative’s (ILTE)“Using Technology to Enhance UC Students’ Learning Experiences”to develop the curriculum for Global Mental Health (GLBH 160). In this work, alongside faculty from UC-San Diego and UC-Riverside, she developed a contribution to the suite of online courses established by the UC Global Health Institute to introduce students across all ten campuses to the field of Global Health. The team subsequently is writing a chapter on Global Mental Health for an edited ILTE Global Health textbook. Dr. Haack also collaborates on several project Echo® series aimed at increased clinical capacity for primary care, school, and school-based health center providers (funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration; HRSA), as well as youth involved in the juvenile justice and foster care systems (funded by an anonymous donor). These efforts have helped inform the development of the Social-Transcultural Research and Intervention Valuing Equity (STRIVE) clinical research capacity course currently being offered to emerging investigators at the University of Sinaloa as part of our NIH-FIC/NIMH funded Global Brain R21 (PI: Haack, R21MH124066); strivelab.ucsf.edu