Maria Monroe-DeVita, PhD

Dr. Monroe-DeVita’s expertise is in implementation and services research related to evidence-based practices for adults with serious mental illness, particularly the Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) model. She has served as the Principal Investigator on several projects with the Washington State Division of Behavioral Health and Recovery, including the development, implementation, and fidelity assessment of 10 new ACT teams, and several Illness Management and Recovery (IMR) and Integrated Dual Disorder Treatment (IDDT) pilots across the state.

She is also in the process of developing and testing novel approaches to better serving people with serious mental illness. She received a collaborative R34 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to develop and pilot-test the integration of IMR within ACT teams and is working to better define and implement integrated primary care services within ACT. She is also the lead author of the new ACT fidelity tool – the Tool for Measurement of Assertive Community Treatment (TMACT) – which has been disseminated and pilot-tested in several U.S. states and countries (see Monroe-DeVita, Teague, & Moser, 2011). More recently, she has begun to work collaboratively with a team of researchers to better address staff burnout prevention and the linkage to client outcomes.

Dr. Monroe-DeVita received her undergraduate degree from Boston University, graduating with Distinction in Psychology, Summa Cum Laude, and Phi Beta Kappa. She worked as a community mental health provider in Colorado, before pursuing her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and Certificate in Program Evaluation and Public Policy Analysis from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (UNL). While at UNL, she received clinical and research training in psychiatric rehabilitation approaches and worked within the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services on implementation and evaluation of their ACT teams, as well as several key statewide mental health policy projects (e.g., integrated health, Medicaid managed care performance measurement).

She completed her Residency in Clinical Psychology at the University of Washington School of Medicine in 2001 and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Administration and Evaluation Psychology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in 2002.

Areas of Interest

Evidence-based and promising approaches to better serving people with serious mental illness, assertive community treatment (ACT), illness management and recovery (IMR), integrated primary care, fidelity assessment, implementation science, mental health provider burnout prevention.

Active Projects

• Washington State New Journeys Early Intervention for First Episode Psychosis (FEP), DSHS
• Washington State Common Elements Treatment Approach (CETA) Learning Collaborative Evaluation, DSHS
• Washington State Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Psychosis (CBTp)
• Integration of Assertive Community Treatment (ACT)-Illness Management and Recovery, NIH
• Program for Assertive Community Treatment (PACT), DSHS
• Integrated Dual Disorder Treatment (IDDT), DSHS
• Illness Management and Recovery (IMR), DSHS