Dr. Kathleen Meyers has dedicated her career to clinical research in adolescent substance use disorders (SUD) with an emphasis to improving the way in which adolescent substance use treatment is delivered in this country. She is a recognized leader in the assessment and treatment of adolescent SUD, delinquency, and co-morbidity and is a major contributor to system improvements in various states developing standardized models of assessment and referral systems for substance-abusing youth. She has conducted research in a variety of clinical and juvenile justice settings, obtaining some of the best follow-up rates in the country. She is the author of the Comprehensive Adolescent Severity Inventory (CASI), a multidimensional assessment instrument for youth with substance use and mental health disorders used throughout the United States, Canada and abroad. It is used clinically in school systems, drug treatment programs, mental health programs, and juvenile courts, and is a mandated assessment tool in various states. In 2015, her participation in a segment on addiction was nominated for 2015 Emmy Award for Best Segment in a News Hour, she was a 2014 selected finalist of Scattergood Innovation Award for her work on quality report cards for consumer choice (the award is given to products that challenge how behavioral health care is viewed, organized, and practiced through the creation of catalytic concepts, products, services, and/or technologies), and in 2004 she received the Research Award of Excellence from the Caron Foundation. Dr. Meyers has led national evaluations of federal (and state) responses to different national challenges and has served or numerous national advisory committees convened by the National Institute of Drug Abuse and National Institute of Justice to name a few. Dr. Meyers has served on numerous peer review, institutional review, and editorial review boards. With more than 75 publications, her most recent work is focused on the development and implementation of quality report cards for consumer choice which now permits – for the first time – comparative evaluations of adolescent substance use treatment quality, and rapid expansion of consumers’ access to, and utilization of, comparative information for decision-making with the real potential to result in system-wide improvements.
Kathleen (Kathy) Myers, Ph.D.
